Photo gallery from Day 4

More to come, but here's Day 4..

http://hudoneit.smugmug.com/gallery/5829613_Nb6AP

The DNC: The Convention is Over But the Connections Continue

Speaker Nancy Pelosi struck the final gavel of the Democratic National Convention last night, signaling an immediate and inevitable end to the four days of frenzied activity, intense emotion, and the constant sense that what you are doing matters. Quite frankly, I'm relieved it is over. There is only so much exhilaration a person can take all at once.

I spent the night last night with old friends who live in Denver. This morning, they shared with me this reaction from a neighbor to Obama's speech: "I didn't like the speech. I mean, why should we help the poor?"

Ahem.

What a lovely opportunity to discuss the role of government from a Democrat's perspective, that is if you can stomach any further engagement with one so minded. And of course, you have to engage because hearts and minds don't change any other way. Still, it was trying if not alarming, leaving my friend to contemplate why she is living where she is living and how in 2008 we still have so far to go.

From my friend's house I came to the Denver airport which seems to have mopped itself up from the flood of visitors that came in for the Convention. I was uncharacteristically early, so had some time for a breather at the Food Court where I checked my much-neglected email, and had the kind of fast food meal I don't let myself eat much anymore.

Quite deliberately, I wore an Obama t-shirt to the airport today. I hoped to invite conversation by wearing it, and it served it's intended purpose. A woman named Genie came over to me with a wry smile and said, "it was pretty great, huh?" A Political Director for the SEIU union in Illinois, she is from Obama's home district and proudly told me that her support pre-dated his senate run.

She then went on to tell me that her boss was a speaker at Invesco so she and a few coworkers got tickets. As she stood in the long line approaching the stadium last night, a guy walked by with a concert or sporting event-style sign saying "I need a ticket." Though it had to
have been the hottest ticket on the planet, she just gave him one. Later, when she was at guest services trying to recharge her cell phone, she lamented to the clerk that she was up in the nosebleed seats, and the clerk gave her a ticket in a better section. This kind of generosity kept paying itself forward throughout the event.

Genie, a Caucasian, told me that she was sitting with her male African American coworker. At the end of Obama's speech, a White male stranger came up to the coworker and gave him a full embrace. Then the stranger pulled back, looked the coworker in the eye and said, "I didn't think
I would ever vote for a Black man."

This was a week for hearing that kind of thing, for watching people step gingerly or leap across lines they had drawn, and to see them seek --and usually find -- embrace on the other side.

Genie and I were soon joined in conversation by Randy, a baggage worker here at the airport. He asked us what we thought of McCain's VP pick. And then Randy talked about how he usually gets three days off in a row, and how he would use those days off to do voter registration right here in Colorado.

That's what these final 67 days will be about. Talking to strangers, crossing lines, reaching out, engaging. All of it hard work, all of it essential.

Something tells me there's more fast food in my future. But I hope also more people like Genie and Randy.

Day Four...

The lines for tickets outside Invesco Field really did seem ridiculous today, but many people connected with District 14 managed to get some type of credential to attend. Even 12-year old Shahab and his dad who flew in today got a few upper section seats. I tried to call those of you who I knew would be in town. We weren't informed until Thursday morning that there would be extra Invesco tickets, and most of us requested only 1 or 2 additional tickets.

The performers included will.i.am, Sheryl Crow, and Stevie Wonder. Day 4 felt like a combination of a rock-concert, college graduation, and political rally. Obviously the Democrats have learned to drill home the main points about McCain, so just about every speaker echos similar ideas, including the testimonials from people from different Battleground states.

All the delegations were placed at the floor level, and we were seated right behind Colorado this time. I've received reports that Molly, Elspeth (Mari felt ill and gave her pass to her), and Bob Petit were filmed dancing to music. Bob especially seems to get the cameraperson's attention on the big LCD screens, as I think it's been at least 2 or 3 convention days where I've seen him on the screen.

I'll try to post a photo gallery later for everyone soon....

The DNC: Brilliant

This strategy to have real folk talk about their experiences is
brilliant.

The woman who received the republican smear email just told millions
of people why it was trash.

The former republicans with horror stories were more compelling than
dems with the same stories would have been.

And now we're singing "Born in the USA" and people are waving not only
the small flags we were given, but huge flags brought from home. The
Republicans' claim of ownership of the flag is over. These are
patriots in this stadium and we're taking our country back.

When has there ever been a convention with 70,000 people shouting in
Spanish?

Sent from my iPhone

The DNC: The Wave

It is 7:05 MDT. Gore just finished and we must be on commercial break
cuz nothing is happening. Nothing, that is, until the audience in the
bowl started doing a very energetic wave around the stadium. And now
Michael McDonald sings...

Sent from my iPhone

The DNC: I Found Electricity!

A chance encounter between me and NBC's Ann Curry led to a connection
to a tech guy named Jimmy which led to a budding relationship with
Joop in a media tunnel. Joop has a power strip and I'm renting one
plug for the price of an eager smile and gratitude.

It is 3:21 pm and a bluegrass band just started playing. The stadium
is about twenty percent full. People are dancing, kissing, getting
water for the weary. Hillary people are talking about feeling so much
better. My friend Bob from cd 15 is dancing a ridiculous dance and
is getting all kinds of media attention.

Now that's just something I'm not gonna do!

Sent from my iPhone

The DNC: How to find California

Our huge delegation, 441 strong, has fantastic seats right behind the
home delegation. If you're watching on TV, we are on the right as you
look at the stage. Colorado is in front of us, right up against the
blue barrier separating the audience from the stage, but they only
take up 3 rows, so look for us behind Colorado, from the fifth row all
the way back to the media tents. The California sign is actually at
the very back of our delegation.

Sent from my iPhone

The DNC: Its 1:30 and We're Inside Invesco!

They told us to take the delegate bus, but three days at the DNC have
shown us that even weary feet get you where you need to go fastest.
An hour's walk in the noonday sun was no problem for us intrepid Obama
delegates from silicon valley. We are among the first few hundred
people here, and we are on the silken edge of history unfolding.

My batteries will run out long before this glorious day turns to
night, presaging an historical dawn. But know this: as this arena
fills, the mood is euphoric and awed. We Democrats, united and on
fire, are going to take our country back and restore for the world the
America it so achingly needs, in 68 days.

Unexpected Matters

Things have been absolutely crazy.

Yesterday, some delegates and I went to Manual High School in Denver to talk with some students about the convention, being a delegate, and politics in general. There were some students that were incredibly interested in the process. Overall, they expressed an overwhelming support (out of the ones that had an opinion) for Obama.

And then the convention.

The roll call became epic when New Jersey, New Hampshire, and ARKANSAS voted unanimously, with all of their delegates, for Senator Obama. The crowd went crazy; it was such an expression of unity. None of us were expecting Illinois to pass its delegates on to New York, and further, Senator Clinton's appearance on the floor to propose we nominate Senator Obama by acclamation was a complete surprise. People all around me were in tears.

Bill Clinton: he inspired like his wife did the night before.

And then Joe Biden spoke. And I'm not even going to go over how amazing it was because all of America watched it intently on television.

When the convention was let out and I was going down the stairs, I saw a group of guys in suits yelling upwards at the crowd. As I walked closer, I realized it was the entire team of news correspondents from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. They were incredibly friendly and didn't have much of a crowd surrounding them. Quite a shame I forgot my camera charger.

Well tonight is the speech that will affirm everything that has happened this past week. I almost worry about it sometimes because the expectations are astronomical. His 2004 keynote is how he acquired national recognition so quickly. And 4 years later, he is back to accept the Democratic nomination.

But, given how this whole week has been, I'm sure he'll surprise us all.

The DNC: Practical Realities of the Big Day

Today is the big day. Although yesterday was an unbelivably big day and it's hard to imagine any day -- even a day on which Barack Obama accepts the Democratic Nomination for President -- being any bigger. Yesterday was THAT big.

The rumor is that we need to get to Mile High/Invesco at one, and that we will be there until 9pm MDT. We will walk the two miles to get there because the buses have to slog through traffic. I've been doing all of my live blogging from my iPhone which I was able to recharge while in the Pepsi Center but I'll have no such luck down on a football field. To conserve my phone battery, I'm going to take my laptop and record stuff there. It has no wireless connection, but at least I can record stuff real-time and post it later.

The other practicality is the fancy outfit I brought is going to feel like a straitjacket under Denver's August heat in the afternoon. This may be the most important speech I will ever attend in my lifetime, and of course I want to honor that by looking the part, but practically speaking I may be indistinguishable from a tourist on a summer day. Or a fan on a football field.

The final practicality of the morning is checking out of the hotel and packing for home. Today is about endings and beginnings for our party, our campaign, our nation and for me. Try as I will to stuff everything into boxes and bags -- the buttons, posters, goodies, business cards -- there isn't a bag in this world big enough to carry all of these precious memories home.

Roll Call and Today

Roll call from today....



And the result...

The DNC: Dreams of My Father

The California delegation had a party planned for tonight but I needed to decompress after tonight’s monumentally moving speeches brought us to the inexorable conclusion of Barack Obama’s nomination as our candidate. So I’m sitting on a street corner alone with my thoughts as the city’s pulse beats strong into this life-sustaining night.

When Joe Biden paid tribute to his mother tonight, and said how much he wished his father was still here, my thoughts turned to my own father, gone 13 years. He would have been 90 this year, and in his lifetime the events of this week were unimaginable. I know there must be millions of people for whom this historical moment is like oxygen, the sweetest music, and the warmest light.

I never saw my father cry. But tonight it felt that my tears were coming from somewhere other than me.

Overcome

Near the end of his remarks, President Clinton started to turn when he spoke of also being criticized for being too young and inexperienced. You could finally see the connection to Barack in his eyes.

Then came the astonishingly compelling Kerry--how did we fail to elect that great man? How?

Then Beau Biden. What parent wasn't moved to tears by that son's tribute to his father?

Yeah, we were so moved in the Pepsi Center we seemed to give Joe Biden a quiet welcome. We wanted to shout and cheet but after the beautiful video about our veterans, the powerful female Major, and then Beau, we were overcome, plain and simple.

Overcome.

This ticket is extraordinary. I cannot believe I am witnessing this.

President Clinton Speaks

President Clinton is addressing us, but while his words sound right,
his facial expression on the large screen suggests he is not
completely cool with all of this. His big smile came out only while
he spoke of Joe Biden.

The shouts of the crowd urge him on, and the words are strong.

But I'm worried.

Maybe he's just really tired.

Does it look this way on TV?

Sent from my iPhone

Teleprompter

How are they actually able to keep eye contact? Well it turns out there's an LCD projector being used as their teleprompter.

Twin Towers

My twin brother Stan received press credentials for the 2004 DNC Convention in Boston. I found Associated Press Senior White House Photographer Ron Edmonds again and asked him to take a picture. I'm not sure if he quite remembered me -- or perhaps he was confused.

Unfolding Drama

So the whip who told me CA would go last was wrong, or probably not wrong, but just preserving the great deal that had been worked out? Or perhaps CA was in the dark about what New Mexico, Illinois and New York had planned.

When I realized what was happening, when I saw that Hillary was about to speak, I thought she was going to cast all of the votes for NY for Obama. That alone would have been dramatic.

Then she did the truly unanticipated, ending the roll call and proposing that Obama be declared the nominee, and in that gracious and generous act she knit us tightly together as democrats as only she could.

The drama has been breathtaking. I don't know how it looks on TV but here inside the Pepsi Center, it was magic.

Classmates on the Convention Floor

As I walked back from the Pepsi Center last night someone tapped me on the shoulder -- turns out it was Monisha Merchant, a Truman Scholar and President of the Democrats Club at MIT ('99). We hadn't seen each other since we both graduated but I found her on the convention floor tonight.

California tally

Even though we voted by acclimiation the votes are still being tallied. Apparently Barbara Boxer said that the California tally is fluctuating...the reason California passed on the vote was that they wanted to give the alternates that were brought down had a chance to vote. Our vote is going to be recorded nonetheless, we think.

California will go last!

It has been confirmed by a whip on the aisle that CA will go last in
the roll call to put Obama over the top. He can't get there without
us! We will be sooooooo fired up!

Sent from my iPhone

Roll Call Underway!

And California just "passed"... And we are freaking out. We think it is because they end the roll call when the requisite number is reached and if CA went in alphabetical order our votes would be so many so as to end the roll call before every state had a chance to go. So we think we're going last. This is nerve wracking!

Roll Call!

It's happening. They are about to call California!

Sent from my iPhone

The DNC: The Chills Up My Arm

I'm in the Pepsi Center. The Color Guard just brought in the flags, we just said the Pledge of Allegiance, and sang the National Anthem.

The candidates' names are being put into nomination. Clinton is being presented first. Then Obama, then we'll do the roll call.

It's very official, much, much, more so than the first two days. I've said the Pledge a thousand times since I first learned it as a little girl, all of which now seem to have been a preparation for today, when I will cast my vote for Barack Obama on behalf of the great people in California's 14th Congressional District.

The chills, oh the chills. When they call California.

Oh my gosh they just put Obama's name up for nomination.

It is happening. It is happening!!!!

The DNC: My Brush with the Secret Service and the Trojan Condoms Man

Two Stanford undergraduates -- Kalvin and Aly -- are here reporting for their respective newspapers -- The Stanford Daily and The Progressive. They are not official press, so they don't have credentials to the big events. Like so many others they crave access to more.

I was lucky enough to get some extra tickets to last night's "watch party," which, situated in a large convention hall in Denver with a huge screen, is sortof the next best thing to actually being in the Pepsi Center if you want to experience the magic that is unfolding in Pepsi.

We have an email distribution list for all Bay Area folk here in Denver, so I immediately posted the news of my watch party tickets to that list. Within less than a minute, people were calling to claim the tickets. Kalvin called first, and so they were his.

All of this was unfolding as I was running off to find the shuttle to the Anna Eshoo (D-CA14) event being held yesterday afternoon. Anna is my congresswoman and I didn't want to be late for the event. But I didn't know quite how to find the shuttle. Moreover, I needed to go straight from the Eshoo event to the Pepsi Center, which meant I had to think through what I was going to need to have with me, such as my iPhone charger, without which I would be cut off from the blog and the world for much of the evening. So, I was really exasperated and not thinking clearly. Instead of leaving the tickets in the hotel lobby for Kalvin to come and get, I took them with me.

Plan B was for Kalvin and me to do the ticket hand-off near the Pepsi security tent. Trouble is, there are multiple security tents. Trouble is you have to show your credential as you enter the perimeter, well before you get to the security tent. Trouble is, Kalvin didn't have the credentials to get that far. As we zeroed in on each other's location, it became clear that we were missing each other. I should have waited for him at the perimeter but again, not thinking it through, I went through security. The trick was getting back out.

I found a kid named Dan in an official golf cart who agreed to drive me as close to the perimeter as we could get. He was nervous, I could tell. We got to the limit of Dan's allowable jurisdiction, but Kalvin was still blocks away, separated from us by sort of a "no fly zone" if you will, between the perimeter as the outer circle and the security tents as the inner circle.

I had to take matters into my own hands. At least that's the exasperation-fueled wisdom I could summon at the time.

I approached a secret service guy about my dilemma. Could he get me out to the perimeter? As politely as possible he informed me that while he'd really love to help me, 6,000 people had already made similar requests, and he had, well, slightly more important things to do then help me get two watch party tickets to some college students. Yep, got that. Apologized profusely. Was thinking I was going to have to call Kalvin and say I just couldn't make it happen.

Then I looked to my left and saw the Trojan Condoms folks in a seemingly random product placement display inside the no fly zone, separated from me by a high metal fence. I went to the fence, called "hey Trojan guy" a few times, until one of them -- Aaron -- came over. Through the bars of the metal fence, I told him my dilemma. Asked him if he could get out to the perimeter -- he could -- told him Kalvin was waiting at a certain intersection on the perimeter, and, getting $20 from my wallet, asked him if he would take the tickets to Kalvin -- he would -- and then asked him if I could give him Kalvin's cell number so in case they couldn't find one another they could connect. Aaron wanted to charge me more money for that. I declined. I called Kalvin, described Aaron in his shiny shades and orange Trojan t-shirt, and gave it up to the universe to get it right. I breathed a sigh of relief and sat down in the golf cart with Dan.

And then a different secret service agent came up to me.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST PASS THROUGH THE FENCE?" he demanded, haltingly.

"Oh my goodness... " I stammered, and proceeded to tell an abridged version of the tale. I tried to sound so upright and honest, so non-terrorist like, whatever that means. After a seemingly interminable 60 seconds of verbal blather, I just shook my head and sighed and said, "I'm so sorry. I'm an Obama delegate, I didn't intend to do anything wrong. I'm just trying to help some college students see this at the watch party." And then I shut up.

He looked at me hard for 5 seconds. Five long seconds. Then he broke into a half smile, and said, "OK. No more passing things through the fence." I shook my head, humiliated, regretful, embarrassed, and said "I promise."

Dan was mortified. He looked like my accomplice but of course he was just some kid trying to be helpful. And he was. Polite as ever, he proceeded to ask me where I wanted to go next (fearful, I'm sure, of the answer.) And I finally went inside the Pepsi Center.

Of course I was dying to know if Aaron and Kalvin connected. If the Trojan man came through for me and for Kalvin. An excruciating 30 minutes later, I finally got an email from Kalvin. He had the tickets. I finally caught my breath, and gave a little thank you to the Trojan man.

The DNC: Now I'm the One Making Assumptions

There's a lot of room for misunderstanding here, and I've just discovered I'm guilty of it.

The guy in this picture is Ray, a Clinton delegate from San Diego California. Ray was next to Gloria Allred at the California Delegation breakfast I blogged about yesterday. He and Gloria were making the point that the Clinton delegates were being silenced. As I said in my post, Gloria had a scarf tied around her mouth as a gag.

Ray was next to her, wearing the mask you see in this photo (it was over his nose and mouth, covering half of his face). I assumed the mask was part of the protest. Ray was the guy last night at the Pepsi Center who got angry that an Obama delegate wouldn't take a Hillary/Unity sign, and he expressed that anger while wearing that mask. I assumed Ray was still in protest mode, and I'll admit to you now, embarrassedly so, that I began to think of Ray as a wacko.

Well, I just ran into Ray here in the lounge of the hotel. Since he was still wearing the mask, even though this is "down-time," i.e. nothing official happening, no audience for protest, I asked him about the mask. He sat down and said, "Thanks so much for asking. I have a medical condition..." which he proceded to describe. And then he said he has lived in NYC and a republican stronghold in SoCal, and in neither place have people made an issue of his mask. But here at the DNC with liberal democrats as far as the eye can see, he is encountering ridicule.

So I told him that I had jumped to conclusions about the mask, because my first encounter with him was connected to a protest about Clinton delegates being silenced. The mask looked like a prop. We then discussed how the Obama/Unity and Hillary/Unity signage at the Pepsi Center actually fueled the polarization, and how unfortunate that was. We talked as human beings, not as delegates from a particular camp. Ray was in tears because I was giving him an opportunity to be heard, about his medical condition, and about how he has felt as a Clinton delegate. I was in tears because I'm always in tears here in Denver, it seems.

Since the end of the primaries, Ray has longed for the Obama crowd to reach out to him and try to bring him into the fold. That finally started to happen for him last night after the speech.

And it continued in our conversation this morning.

A Quick Update

We're at the breakfast right now, and the whole California delegation is singing happy birthday to Steve Westly. A happy 52 years to him.

Last night, Clinton fully and completely delivered. Her speech was brilliant, much-needed, and the crowd reacted with a centralized enthusiasm. They gave out signs that said 'unity' on one side, and 'Hillary' or 'Obama' on the other. As she came out, the entire crowd turned into a sea of blue signs. Quite the scene.

I can't wait to see what happens for Joe Biden. I don't even know what the Delaware delegation will do to top what they've been doing for the past two days. He always stood out in the debates: a man of genius rhetoric and clear intelligence. No doubt that that will translate into quite the speech tonight.

Drama at Breakfast?

Something happening today at breakfast? An unconfirmed report has it some type of floor vote may tried to be forced. We're going to be there to stay on top of it....

Just signed-in to get credentialed today and voted! The ballot is just a list of all delegates' names. Here's the proof:

Inside the Convention Hall

Want to know what it's like inside the convention hall? Here's a clip with the crowd dancing to I'm So Excited. The room was definitely more packed on Day 2 but I suspect it may have to do with people finding a loophole in the credential system. Because there's no photo ID, you can pass your credential to someone else, who can then go outside and pass it to someone with only hallway clearance.



Hillary definitely had her night. I thought the DNC printed way more of the redesigned Hillary poster boards than most other ones (there definitely was a surplus), so I took a whole stack back with me. We also took the Hillary/Obama/Unity vertical signs wrapped in long cardboard rolls back home, but those are probably going to have to be shipped home.


It seems that some people from our section who are getting camera footage are those that are either wearing something distinct (i.e. turbin, T-shirt) so I've decided to wear my San Francisco 49ers hat tomorrow. That might prevent me from sitting in another delegation's section, but since there's roll call tomorrow we may actually have to show up on time (tonight some of us attended Anna's event so I personally got seated around 6:45 pm).

Mary Ann Ostrom from the San Jose Mercury News says these postings are all tech-related, but I'll just have to point out that there are some serious policy postings included in this blog. So there.

My Brush with the Secret Service

It is 1:49am in Denver and two heart-pounding days of the DNC are
behind me. I'm dying to write one final post tonight about my brush
with the Secret Service, but I am exhausted. I'll try to write it up
tomorrow.

Don't worry Mom, I'm not in jail.

Sent from my iPhone

The DNC: Democrats Going for McCain

I was lucky enough to get one of the coveted purple wristbands at the "Women Count" event put on by a newly-formed PAC of the same name. The PAC was founded after the primaries, seemingly in response to the outcome for Hillary Clinton. It didn't take a genius to know I was out of place. But Senator Clinton herself was reportedly going to make an appearance, and, never having been in her presence I really wanted to be there to see her up close.

The eight Obama-related buttons on my jeans jacket drew a lot of attention, and I wanted not to appear confrontational -- after all, though I'm an Obama delegate I have great respect for Hillary Clinton and all that her campaign achieved -- so I removed all but one of the buttons. But then I found myself feeling incognito, like I was lurking or infiltrating.

Try as I did not to stand out, I did stand out for reasons I cannot hide. Of the 600 or so people gathered, 15 or 20 tops were of color. It was the whitest event I've been to in a long, long time. Maybe the women of color had other places to be. Maybe the ticket price was out of the range of a lot of women of color. Maybe the outreach to those communities just hasn't happened yet. But no matter the reason, the fact was incontrovertible. And I felt it. And it made me wonder.

The speakers were all good, and the crowd was upbeat, but as the minutes wore on I was struck that, though we were in Denver and the Democratic National Convention is taking place all around us, no one was mentioning Barack Obama. The urging was toward electing women, for the sake of electing women. The loudest cheer came when a speaker referred to the "sexist caucus process." I'm not even sure what that means. But the crowd knew, and cheered their hearts out.

About 20 minutes into it, my friend Elspeth whispered that the guy next to me was wearing a "Noobama" sticker. I turned to look and saw it on his upper left lapel. I asked him if I could take a picture of it, and he let me.

When Senator Clinton finally came on, she spoke of the importance of unity and of the need to ensure we don't have four more years of Republicans. It was so much more unifying than anything to that point, and it was perhaps as much as those gathered could take. But, infiltrating incognito that I was, it wasn't enough for me.

At the end I went up to the "Noobama" man and his wife. They are from Houston, TX. We talked. I asked them if the "Noobama" concept meant they would vote for McCain. The woman responded, "Well I'm not voting for Obama, ever." We then had a pretty lengthy conversation, one which I will not relay here except to say it is so clear that this woman and I come from such different perspectives that we will probably never agree. I tried to bring up the issue of race with the woman and was promptly informed that she has black grandchildren and that black people need to stop acting like victims. I hope those black grandchildren saw Michelle Obama speak last night.

After the woman from Houston, I encountered two Oregonians who are going to vote for McCain. (One, historically an Independent, the other, historically a Democrat.) They said Obama has zero experience and is a "racist radical" due to the church he was affiliated with for 20 years. We reached an impasse quickly and they just turned and walked away. To her credit, the woman from Texas was much more cordial.

I don't think Hillary would have been comfortable with any of this. I am certainly not trying to attribute these opinions to her. But it was interesting to meet and hear from people who are probably the fringe element of Clinton supporters. It brought to mind Hillary's self-proclaimed triumphant victory in West Virginia which John Stewart and others have caricatured as being "proud to have the white racist vote." I couldn't tell if any of that was present today. There was a lot that was really unclear.

On the way back to the hotel in the free trolley bus that takes you from one end of the main thoroughfare to the other, while wolfing down a dry sandwich, I met Carl, also from Texas. Carl, an African American, is an actual Clinton delegate (the others I've mentioned above are not delegates). Carl is in fact a proud Clinton delegate. But he is also a Clinton delegate who believes in the importance of Democratic unity, and who will be supporting Obama through this convention and into November. I thanked Carl, having learned in these past two days not to take such things for granted.

I wanted to get this out quickly, but now I'm late for the Pepsi Center, where after hours of other people speaking Senator Clinton will finally get her turn. I want to be in my seat for that historic moment, so, I'm signing off for now.

The DNC: Hillary's Big Moment... Unity?

It had been hyped like crazy, predicted, wondered about, and in some corners, feared, but tonight Hillary outdid even herself, saying what needed to be said to unify this fired up but fractured party. You've seen the TV coverage, but let me give you a little backstage color.

The blue signs you see in this picture were handed out just as Senator Clinton started speaking. The "whips" for each state come through the aisles Santa Claus style doling signage out to eager delegates. I was no exception. You may not realize that the states nearest the speaker, on the flat part of the convention "floor," are the swing states, and those that are solidly blue or red are relegated to lesser seats. With Obama comfortably ahead in California, we are relegated to the background. But we're the biggest and often the loudest. We make our presence known, and I'm leading the way.

So pity the poor guy who came up to our whip to wrestle California's bag of treats away. He had a good argument -- for the sake of TV more signs were needed in the swing state area -- and he did get away with it once. But when he came back a second time he was verbally stoned by Californians defending their turf. The impostor deterred, our whips started to dole out our signs, three and four at a time, to a hungry crowd.

And then it got complicated.

You see, the signs said "unity" on one side and either "hillary" or "obama" on the other. Can you see where this is going? Sure, we believe in unity but we were fighting for the signs! Hillary people wanted the Hillary signs. Obama people wanted Obama signs. As if that wasn't bad enough, an Obama delegate next to me passed over a Hillary sign, greatly angering a Clinton delegate two rows back (wearing a gas mask -- part of the "silencing" protest crowd), who said, "You don't want a Hillary sign? Fine, I'll take it." So I tried to quell things by taking a Hillary sign. But soon after taking it I unrolled a sheet of Obama stickers from my bag, and stuck them to the Hillary sign. A show of true unity, I thought. And I started urging people around me that the way to show unity was to to take the sign of the person we had not initially supported. Sadly, that great wisdom did not catch on.

So we remained polarized in our unity, but unity is was, nevertheless. I heard two Hillary delegates exchange a "she's come so far" whisper between themselves. I nodded, and reached out to the one I did not know, and squeezed her hand. She wiped away tears throughout the speech, and I felt great compassion toward her. The shoe could so easily have been on the other foot, and it would have been me adoring my fallen hero instead of anticipating Thursday's great speech. It is not hard for me to envision "us" as "them."

The pundits are saying she pulled it off, and the Hillary folk I've bumped into in the street since then have said the same. Perhaps tonight was exactly what they needed.

I sure hope so.

The DNC: Local Color the TVs Aren't Showing You

I'm not watching TV at all while here in Denver, but I'm guessing there are a lot of images you are not seeing.

The first two photos depict a small contingent of about 25 peace protesters in outrageous pink outfits, stationed immediately outside the Sheraton where the CA and NY delegations are staying. The cops are stoic but somehow happy. The mood is playful, almost as if everyone knows the role they are supposed to be playing in this free speech drama.

The third photo is of a young man dressed in a prison-style orange jumpsuit and a black cloth bag over his head. He wasn't shouting, nor was he silent, instead he sortof half mumbled, half preached his way along the main thoroughfare, 16h street. When I asked what point he was trying make, and whether it was geared toward Guantanamo and Abu Graib or something else, he said he felt imprisioned by the government that had relegated him to a small 'free speech' zone that seemed to violate the very notion of free speech itself. He told me he was not sure which candidate he was supporting, and that he was inclined toward the "Constitutionalist" party. Is there such a thing? As I strode away from him, I found myself exclaiming to the crowd, "Welcome to America. You can't do this in Beijing."

The fourth photo is missing -- too blurry to post -- but one of my favorite encounters. The protesters are out in full force as I've said, and tonight was no different. As we exited the Pepsi Center -- picture hundreds upon hundreds of folk streaming out and around various traffic related road blocks, like water flows around stones in a creek -- the anti-abortionists were there with their grotesque photos, and the religious zealots were there with their firey rhetoric and megaphone. As I passed by the religious megaphone guy, he was admonishing the nearby women that they needed to "submit" according to the bible. Soon after when he said, "we don't believe in homosexuality -- this isn't San Francisco" I got all riled up and shouted, "SAN FRANCISCO! I LOVE SAN FRANCISCO" and before I knew it a TV camera was on me. The man continued, "you are lower than low worshipping Obama, when who you should be worshipping Jesus," at which point I screamed, "Jesus loves Obama, and he even loves YOU" to the man making the accusations. Again, the TV ate it up. I have no idea if I was on CNN or some local podunk station but someone got an earful and eyeful of my attempt to counteract hateful speech not with restrictions but with more free speech. I then led the flowing crowd in an "O-Ba-Ma, O-Ba-Ma, O-Ba-Ma" in an attempt to drown out the voice on the megaphone. His words repulsed me, but striking back the way I had gave me a spring in my step as I walked back to the hotel.

What a great country this is. And what a great, and exhilarating experience. So far I've shouted, cried, debated, argued, persuaded, conceded, even apologized. I am having the time of my life. And it is only Tuesday.

Day Two...

Live blogging from the convention...it's much more crowded today in the convention hal today. A few of the Sacramento delegates are sitting in the Missouri section, and I'm right smack with the Minnesota delegation. There simply aren't enough seats left in the California section.

The fortunate part of being in this aisle seat is that there's a nearby power supply. A lot of people's Iphones are running out of batteries because they're trying to blog and stay in contact with everyone. The noise level is so high in the convention hall that most of us are relying on text messaging to communicate.

Yesterday each delegation section had phones ringing off the hook from the control centter trying to make sure there were enough rally signs being passed around. Now there's a bit flashing light that goes off to signal the person to answer the phone. People on TV probably didn't hear it but it was definitely was pretty noticeable yesterday.

They started passing out More of the Same McCain signs....we're not supposed to hold it up until Deval Patrick gets to talking about him....

Two Million Strong, and Growing

Joe Trippi (former campaign strategist for John Edward's presidential campaign), Peter Greenberger (Director of Google's Politics and Issue Advocacy Team), and Joe Rospairs (New Media Director for Obama for America) are hosting a presentation about the use of technology in political campaigns at the Westin Hotel. Trippi reminds everyone that there are 300 million people in this country but only 2 million people have contributed to the Obama campaign, so there's an incredible room to grow. "It's the network, stupid", he says.

There always will be negative campaigning, but one thing that has changed is that online usage is now on par with TV viewership: 14 hours/week watching TV and 14 hours/week watching on-line. Whether or not the Internet can be used for persuading voters still needs to be determined. Joe Trippi mentions that it's word-of-mouth of your friends may be more powerful than Sony trying to launch a multimillion advertising budget to convince you to watch a movie.

Google's rolled out a lot of analytical tools, mentioning YouTube Insights as a way to measure who's viewing your videos, from what geographic region, and what age, etc.

FYI -- Craig Newmark (of Craiglist) is sitting right in front of me.

National Security Panel and Coors Field

Joe Klein is about to moderate a discussion with former Secretary of Navy Richard Zandig and former Secretary of Defense William Perry called "The Next Administration's National Security and Defense Priorities." There's an overflow room, and it's starting to fill.

First question posed by Joe Klein: We've seen counter-insurgency tactics work in an urban environment where there are lots of people. Do you think these same tactics would apply in a rural setting such as Afghanistan? Both respond in the context of broader cooperation with our allies.

Zandig talks about the trip to Afghanistan and watch Obama's schedule to Israel from 7:30 am to 1:00 am at night. He's never really seen him lose his balance. He thinks it's an extraordinary quality for a leader.

"Do you want people to disagree with you?" Zandig once asked to Obama. "I want him to disagree with me...Ive seen him talk to people in the military and they come back incredibly impressed."

Joe Klein relates a story about John McCain. The two were recalling the Cuban Missile Crisis and how Kennedy chose to ignore the first bellicose message and take the second. Klein says, "You would have taken the first message. McCain responds, "You're probably right."

Joe Klein: Define what you consider a high-value target. Zandig says that there are delicate lines that have to be drawn and there are serious emotional and political considerations.

Question: It seems like we need two armed forces: one to fight a war and another to do peace-keeping. Zandig says that the discussion has to occur between the different military leaders. Perry believes there has to be one armed force but differentiated and specialized in different ways (gives the example of Bosnia and how we had specialized training for a few weeks). "It's not a pickup team," Perry says.

Atlantic Monthly reporter: How do deal with Russia and Georgia situation? (besides the fact of showing more respect to Russia). Do we construct a new containment strategy? Zandig and Perry both think what the Russians did was appalling. The U.S. role is most appropriately to dampen the propensity for the Georgians and Russians to engage in armed conflict. The fault was in the failure to work with the Georgians close enough would not be aggressive and to work with Russians that they would understand there would be heavy costs.

On a side note, I just visited Coors Field. They are having batting practice from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, but you need a ticket to participate. How do you get one? Contact your local Congressman (that's what the ticketperson said to me.)

The DNC: Anarchy and Other Protests

While we were feasting on the edifying remarks of Jesse Jackson, Jr., Ted & Caroline Kennedy, and Michelle Obama in the Pepsi Center last night, the story beneath the story was being served up a few miles away and was far less palatable.

A bunch of so-called "Anarchists"-- perhaps upwards of 500 according to unsubstantiated rumors I've heard -- hell-bent on disrupting the convention with a protest of some kind, caused a complete "lock down" of the Sheraton Hotel where the CA and NY delegations are staying. This meant no one could go in or out of the hotel from approximately 6:30 pm until 10pm. Now, they didn't disrupt the convention because most of us were already at the Pepsi Center or the nearby watch party, but it instantly led to a debate on the rights of the protesters and the role of the police.

Today's local papers suggest the police overreacted by spraying tear gas among the Anarchists and making arrests. Others ask who can blame the police in this kind of high threat, high stakes environment. Keep in mind that the police appear to have thwarted a potential Obama assassination attempt on Sunday (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/25/obama-assassination-plot_n_121293.html). With fringe wackos out there, and most of the country's Democratic leadership milling about, I have to say I'm glad security is tight.

Anarchists and wackos aside, there's another piece of protest going on with a much more mainstream group of folk -- the Clinton supporters who have not embraced the notion of unity. As recently as this morning at the California delegation breakfast there were folks including the well-known anti-discrimination attorney Gloria Allred protesting that Hillary delegates have been silenced. Allred appeared to be using a scarf as a gag in her mouth in support of this point. (I could have taken a picture to show you, but I didn't want to give her the attention she's craving. You'll have to take my word for it.)

I tell you, I just don't get it.

But I do know that if Obama had come in 2nd, I'd be feeling a little protestish (protesty?) myself right now. And others Obamans would as well. So it remains our job as Obama delegates to respect and value where the Hillary folks have been, and help bring them to the point of unity that we must achieve if we are going to beat McCain in November. So yeah, the picture I'm showing isn't of Allred, it's of the hottest button in town -- the one that reads "36 Million Votes for Democratic Unity/Barack & Hillary 2008." Geez, can't Allred and the others see that they are playing right into the McCain hands? That this is the "Nadar" issue of 2008, the issue that could end up handing the victory to the Republicans. Some say Democrats hate to win and I've never quite understood that until today.

I'm headed over to a 12:30 MDT event called "Women Count" which I hear will offer more of this type of fare. Senator Clinton will be there, and I will applaud her heartily. In my own right and as an Obama delegate I am intending to take the high road. But if I feel Barack Obama is being maligned, it could be hard for me to contain myself.

I'll try not to get arrested or sprayed with tear gas. And I'll be sure to let you know what happens.

The DNC: What Would I do Without my iPhone?

You'd think that in 2008 in a city as sophisticated as Denver there would be wireless access in the Pepsi Center. To my dismay, there is not. I carried my laptop there and back for nothing. It was heavy -- just ask my weary left shoulder -- and as it turns out, useless. No, there would be no laptop-style blogging for anyone other than those with official press credentials, who get access to the closed wireless network. What's a grassroots blogger to do?

Pick up her iPhone, that's what! From the ease and comfort of my iPhone I can write up my blog post (as if it is an email) and send it via email to the blogs for which I write (I'm posting here and on MOMocrats.com). I can even include pictures! I'm no tech wiz so I can't really tell you how this works, except to say I was using my cell network instead of a wireless network -- sure it's a bit slower (I don't have the new G3 iPhone), but it WORKS.

And when history is unfolding all around you, that's what matters.

The only downside to using my iPhone for everything (in addition to blogging, I'm checking three email accounts, and sending and receiving calls and texts) is that its little battery is running down pretty quickly. So I'm making friends with the folks in disabled access where electric outlets abound, so I can juice my phone up at least once if not twice at the Pepsi Center.

Yay Apple! You're enabling me to bring my convention thoughts to the people back home in real time. Your little iPhone is exactly what I need it to be.

The DNC: How Michelle Made Me Feel

My cell phone died mid-way through the convention tonight, so I didn't get to do the play by play for the blog that I had hoped to. This means you, the reader, now have *heard* on TV or *read* in the newspaper someone else's account of Michelle's speech. And if you've heard what I've heard then I want to counteract it right now.

To me, Michelle's speech struck the perfect balance of issues and took the perfect tone. She told stories to illustrate who Barack is and why we should vote for him. She made him three dimensional, in contrast to the figure who has been on a pedestal for 19 months. She spoke beautifully, smoothly, thoughtfully with candor and humor, and she told it like it is. She gave us a clear sense that the "change" the Obamas believe in is deeply rooted in family values born of the struggle they each experienced personally which gives them tremendous authentic compassion for those who struggle.

At one point she talked about driving home from the hospital after Sasha was born, with Barack driving at a snail's pace presumably out of the most over-protective fear new parents have with a newborn. She said Barack wanted to give Sasha what he never had: a strong father, and when she said that, the white man next to me wept out loud. Later I learned that his own parents divorced when he was young, and Michelle's tender statement struck a chord deep within him.

Frequently, I found my hands pressed open-palm against the lower part of my face, holding the emotion in and expressing awe for the woman in front of me. I wept openly at the sight of a strong black woman addressing a live audience of thousands and a television audience of millions, with a good chance of being the First Lady in a few months. I wept for the black children watching tonight, who might as a result of this Obama experience begin to see that they can in fact be anything their little hearts and minds tell them they want to be. At the end I was overcome with relief and amazement that the future we envision is on its way to being here, and I sobbed out loud against the shirt of the man next to me, so much so that I had to remove my glasses and wipe the water from my face. It was a cathartic, optimistic, uplifting, transformative speech.

And then Barack came on at the end via live feed from Missouri and addressed us all in the background as he interacted with Michelle, Sasha and little Malia. And in the less than five-minute glimpse we had into the lives of the Obamas, we saw a man who adores his wife, and a playful, proud, loving father. Millions of American women do not have the former. Millions of American children do not have the latter.

I hate that CNN and NPR are criticizing Michelle's speech. All I can think is the people they interviewed came with a different perspective and heard different things. But I'm not sure how anyone could have watched what I watched, and heard what I heard, and not have been transformed.

Michelle redeemed me. And that is something worth weeping over.

More DNC tidbits...

Most of the swing states such as Ohio, Michigan, and Pennyslvania get the prime spots up front, though we're also seated right next to Georgia and Missouri towards the left-center from the podium. We're the biggest delegation, but there was a slide that read, "Which State Has the Best Cheering Section? Text DNC & Your State Initials to 62262 (Ex: DNC DC). The text messaging drive just never stops...

The schedule feels a lot like a freshman orientation week. There's always a list of scheduled events occurring during the day and evening that you can choose to attend, and every morning we have a scheduled breakfast with the entire California delegation. It's a bit of a surreal feeling though to cross a bridge with the pedestrian entrance blocked by a fence, cement walls, and Secret Service agents asking you for your credentials.

Congrats to Jenn Pae (CD-9), who was pulled aside by someone from the Daily Show because she was eating nacho's. She may also be interviewed by MTV, and the Korean press seems to spend 45 minutes interviewing her since she's the only one of her ethnicity they seem to be able to find.

Stay tuned for the lockdown that happened at our hotel earlier in the day. The details are sparse, but I'm sure the local press will start to pick up on the story.

Political Stimulus

Finally, I’m in Denver.

And quite unexpectedly, internet is hard to find.

I arrived yesterday in the morning and headed straight to a College Democrats and Students for Barack Obama joint luncheon, although I was late and missed the food thanks to my ridiculously ungifted sense of direction. Apparently the taxi driver also gets confused when you invert two numbers of the address and wonder why you don’t end up at a restaurant. Let’s just say that I involuntarily got an expensive tour of downtown Denver. The taxi-cab driver and I talked politics on the way. He’s an Obama supporter from Ethiopia who got his citizenship a few years ago, and since, has voted in every single election. It’s amazing what kinds of stories you run into through making conversation with strangers.

Later, I met up with Ben Goodman and Adam Scholl, the former Maine High School State Director and National High School Developmental Director, respectively. Ben is the youngest delegate of Maine, and Adam is here as a page with the Maryland delegation. We met in person for the first time back in November in Des Moines, Iowa when all of the high school state directors met at a summit in the Midwest.

The highlight of the night was hearing Deval Patrick speak at a College Democrats event. It was an intimate event of only students, but they used a huge theater, so only about 1/15^th of the seats were filled.

Day numero dos: This morning was the first breakfast for California’s delegation. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi were the highlights. I met up with Roger, Julie, and Matt, and we sat with some delegates from neighboring districts.

I then headed over to the University of Denver to be on a panel with a few other delegates to discuss the delegation process, my experience, and answer questions for the Junior Statesmen of America.

I flagged a cab down and headed to the Convention Center. I had to do a live radio interview, so I just positioned myself into a corner and hoped that my cell reception would suffice. No idea how that turned out.

After a 40-minute bus ride to go 2 miles, I’m currently sitting in the Pepsi Center as Howard Dean begins the convention business. Art Torres is a few rows down working the computers under the recognizable California delegate sign. The delegation of Delaware is quite the scene. They’re standing at the front of the floor and chant “YES WE CAN” anytime there is a mention of Joe Biden. They’re wearing bright costumes and wave signs like it’s their job. The delegations, in general, have such distinct personalities. At the video on New Orleans and the Katrina aftermath, the Louisiana delegate held up American flags as they watched the screen intently and said nothing. It was pretty moving. When Ted Kennedy came out, the Massachusetts delegation began to jump up and down. After every few speeches, the DNC stops everything and starts playing live music. The Pepsi Center actually turns into a huge democratic dance party. Barack Obama and dance parties? Did they plan that for me?

Nancy Pelosi just walked on to the stage, and as the California delegation stood up and went crazy, she gave us a shout-out. There are reporters everywhere; Fox News, CBS, CNN, PBS, Associated Press, BBC, ABC News, and C-Span makeshift studios surround the arena. When I went further down on the ground, I turned around and saw Anderson Cooper standing right in front of me by the CNN stage on the convention floor. He talked to me for a sec and let me take a picture with him. Wolff Blitzer is avoiding the crowds off on the stage. The CNN Political Team is comprised of demigods. Basically.

Well I’m here, hyper-politicized, and most likely over-stimulated due to the mixture of bright lights, well-known politicians, and my cell phone that goes off every five minutes.

This convention has made me look back a lot at the year-and-a-half of work we've done to make this nomination happen. Seeing each state delegation reminds me of every single primary we went through. From South Carolina to Nevada, Pennsylvania to South Dakota. What hit me the hardest was seeing the delegation in the front, right-hand corner of the floor. Because of this campaign, this nomination, and this convention, I feel forever indebted to Iowa.

And, as Ted Kennedy said tonight, “This is a season of hope.”

And so it is.

Joe Biden...

Each time Joe Biden's picture was shown on the big LCD screens, he always seemed to get the biggest applause.

This morning we were told that if you lose your credentials, you can't get them replaced. The plastic attachment to the metal clip is easy to tear, so I wonder who did the stress testing with these things. Earlier in this morning they also said not to laminate these things, and it turns out there's some radio tag embedded in the credential that they check.

We spotted Bill Maher walking through the floor....Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, Donna Brazille, and James Carville are just sitting in the CNN studio on the convention floor. Not sure exactly if they're really paying attention....

We're being passed around different rally signs: first was Change We Can Believe In, second was Kennedy, third s One Nation. What's next?

The DNC: The Great Ted Kennedy

I'd heard people say he probably wasn't well enough to come, but come he did, saying nothing could have stopped him, and that he would be there in Washington in January too.

So here he was, inheritor of all our expectations, purveyor of hope in the face of despair. He invoked his late brother JFK, and the great triumph of his dream to put a man on the moon.
He ended saying, "And the dream lives on."

Some say charisma, inspiring talk and dreams are trivial, but I know them to be the oxygen that fuels our American spirit. The end of slavery, the civil rights movement, putting a man on the moon, electing Barack Obama president... All the fruition of our wildest dreams.

The DNC: Ted Kennedy

They said he might not be well enough to come. But here he is,
inheritor of some of our country's greatest idealism, and purveyor of
great hope.

As he just now put it, "The dream lives on."

The DNC: Finally in the Pepsi Center

I am the type of person who gets moved by a parade, who gets choked up watching the parade of nations at the Olympics, who tunes in to the roll call vote at the Democratic Convention every four years and gets emotional over that simultaneously innocent and powerful presentation of state pride.

My beloved California goes near the beginning and I bite back fierce tears thinking about it's liberal politics and beautifully diverse people. I take a deep breath again when I'm moved by the temerity of the small state voices --those like Delaware, Maine, and South Dakota -- and then am overwhelmed by the Texans with their swaggering pride. But I don't really lose it until it's the second-to-last state's turn: Wisconsin. Wisconsin was the state that grew me up, and I swallow tears through the lump in my throat when my memories of those extraordinarily good people make me feel like an innocent child again.

These strong state identities then roll up to a powerful Democratic and American identity, and we celebrate the very best of America -- its people.

So imagine me now, sitting in the California delegation at the Pepsi Center. The California sign is ten feet away and I can gaze over at Wisconsin. I was moved to tears as I wrote this, and it's only Monday.

Who says Democrats aren't patriotic?

Who says?

Whomever says it has never met me.

The DNC: Finally in the Pepsi Center

I'm the type of person who gets choked up at parades, who gets teary
watching the nations parade in at the Olympics, who every four years
tunes in to the democratic convention to hear the roll call. And when
that roll call happens I can't hold back the tears.

My beloved California goes near the beginning, and the love I feel for
the largest state in the nation -- its liberal politics and its
diverse and thoughtful people --pours out despite my effort to hold
myself together. Then when the relatively quiet voice of the tiny
states gets heard --states like Delaware and North Dakota -- I choke
up again. Thereis something so innocent and yet powerful about
standing up for the group you represent. Soon come the proud Texans,
who never fail to move me with their brash confidence. And then when
it comes time for Wisconsin's turn, the state that grew me up, the
tears just flow and I feel as optimistic about life as a child.

Even as I write this, the emotion is swelling inside me and I am
blinking back the tears.

So imagine how I'm holding up right about now. Sitting in the
California section, looking over at Wisconsin, reveling in our
democratic-ness, on the verge of making history. And it's only Monday.

Who says Democrats aren't patriotic?

Who says?

Whomever says that has never met me.

We're in...

Members from the Rules Committee finished speaking...Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi got a warm welcome. Someone from the PlatfoRm Committee Judith McHale's on stage now. Seats for the California delegation is starting to fill....

No public Wi-Fi access, so I'm sending this note through the cell phone...we'll be sending intermittent reports as a result.

California breakfast and AAPI Caucus

The first California delegation breakfast took place today. Here's the group shot of Molly, Julie, Matt, and me with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo.

Mike Honda finished speaking at the AAPI Caucus. The elected officials are making their rounds to all the various caucuses right now. Now there's someone who worked on the 2004 Kerry campaign from the Ohio field campaign talking.

Apparently the security at the Pepsi Center, so many of us are leaving in about 5-10 minutes to take the shuttle over there.

The Wi-Fi network in the lobby at the Sheraton is jammed with people using their laptops. Let's hope this blog posting goes through....

The DNC: Civil Disobedience

As I left an event at noon, I saw a few protesters with scarves over
their mouths, seated on the curb, surrounded by about 15 police
officers. Someone said they were being arrested for giving a false
identity. I do not know what their underlying issue was.

DNC: The McCain Folks Make Their Voices Heard

A portion of a group of about 8 McCain supporters marching and
chanting down 16th street, the main pedestrian thoroughfare in Denver.

Anti-abortionists try to make their case

When I arrived in Denver yesterday and was making my way through
downtown Denver in my rental car, I was stuck behind a truck at a red
light. When I focused on the imagery on the truck, I saw aborted
fetuses on posters. They were grotesque. I was a captive audience
sitting there in my car.

I found myself thinking of the 1st Amendment, and the right these
people have to make their point. I am a great respector of free speech
even when I feel the message is repulsive and simplistic, as I felt
sitting behind that truck. I wanted my own truck depicting the
imagery of women making that most personal and wrenching of decisions.
What that imagery would be, I don't know -- how do you depict the
anguish of the heart, and the desperation of circumstance?-- but I
wanted to respond.

And now, Monday, I'm in the Black Caucus session where African
American leaders are at the podium addressing the crowd. An anti-
abortion heckler just stood up and interrupted the speaker.

I couldnt help but reflect that so many anti-abortipnists are men.

The man was escorted out, to chants of O-Ba-Ma. And the speeches
continued.

The truck and the man were a way to get 10 seconds of attention, not a
way to inform or change minds. But this is an issue that pushes us to
those extremes.

Of course I would have preferred to have seen/heard neither. But free
speech is only free speech if those whose messages we abhor have the
same right to speak as we do.

Presenting Anna Eshoo

The great people of the 14th Congressional District are represented by the irrepressible Anna Eshoo. And here she is at the California delegation breakfast where the Bay Area folk are a wee bit more fired up than everybody else.

Monday Morning: Age is No Issue

It's Monday morning in Denver. The California Delegation just poured into our first breakfast meeting. Speaker Pelosi is on the docket, so we've got huge "Madam Speaker" placards at our seats, and the NARAL people have just handed us "Yes We Can" noise-making cannisters to shake up and down when we get fired up. I've heard that Hillary Clinton is addressing us as well, but now someone else is saying she isn't coming. And now you have a glimpse into what this place feels like. Excited rumors, perplexed confusion, this omnipresent sense that you are missing some great thing around the corner.

And all I really want is some coffee.

When I got my credentials this morning -- every morning we have to check in with picture ID to receive the documents that gain us access to that day's events -- I was struck by the number of young people in the lobby. Turns out they were Junior Statesmen from all over California.

I met Willy Chotzen-Freund, Santa Barbara; Sara Christiano, Saratoga; Santa Barbara; Alex Ewald, San Mateo; Charlotte Greenbaum, Palm Springs; Keshav Singh, Santa Cruz; and Eli Zinman, Santa Cruz. All are 17, and none can vote in September. But boy are they fired up from head to toe. Alex talks of the importance of overcoming voter apathy. Charlotte, originally an Edwards fan, talked about now supporting Obama.

And I spent the evening last night with friends, including 80 year old Lucius Barker. Professor Barker (Political Science, Stanford, Emeritus) was a Jesse Jackson delegate in the 1980s twice-over, and was at the Kennedy convention too. He tells amazing stories

From 17 to 80, Age is No Issue. We are Democrats on the brink of something great.

Now to my coffee...

Delegate Gala and Red Rock

Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic Party, spoke at an all delegate gala event tonight honoring the Hurricane Katrina disaster relief organizations at the Denver Convention Center. He talked about how the Democratic Party offered paid leave for anyone who wanted to help in New Orleans in the aftermath and cited the example of two people in the DNC finance team who left to contribute in those efforts.


After the delegate event, Owen invited Bob and me to a Sheryl Crow and Dave Matthews Concert at the Red Rock Amphitheater. We had to take a $80 cab ride (granted with 5 people) to the place, but the surrounding rock formations made it extremely worth it. The band Sugarland also performed, and the video clip below shows one of their hit songs with the camera panning around the entire scenery of this impressive ampitheater.



We tried to find public transportation home, but there was nothing available. Bob also tried to ask people at the amphitheater for a ride to downtown Denver, but several people said they didn't want to go near there with the crowd. We could easily have been stranded or have to wait a long time for a taxi, but we decided to walk toward the row of buses in the parking lot and see what we could find. Fortunately, there was a bus taking members of the Virginia delegation back to downtown Denver, which dropped of us within a block of our hotel.

We receive our first credentials to go into the Pepsi tomorrow, along with a breakfast with the entire California delegation. The official proceedings start at 4:00 pm and will last until 9:00 pm. We're told that we have fairly front-row seats, so watch for us on TV!

Some new arrivals too...

Some new arrivals too... Matt Haney, CD-14 alternate delegate who is currently helping on the campaign in Santa Fee (relocating soon to Albuquerque) and Mark Brickman, CD-12 delegate.








No, the food didn't come from the DNC -- it's Sheraton Hotel food.