Denver: Day 1

Jeff Alworth

I have a fair amount to report back from the day's activities, but I just left a party of the Oregon delegation where I mentioned to at least! five people that I was on the way home to blog.  Must make good on our promises  I'll limit myself to a global comment and a couple of observations, though, and pick this up tomorrow.

The global comment is this: inside the convention, things are far less focused, less packaged, and generally more chaotic.  We have become so used to the stagecraft of the cable stations that we forget that on the convention floor events don't happen with reaction shots from emotional crowd members.  In our poor seats (a wee bit behind the stage, and way back--but we'll talk about that later), things seemed smaller and somewhat more remote. In the building, ones senses are taking in a lot more information than fits in a single screen, but it tends to diffuse the experience. 

The upside to this is that you pick up the vibe of the building.  When Michelle spoke, she mentioned both Hillary and Joe Biden in pretty quick succession.  What I noticed in the building was that the two cheers were about equal--interesting, given that the main story the MSM is flogging is that 49% of the delegates are in revolt.  There were also a few times when direct appeals about Obama were made, and these received far greater enthusiasm.  And gauging the audience response to the speakers I saw--Teddy Kennedy was clearly the show-stopper.  He received rapt attention, punctuated by roars.  I had the great pleasure of sitting in front of Barbara Roberts, who said that as a Kennedy delegate in '80, it made her heart warm to see him speak.  But the truth is, there was great and seemingly universal warmth throughout the building.

Okay, my anecdote.  I was cruising the streets, chatting people up, and during the afternoon, I cooled my heals on a bench next to a semi-transient vet.  We had a very nice chat, and eventually I asked what he thought about all these Democrats in town.  He was nonplussed: "I don't know what they're doing marching around here, I already know what they believe.  Why do they have to have a big party to advertise it?  You know, if it was me, I'd save the money and go invest it in the campaigns."  Hmmm...

Okay, more tomorrow, including pics and video--if I can get my act together (because I know you're just dying to see some actual images).

By Jeff Alworth Aug. 25, 2008