LIVE FROM THE DNC - Monday 8/25/08

I woke up from a failed nap, turned on CNN and saw - what looked like - the Ellen DeGeneres show on steriods: An arena filled with people dancing. Badly. It was weird. I watched for ten minutes. Nothing but dancing.

What the hell kind of Convention was this?

Ironed my shirt, got dressed and made the decision to walk the two miles to the Pepsi Center.

I had been to Colorado three times prior to this, but I had never spent time in Denver. This city has culture and class. All one has to do is walk down 16th Avenue to sense this. There was a electricity in the air and within the people. Even from the ones that wore McCain shirts and tried to pin a “NObama” pin on me.

The approach and entrance into the Pepsi Center overwhelmed me. I didn’t talk to anyone for two hours. Upon seeing my green floor delegate pass, a reporter from NBC Illinois asked to interview me. I declined. I was inputting too much to output: Everywhere I looked I saw a digital video camera, an elegant diversity of people, the H U G E crystal clear televisions that not only adorned the front of the stage, but the rear top rafters as well, a sea of signs, and above all else, the sense of hope, movement and anticipation.

And there were famous politicians everywhere. I almost bumped into the Mayor of Los Angeles being interviewed in the entry way. There are so many cameras, so many interviews, that they take place right in the middle of all the movement and action – polka dotting the crowd in flux. I passed Mark Warner (former Gov. of Virgina and current Senate Candidate) in the hall. It was like we were in high school and he was an upper classman. I couldn’t believe how casual it was.

Then I entered the floor. Seats were hard to come by, so I stood for a while. I took me ten minutes of standing in the same place to realize California Senator Barbara Boxer was standing right next to me. Enough of this, I want to meet one of them.“Excuse me, Senator Boxer, I’m a huge fan of yours” This was truth. She is one of my favorite Senators. One of the best environmentalists we've got. We shook hands. I continued. “I took a group of students to Washington D.C. last year with the Close Up program and you were awesome.”She said "Thank you" but she seemed preoccupied with trying to find a seat.

I figured I had to move. Our conversation had reached it's end and jumping infront of her at the first open seat didn't seem like a good idea. I was told there were a lot of open seats in the West Virginia section. Apparently a lot of Clinton Delegates decided not to make the trip from that state. That was great for me. I sat there for the Kennedy speech.

I would be curious to know what all of you thought of this at home, at my end, the entire Convention was ignited by this man. Folks weren’t sure if he was really going to be able to make the trip (a successful buildup of drama). Go ahead and bring up whatever you want about his past, but to see a man who has battled in the Senate for four decades, and who has battled brain cancer, come up to a podium and bang his fist on it – live – was an incredible experience. Not going to lie, I got emotional. What did it for me was holding and waving a sign that said simply said “Kennedy” on it.

The other speech justly receiving a great deal of media discussion and prominence is the Michelle Obama speech. It was awesome. For me the greatest quote of the night is as follows:

“Barack stood up that day, and spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about "The world as it is" and "The world as it should be." And he said that all too often, we accept the distance between the two, and settle for the world as it is - even when it doesn't reflect our values and aspirations. But he reminded us that we know what our world should look like. We know what fairness and justice and opportunity look like. And he urged us to believe in ourselves - to find the strength within ourselves to strive for the world as it should be. And isn't that the great American story?”

Damn, that hit me.

We’re Americans - just because we are less than perfect, doesn’t mean we don’t have to accept less than what is the best possible. Our strive to innovate and improve should be what defines us.

The CNN booth was a little more than a first down away from me, so after the convention I figured I would hang around. I had received a sizable amount of texts from female friends who really, really wanted me to meet Anderson Cooper. I like the guy’s work and so I thought this was a good idea. I positioned myself behind the panel, directly behind Anderson Cooper and directly in the line of the camera. I tried to text as many of you as I could. I think some of you saw it. I must have been on TV for at least five minutes hold a sign that said "One Nation".

I was within arm’s length of him. When commercial break came, I directed my voice his direction. “Excuse me, Anderson.” I extended my had. “I am a big fan of your work.” When he shook it I said “Keep fighting the good fight.” At which point Wolf Blitzer threw me a glare that, somehow, was both sneery and bewildered.

I left the Pepsi Center and joined the exodus heading East on blustering 16th Avenue.