Numbers

I was inundated with Convention material in the mail prior to my departure to Denver. Rules and regulations, hotel confirmation, party invites, speech invites, petitions to sign, hand signed letters from strangers… so on and so forth.

One piece of literature excited me the most: An invitation to attend the Democrat Youth Council meetings taking place on Tuesday and Thursday morning of this week.

Some statistics for you:
*80% of young people polled (age 18-29) are “paying close attention” to this election
*There are 631 delegates here that are younger than 36 – the greatest number in history.
*92 of them are from California.
*Current polls show that, nationally, Barack Obama wins among young voters by 27 points in a head to head matchup: 60% - 33%
* In 2008, young voter turnout tripled or even quadrupled in many primary states.
* Over 6.5 million young voters participated in the primary contests or caucuses this year, an increase of 103% over 2004 and they voted for Democrats by a 2:1 margin.

The conference was held in the largest theatre inside the Colorado Convention Center (note: not the Pepsi Center). Here’s a picture I took when I walked in. How many people to you figure are there?

It was an awesome presentation. There was dynamic panel comprising of about twelve people, all of which were younger than forty. Each of these people had worked for – often times leading – their various organizations to increase turnout among young voters.

Their shared their frustrations, but also their undying optimism. The best part about it: What drives these people is pure idealism, however, the presentation wasn’t just about blind, bleeding-heart pleading. It was numbers! Awesome ones! They believed that victory is at hand, but they emphasized confidence and diligence.

It was absolutely inspiring.

A time came for questions from the audience.

I chose not only to ask a question, but to propose and idea that I had been considering for quite some time in the face of party disunity.

Here is the video clip:




After this “question” there was a scheduled break in the presentation. I was barraged by reporters, all of which had to be younger myself. I think I counted eight of them.

One of them offered to introduce me to Jamal Simmons, youth correspondent to CNN. When the reporters had finished their questioning, I walked towards the stage to find Jamal, but he was already walking towards me.

He had a lot of great things to say. We laid out a plan, but concluded that we would wait to see Hillary’s speech that night to decide what was best.

I hope to talk to him again today.

One of the young reporters I met, Derek, asked me if I'd like to tag along with him to a special Press Meeting with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Richardson is one of the most unique figures in politics today: he is bilingual, was part of the Clinton administration but boldly endorsed Obama, and he was a college baseball pitcher. I was definately going to go.

When he entered the meeting – fashionably late - he filled the room. And it was a big room.

I don’t know what it is about some of these politicians that demands attention, but this man did. Maybe it’s the fact that his beard makes him looks like the Dos Equis Man.

We sat in the third row. In front of us was a ten person delegation from Spain. When Richardson entered the room he walked right up to them and proceeded to speak fluent Spanish to them (Richardson is of Spanish decent). In looking at how the folks from Spain reacted to him, I got the sense that the man is somewhat of a rock star over on the Iberian Peninsula.

The title of the presentation was “Winning the West”. It was dedicated to strategy and analysis to winning the Hispanic vote. I use the word “Hispanic” as opposed to “Latino” or “Chicano” because one of the most poignant points of his presentation was his explanation as to why he uses that word instead of the others. The goal: unity. All cultures in Central and South America (excluding Belize, Guyana and Brazil…any others?) find their roots from Spain. In recognizing this common trait, Hispanic voters will become more galvanized and vote together.

Again – just like at the DNC Youth Council – I was bombarded with optimistic numbers. 1. Huge numbers of new registered voters
2. The issues of abortion and gay marriage are somewhere near seven and eight on the depth chart of issues for them. The economy, the housing crisis and the war are the top three.
3. The other two panelists were organizers who had dedicated their lives to working and interacting with Hispanic voters. One guy was the numbers guy. The other was the rally guy. They said that their interactions and statistics indicate that – despite what some people may believe – Barack Obama’s racial background is resonating very positively and very deeply with the Hispanic demographic.

Richardson and his panel boldly claimed that Colorado and New Mexico were going to be blue states in November and instrumental in handing the Presidency to Barack Obama.

One of the highlights of the presentation:

One reporter asked:
“How does adding Joe Biden as Vice President hurt or help Obama's chances of earning Hispanic support? What ideas can you offer?”

Richardson – with a big smile and jovial laugh - responded:
‘Well, I have one idea that would have helped him!”

The whole room erupted in laughter.

As I read this I realize it’s hard to get the joke.

Here’s the idea: Richardson was having a laugh at the fact that he would have liked to have been Obama’s VP. If you have to explain it, it’s not funny, right? But it was in and it was perfect.