Denver: Friday–Belated, Exhausted Version

This series is written by Jennifer Rapach, a delegate representing PA-4

Wednesday Redux
 
There’s a couple of things I wanted to mention about Wednesday.  First, there was a really great video about veterans they showed.  It was very emotional, and there was not a dry eye in the house by the end of it.  You can see it here:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh-xZbeeKo4[/youtube]

After they showed one of the photos of a Marine in Iraq, I thought, “Hey, I know that guy.”  I sat next to him on the floor of the convention the night before.  He was a guest of another delegate from Greensburg.  He was a great guy and had volunteered for the campaign in the primary.  It was just interesting to see someone I actually met in one of those videos, especially a video like that one.
 
My boss’ wife Kelly used to work for the DNC, and she lent me a book of the proceedings from the 1996 convention.  In it, there was a picture of the women of the House of Representatives.  There were about two dozen women on stage.  I was excited when this year, they stretched across the stage.  There were more than twice as many as the picture I had seen, including the Speaker of the House.  We have a long way to go, for sure, but it was nice to see progress.
 
Of course, I mentioned it in my e-mail Thursday morning, but I thought Bill Clinton and Joe Biden each hit it out of the ballpark.  After that, Bill Clinton shut down any criticism that he’s not supporting Obama, and Joe Biden proved that he would be a capable advisor to the President, and could step in as President if necessary. 
 
And I loved John Kerry’s comparison of Senator McCain to Candidate McCain.  When his speech was over, I turned to the person at my left and said, “Where the hell was that guy four years ago?!”
 
Thursday – the big event
 
I was able to score some credentials for Mike, so he was sitting in the first tier of the stadium.  We got to the stadium a little before 4:00, and I hung out with Mike a little before I went down to the floor.

He said he had a lot of fun up there.  A couple of guys in his section started the wave, and he was under the box seats, where he saw Al Gore, Jay Z, Mary J. Blige.  I had the camera, so he didn’t get good pictures.  However, he has become a big fan of Al Gore’s daughters.  J  And a friend of ours said he saw George Lucas
 
I don’t know if you were able to see it on TV, but right before Howard Dean spoke, they showed a video of some of the things he has done as DNC Chair.  The video showed how Dean turned the focus of the DNC to grassroots organizing in all 50 states, and, among other things, it showed him going door-to-door with a certain Congressional candidate named Jason Altmire.  I shouted, “Hey, that’s my boss!”
 
Even though we were there for like 6 hours, there was plenty of stuff, to keep us entertained.  I got a few pics:
 
will.i.am and John Legend

Sheryl Crow

When Barack Obama finally came out to speak, the place was electric.  The pundits had been saying that Obama had to be specific about his policies, and prove he could hit back hard at McCain, yet still be inspirational.  That’s quite a high expectation, and I think he delivered.  I don’t know how it played on TV, but it was so exciting to be there to witness the moment.  Then when Obama started speaking, you could hear a pin drop – even in a stadium full of 84,000 people.  Of course, there were plenty of instances when we stood up and cheered, but we were also listening very intently. 

There was only one thing I was bummed about when I heard the final night would be moved to Mile High – no balloon and confetti drop.  I was really looking forward to it.  But we did get the confetti, and some fireworks to boot!  It wasn’t Zambelli fireworks, but they did the job. 

Time for a Pittsburgh moment.  As we were leaving, one of the CNN camera guys asked Franco Harris for a picture.  I was a few people back, and when I came up to the camera guy, I mentioned how everyone is a Steeler fan.  He said he grew up near Pittsburgh.  Me too, I’m from Indiana County.  He said he went to IUP.  Me too!  He asked me what high school I went to, and he actually knew it!  So here I am in Denver, in a stadium of 84,000 from across the United States, and I end up talking to a guy from CNN who knew my tiny little high school in the middle of nowhere with graduating class of about 100 students.  Crazy.
 
After we left the stadium, Mike and I went out with a friend to an Irish pub in Downtown Denver.  We met a few people, including a guy from Ireland, who is a big Obama fan (he’s the guy with the O’bama shirt below).  I tried out my theory on him about Obama’s support in other countries, which is that the rest of the world really does want to like us, but for the past 8 years, we’ve done nothing but force people to oppose us.  He wholeheartedly agreed.  He said that America represents what everyone aspire to, freedom and opportunity.  But what we do in this country affects every other country in the world, and the Bush Administration has treated them with complete disregard.  He is hopeful, however, that Obama will be elected President and will then work with other countries to deal with the world’s issues.

Tomorrow I’ll do a general wrap-up of the convention, and talk about the political events of the weekend (which have been very interesting to say the least).