Orange Alert

The nice woman's voice on the intercom at the airport says we are at orange alert. I followed instructions and got here 4 hours early. No lines. No problems. Just 4 hours to kill.

It's a pretty nice airport. Free Wi-Fi and lots of expensive food and drinks. I would probably be home by now if I drove instead of flying, but Frontier Airlines' prices were way cheaper than gas.

The city did a pretty good job this week of running this massive convention. I've talked about the green efforts. There were always helpful people standing on almost every corner to give you advice and directions. The locals were really nice too.

The light rail didn't run late enough for the late night partiers, but I didn't have any trouble getting around. My only real complaint is that we had to stay so far away from the convention. You really had to schedule about 2 hours to get anywhere and we missed a lot of events because of travel. Someone said if we carry Missouri for Obama this election cycle, we will get a better hotel location in 2012. Someone else said they just choose state names out of a hat and it's the luck of the draw. I'd say it's worth it for those of you who want to come in 2012 to go ahead and work hard for Obama this fall on the off chance that you'll have sweet digs next time. Whatever motivates you!

Mile High Pictures -- Thursday Night

Paul LeVota is in the house

Monica Curls and Aimee Gromowsky take a dancing break

Zach Pollack enjoys the night after working hard all week

Eight is enough

Future first families

Convention-goer's iPhone gets a recharge outside bathrooms at Mile High

John McCain Thinks Women Are Stupid

As a former Hillary Clinton supporter and a woman between the age of 35-50, I was relieved this morning to learn that I would be voting for John McCain now that he has chosen a woman as his running mate. I don't have a mind of my own, so I was so thankful the TV told me how I am going to vote.

Sarah Palin? Really? The woman has been Governor of Alaska for 18 months. Before that she was the mayor (a part-time job) of a city with the population of 8,000 people. Her accomplishments before that appear to be an accomplished high school basketball career and second place in the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant.

I have followed Obama since his run for U.S. Senate in Illinois, when my SEIU friends busted their butts to get him elected. He dazzled me in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention. He's an amazing guy. When this campaign started (how long ago?) I decided to support Hillary Clinton. Hillary lost and I came to this convention prepared to vote for Barack Obama. After Hillary's speech I was jazzed about the Obama candidacy. After Hillary cast her vote for Obama, I did the same. When she stopped the roll call and nominated Obama by acclamation -- I cheered. Next came Bill Clinton -- my enthusiasm was building. Then there was last night -- the culmination of the week-long convention. Wow. I left the stadium walking on air! Make no mistake -- I was never going to vote for McCain. But this convention has turned me into more than an Obama voter -- I'm an Obama supporter. I support the values and politics of the Obama/Biden ticket.

Now I'm told by John McCain and the talking heads in the mainstream media that I am a brainless woman who will jump on board with his campaign simply because he found a woman to run with him. What a serious miscalculation by McCain. If I was walking on air last night, I'm ready to fight this morning.

We are going to learn a lot more about Palin over the next couple of days. I'm sure the mainstream media will continue to underestimate the intelligence and power of women in this country. John McCain just threw down the gauntlet. He has chosen an idealogical extremist and made the decision that this election will not be about the failed policies of the last 8 years -- it's now about conservative extremism versus progressive change. This is no longer a fight to win middle of the road voters -- this is straight up left versus right. Whoever turns out their base wins.

I'm going to answer the call. Will you?

Green Team Delivers

I caught this shot of the refuse area behind the Pepsi Center. The volunteers are actually digging through the mountains of trash, pulling out all the recyclables, by hand. Really!

BRB

Lack of bandwidth and battery, coupled with major distraction factor,
so I'm gonna sign off for a while. I will be back late tonight or
tomorrow with more news and a convention wrapup. Yes we can!

Sent from my iPhone

Si Se Puede!

Bill Richardson is bringing the house down!

The sun is finally setting behind the stadium. The place is really
filling up.

I'm told there are still thousands of people outside, winding their
way through the security lines.

I don't seem to be able to get any pictures out, so I will post those
later.

Stevie Wonder!

Sent from my iPhone

Running Out of Bandwidth

Or whatever they call it. I'm finding it really difficult to get my
mobile blog posts out tonight. Must be the 70,000 people trying to
text the Obama campaign at the same time. I'll keep sending updates.
Omg! Sheryl Crow!

Sent from my iPhone

A Mile High

Left the hotel about 1 and just got settled in our seats at the
stadium. Missouri is on the football field. Prolly about 50 yard
line. We are front and center. Right behind Illinois and Delaware.
Sweet seats.

For you Chiefs fans - we are trying to cause as much damage to the
field as possible.

Sent from my iPhone

More Views From Denver

Senator Clinton nominates Senator Obama for presidential nominee.







Melissa








Senator Bray








Schwag salesman











Hillary!









Democratic women senators








Pepsi Center








Pepsi Center "Hope" entrance.









CNN HQ













The "Big Tent" -- bloggers' HQ.

Black Helicopters - UPDATE

One of our delegation just got a text that the Pepsi Center has been
rushed by protesters and there is a security lock down. Now I'm
hearing it's a peaceful antiwar protest. Rumors sure travel fast here.

UPDATE -- shortly after this post I left the Pepsi Center to head back to the hotel and find the protest. It must have broken up by the time I made my way out of the Center. From news reports, it sounds like the rumors of a "riot" were greatly exaggerated.

As I wandered through downtown heading for the train station, I did encounter a Critical Mass event. I was impressed with the age, gender and race diversity of the riders. It also seemed as if they picked up a random drunk guy on a bike. He had a Bud Tall Boy in his water bottle holder and he was screaming expletives at the police in the area. Made me giggle. Can you get a DWI on a bike?

Remember This Guy?

Bill

Hillary's Husband

Is up next. The place is going nuts.

Sent from my iPhone

Denver, We Have a Problem

We seem to have some sort of seating crises here at the Pepsi Center.
No one is allowed to leave or enter the convention floor. I'm not
sure if they've "oversold" or if we have interlopers, but we were just
informed that people are going to be asked to leave soon. Weird.

Sent from my iPhone

I Think We Are Outnumbered -- UPDATE

I think we (delegates) are outnumbered by the media -- at least 2-1.
At least it feels that way. I've done about 5 interviews a day since
I got here. I asked around and most of the other delegates say they
have had a similar experience.

While I'm not sure we are actually outnumbered, I have heard that
there are more press members here than were in China for the
Olympics. About 5000 more.

Part of the increase over years past is the increasing number of niche
and specialty news outlets. Internet radio, satellite radio,
Internet news outlets, etc. There are also a ton of foreign press
here. We just had a reporter from New Zealand record a report right
next to the Missouri delegation seating.

There are also at least 500 bloggers that secured credentials to cover
the event.

Sent from my iPhone

UPDATE -- we ARE outnumbered -- 3-1! 15,000 members of the media and 5,000 delegates.

Roll Call

Missouri is up next in the roll call. Hillary voted for Obama this
morning and so did I.

Sent from my iPhone

I stand corrected . . .

the real rockstar tonight was Hillary. What a class act.

Ok CNN, Chris Matthews, and all you other talking heads -- can we kill
the Clinton drama stories now? We are one party, united.

Sent from my iPhone

A Real Rockstar

The Gov from Montana is doing a great job, but right as he started
talking, Bill Clinton walked into the crowd in the upper deck. All
eyes left the stage and turned toward the rafters. It's hard to
compete with that level of rockstar!

Sent from my iPhone

Signs

What's the deal with all the signs that seem to pop up with a timely,
clever, on-topic slogan?

Well - every few minutes people in yellow vests pass the signs down
the rows and tell us to raise them during a specific line from the
speech. The orders come from some place called the boiler room. It's
all scripted. Kind of funny, but I watched some clips from last night
and I like the effect.

Sent from my iPhone

Claire in House

Claire and her husband Joe just joined us in the Missouri delegation
seating on the convention floor.

Haven't seen as many rock stars tonight as last night, but it's been a
who's who of Missouri Democratic politics - past and present.

I think it's cool that Claire is sitting with us. I'm sure she could
secure VIP seating elsewhere. Auditor Montee, Secretary Carnahan and
Congressmen Cleaver and Skelton have been sitting with us common folk
too. The party faithful representing Missouri here in Denver work
hard to get these folks elected. It's nice to see they remember the
hard work that brought them here.

Sent from my iPhone

Quote Board

"John McCain voted with Bush 95% of the time. That's not a maverick,
that's a sidekick!"

"Four more months!"

Senator Bob Casey, PA

Sent from my iPhone

Governor Sebelius

My adopted Governor, Kathleen Sebelius (you may not realize this, but
I'm not a big fan of our current Gov), is speaking at 7:05 tonight. I
doubt the big boyz will carry it, so tune in to CSPAN, if you want to
hear Kathy representing for our Kansas friends.

Sent from my iPhone

Green Team -- UPDATE

This is Luke. He's a member of the Green Team. He is manning the
trash station. The green efforts at this convention are amazing!
Every waste station has a recycle can, a compost can and a landfill
can. Every station has a person monitoring what goes in each can.
The landfill cans are virtually empty. The only thing I have put in
the landfill can this week is a piece of gum - and that's because we
couldn't figure out whether gum can be composted. I guessed yes, but
we didn't want to spoil the whole can so we erred on the side of the
landfill. Very cool.

UPDATE -- gum CANNOT be composted. Thanks to AP for the tip!

Dennis!

Go to YouTube or Google Dennis Kucinich's convention speech. It is
not to be missed.

If you are watching mainstream coverage of the convention, you may be
missing some of the best speeches. Try cspan or PBS. You'll see more
convention and fewer talking heads. Better yet - Tivo cspan and watch
everything else on your favorite news channel. Then you can go back
and watch the speeches that the mainstream is skipping.

Shonda - fire up the DVR. I want Hillary's speech and gavel to gavel
coverage to relive when I get back to Missouri!
Sent from my iPhone

On the Bus

The iPhone is fully charged and I'm on the bus headed to the Pepsi
Center for this evening's festivities. This is my first attempt at
mobile blogging. Hopefully I will be able to post live from the
convention tonight.

The bus system to and from the convention has worked well so far, but
I have learned to schedule about 2 hours travel time to get anywhere
in this town. The city is walkable, but venu locations and security
all but prevent the convention goers from hoofing it from place to
place.

Our hotel is located about 20 miles or so out of downtown. It kind of
reminds me of the commute between OP, KS and downtown KC.

Gonna jump off the bus now and head thru the maze of security.
Sent from my iPhone

Views From Denver

Missouri in the house!
Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper hard at work.
Governor Sebilius being interviewed by talking head.
Claire!
Ted Kennedy rocking the house.
NPR mobile studio (hidden behind Fox Radio studio).






Pepsi Center entrance.

The Superbowl for Political Geeks

Last night's convention opener has received mixed reviews from friends and family watching from home, but for those of us here in Denver, it was a blast. The Pepsi Center is bursting with the who's who of the political world. I heard it described this morning as the Superbowl for political geeks.

The photo above is the view from the Missouri Delegation's section on the convention floor (that's Al Brooks' head in the foreground). We're not really on the floor, but that's what they call it. We're sitting behind Georgia and in between Nebraska and California.

Last night was a hoot -- I met Dennis Kucinich (and his supermodel wife), Joe Biden and Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me and 30 Days). The highlight, though was meeting President Jimmy Carter! I met President Carter as he walked through the crowd outside the seating area. Later in the night, he actually came down and sat right in front of us with the Georgia delegation.

From our seats we can see a couple of the sets for TV coverage of the convention. We have a pretty good view of Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper (he's a tiny little man -- I wanted to pick him up and put him my pocket!).

I think I'm going to head to the Pepsi Center early today. The people watching is too good to miss.

The Myth of "Clinton Drama"

So in the few minutes that I watched CNN today, I heard the words "Clinton Drama" at least a dozen times. As a Clinton delegate, on the floor at the convention, I can assure you -- there is no "Clinton Drama" here. This is being manufactured by the media is frankly getting a little tiring.

You can't take two steps in any direction at the Pepsi Center without a member of the press trying to provoke you into speculation about a revolt from the Clinton delegates. I guess the real story of party unity is not sexy enough.

For those of you keeping score at home -- ignore what you are hearing on TV. The party is unified. Am I going to vote for Hillary -- hell yeah! If she releases her delegates and asks me to vote for Obama, will I do it? Hell yeah! Am I going to vote for McCain in November? Hell no!

Give it up Chris Matthews -- find another angle. This party is unified against McCain. End of story.

Caucus Time

An important part of the convention is the meeting of the caucuses. As far as I can determine, the following is a list of official caucuses -- African American, Asian & Pacific Islander, Disability, Ethnic Council, Faith Council, Hispanic, LGBT, Native American Council, Rural, Senior Council, Veterans & Military Families, Women and Youth Council.

I spent 2 hours this afternoon at the LGBT caucus. It was packed and exciting. The LGBT caucus was first recognized in 1996. This year we make up 6% of the total delegates -- a 41% increase over 2004. Missouri has a total of 9 LGBT delegates. That's progress baby!

Denver 2008

I arrived in Denver this afternoon for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. At first I wasn't sure that I would blog about the convention. After all, it's probably going to be the most blogged event in history. Which led me to the conclusion, that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That and I've been wanting to get back online. My summer has been so busy that I haven't had time to post since session ended in May.

So for better or worse, I'm dusting off the keyboard and I'll try to bring you at least one delegate's perspective on this summer's hottest ticket in Democrat politics.

The entire Missouri Delegation is staying at a hotel about 20 minutes or so from the convention center. We have buses that shuttle us back and forth and we are also fairly close to the light rail station (yeah, I know).

When we arrived this afternoon we were greeted by the great volunteers and employees from the Missouri Democratic Party. We were immediately loaded down with two huge bags of schwag. Nothing says convention like a big bag of schwag and these bags did not disappoint.

The highlight of the bag from the National Convention was a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese -- Limited Convention Edition. Complete with donkey-shaped pasta.

The Missouri bag had a familiar smell. After dumping the contents on my bed I quickly id'd the smell as Gates BBQ sauce (compliments of Congressman Cleaver). The bottle had opened and spilled onto the t-shirt provided by the KC Royals. The bag was overflowing with goodies. Most of it your typical law firm coffee mugs, casino t-shirts, post-it notes, pens, etc. Notable however, were some Carmex from AG candidate Chris Koster and a pack of gum from Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. I shoved both in my pocket and headed out the door for the opening reception.

The opening reception was hosted by Howard Dean and the Democratic National Convention Committee. The event had a New Orleans theme and was a tribute to all the organizations that have helped in the Gulf Coast recovery after Hurricane Katrina. There was a live band, lots of good food and some special Obama '08 beer. Randy Newman performed a song, Howard Dean spoke, and a generally good time was had by all.

After the reception, I left the convention center to find a mob of people selling buttons, t-shirts and flashy things. There was a dude with a bull horn and a picture of Obama with a dead baby. The only crowd he seemed to attract was a group of SWAT team officers who were ready to break up any funny business.

Back at the hotel, I settled into my room and discovered that the wireless internet really only works in the bathroom. Fortunately, it's a big bathroom.

Delegates have to report to breakfast at 8AM every morning to pick up credentials for the events and get a daily briefing. That's when/where my day will begin tomorrow. For now, I'm gonna kick back with some Obama beer and mourn the close of the 2008 Olympics.