I'm at Invesco, the lines are ridiculously long. I spent about an hour and a half on the floor without a floor credential, covering up my Hall credential with an American flag before my friends got me a Floor pass. I interviewed Jerry Nadler, who told me that whether Obama prosecutes the crimes of this past administration is an early test case for what his administration will be like. I also asked him about Glenn Greenwald and what is missing from this convention, namely a focus on habeas, torture, etc. Nadler is terrific, and his best guess is that those issues don't move voters. I'll have more on that soon, and hopefully my flip video captured most of the interview.
I also got good video from Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid, as well as Republican Senator Jon Kyl, and I'll be releasing that over the next few days. Stay tuned.
The general sense is that the convention has gotten better as it has gone on, from a listless start to a rollicking finish. Obama has a big task tonight in terms of his vision for the country. I spoke to a delegate from Florida who regaled me with her story of how her insurance company won't pay for her daughter's cancer treatment, and when we talked about Obama and how he may not be willing to take on the insurance companies the way she wants him to, she started crying. That is his burden, to take power from the selfish elites and improve everyone else's lives.
This is by far the coolest political convention I've ever attended. By far. The people are good-looking, fun, well-dressed, young, and they have style. Very different from 2004, or any state convention I've attended.
If anyone thought that Bill Clinton alienated himself from party members during the primaries, they thought wrong. Last night, he more than redeemed himself. The "come back kid" did it again.
"The world is more impressed with the power of our example than the example of our power," resonated Bill's oh so easy to listen to voice. Through the convention hall, his words captured both the hearts and minds of Democrats.
Last night I happened upon a DLC Chairman dinner with Harold Ford, and it was just another reminder that this convention is not really built for people like us. Sleazy lobbyists coming out of the event were sloppy drunk and the slender blonde running the event slurred her words to me that those sponsors are the ones paying her salary. Harold Ford then came out, and I ended up standing in front of his SUV and taking flash picture after flash picture just to make it a little less pleasant for these kinds of conservative bribocrats to attend this convention.
There are a lot of meetings going on, and that's one reason to be here. The media is here because it's their prom. But in terms of raw power dynamics, progressives are not particularly relevant. Hilariously, bloggers have actually been demoted; in 2004, we could actually see the stage at the Fleet Center, this time, online communications director Aaron Myers has secured us a room in the Pepsi Center with televisions in it.
My general belief is that, while the Obama world is not the Bush world, we're not allies. They believe in elite consensus governance, using terms such as 'civility' and imposing liberal-ish policy ideas from academics. We believe in polarization and populism, and in fact our very power and capacity on the internet emerges from conflict and polarization. That difference comes out in lots of flashpoints big (FISA) and small (blogger credentials), and my guess is that next year it's going to look like an utter trainwreck.
Update: Aaron told me that I am wrong about this, and I'm going to have a walk through today of all the special places we can go.
I've met some incredible people at this convention so far. This photo is from a party for Jared Polis and the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq. I gave a little speech at the party and emphasized how significant it is that members of Congress are running on a specific mandate to end the war in Iraq. So far, Jared Polis, Chellie Pingree, and Donna Edwards are the three incoming members of Congress who have endorsed the plan.
In the middle is Jared, soon to be Congressman from Colorado's second district, with Doug Tudor on the right and Hal Bidlack on the left. Tudor is running in FL-12 against pasty faced corrupt conservative Adam Putnam, and Bidlack is running against Doug Lamborn in Colorado's 5th. I was impressed with both Tudor and Bidlack, who have also endorsed the plan. Polis is going to dedicate his Congressional campaign committee to helping other Responsible Plan candidates, so this group is already building power.
Polis defeated an EMILY's List liberal to win his seat in the primary, and what he's doing is building power from a safe blue seat to enlarge progressive power in Congress. Already. Before he's even been sworn in. That's a vision for change backed up by will and organizing muscle.
"I have come here tonight to stand with you to change America, to restore its future, to rise to our best ideals and to elect Barack Obama president of the United States," Senator Ted Kennedy roared as he appeared before the Democratic National Convention.
So first, you've got to have credentials. Here are mine, for the big tent and the Pepsi center. They are special. Don't lose them or you will have to beg your political contacts for more or trade for more or really just kind of hang out somewhere else at any number of parties.
You have lost your credentials. You must go to a party in a brick building, and there is grey carpet and people have pins on and are wearing suits and nametags. You meet a lobbyist and ask her why she is at the convention, and she says 'I'm a lobbyist, duh.' You move on and forget about her. You are hungry, so you forage for food. Here's some bad fruit you can eat. Or not!
As we head into the Democratic convention in Denver, here's a look at where we are in the fight for Guaranteed Healthcare, courtesy of America's RN Union-the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee-which is working closely with the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) to unify party support for HR 676, the bill to end our healthcare crisis through an expanded and improved "Medicare for All."
I'll sum it up: among Democrats at least, there now seems to be a common vision of guaranteed healthcare, thanks to progressive activism.
At the same time, the movement has to deal with lobbyist-driven fake reform groups undermining the national desire for genuine reform, and with a healthcare crisis that is worse than ever. On a national stage, Conyers' bill HR 676 continues to gather support, while Obama repeats that he would support single-payer, if he were starting from scratch.
I'm in Denver driving from the airport, and man in the drive flat. I ran into Sam Powers and Cass Sunstein in the airport. He was selling 'Nudge' at the bookstore and she was taking pictures and selling the book like an extremely proud doting wife/publicist. It was adorable. I got some video but nothing that interesting; Sustein demurred when I asked him some of the more controversial questions. When I asked him about why he labeled Rahm Emanuel a 'liberal Democrat' he said that it was probably not accurate but he needed to balance him against the conservative Rick Santorum. Sunstein also bristled at Matt Yglesias's characterization of his recent paper on climate change and wants to meet up with him/confront him. I also saw Pat Leahy wheeling luggage. There's some sweet subpoena star power here.
And in case you had any illusions, the convention is brought to you by the nice folks selling clean coal, who happily greeted us in the airport.
If you want to follow me when I'm not able to blog, my flickr stream for convention photos is here and my twitter feed is here. TWITTER!
The big secret of conventions is that, though 15,000 media and political figures have gathered to cover the formal nomination of the President and Vice-President, there's actually no news whatsoever. It's a four day television oriented infomercial. I remember flumoxing Sean Hannity in 2004 by asking what he was doing there, what news he was reporting, and he proceeded to get mad at me for my liberal smear campaign or something along those lines.
Here's a nice photo memory from Boston in 2004:
It'll be fun to watch the politicians, donors, insiders, groupies, and delegates gather. There's really very little going on except donor meetings and networking events, which is mostly funded by corporations and non-profits.
The SF Chronicle reports on corporate lobbyists taking advantage of a loophole in rules preventing them from throwing lavish parties to "honor"House lawmakers, which exempts parties for groups of Members.
Prominent, a Sunday evening bash thrown by ATT for the "Blue Dogs" to thank them for the FISA amnesty.
Congress, pledging to clean up Washington's culture of corruption, approved a rule last year to end the practice of lobbyists or their clients throwing lavish events honoring lawmakers at the parties' national conventions.
But the House ethics committee opened a huge loophole in the rule by issuing guidelines in December saying it was fine for lobbyists or their employers to throw parties for a group of House members - just not for a single lawmaker...
...AT&T is among the sponsors of a party celebrating the conservative House Blue Dog Democrats on Sunday night.
Perfect spot for the first appearance of my "STOP GOVERNMENT SPYING" banner.
How is it that despite adulatory media coverage, long lines of volunteers at his campaign offices, and Americans deeply unhappy about the direction of the country, Barack Obama is rapidly losing support - and control of the agenda - to John McCain?
It's because Obama has reverted to the whiny, wimpy style that nearly allowed Hillary Clinton to wipe him out in September, 2007 - until he found his backbone and actually started to stand up for himself.
When McCain launches volley after volley of attack on Obama's policies (with photos of Paris and Brittany thrown in to get the media's attention), what's Obama's response? To ride in on his My Little Pony and cry because McCain is - how low! - criticizing his policies and questioning his capacity to lead in a mildly creative way.
This self-righteous simpering might make Obama supporters feel like he's "changing the tone" of politics, but it's not doing anything to stop his slide, shape the debate, or answer the legitimate question the McCain campaign keeps asking: is Obama actually ready to lead?
So far, Obama's response is to give McCain's advisers exactly what they want: McCain attacks, Obama complains about the attacks and then capitulates on everything from illegal wiretapping to offshore oil drilling. Obama is once again caught up in the great Democratic myth that voters make up their minds by carefully calibrating which candidate's issue positions are closest to his own (a major topic of my book, Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party).
Newsflash, Obama: To most voters, campaigns are not an egghead mental Olympics between two walking policy platforms. They're primal battles that test how candidates respond under fire. And for the last several weeks, Obama has been failing that test: crying about McCain's attacks and then surrendering. To most voters, this sends a simple message: if Obama can't stand up to a babbling incompetent like John McCain, how is he ever going to stand up to the oil executives, the health care lobby, or, for that matter, Osama bin Laden?
In our fundraising efforts to attend the Democratic Convention in August, we've decided to focus on a small donor campaign. We figured out that it'll take us 240 people contributing $25 each for us to reach what we need to go to Denver and provide you with the best convention coverage in America. So far, we have the equivalent of 42 ($1050), leaving us 198 to go. Anyone reading this should be able to donate $25 to help us get there.
Go to PayPal and donate through our Florida Progressive Coalition account (quinnelk@gmail.com), or you can write a check to Florida Progressive Coalition and send it to me:
As Michael alluded to on Friday, Show Me Progress was rejected (twice) in our bid for credentials to cover the Democratic National Convention. The credential for Missouri's slot in the state blog pool went to Fired Up Missouri, and no other Missouri-based blog was credentialed in the general blog pool. You can read up on some of the controversy elsewhere; Matt Stoller, Kos and Pam Spaulding have some good roundups of different angles of controversy in the selection process. But I want to talk specifically about our own disappointment with the results.
There's so much wrong with this it's hard to begin.
TVNewser has learned Fox News will be the pool for the Democratic National Convention in Denver beginning August 25, 2008. And NBC News will be the pool for the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis the following Monday, September 1.
The pool provides camera shots inside the convention halls and can be used by any cooperating (read: paying) entity. A network insider tells TVNewser it's really as simple as drawing straws about which network will be the pool for a certain event. Since NBC and FNC will be pool for the conventions, the other networks will likely be the pool for other events, including next fall's debates.
Fox News is not a legitimate news outlet, but a partisan outlet pushing out GOP propaganda. Why in the world would this channel be allowed to control the camera shots inside the hall?
