If You Belonged Here

The Dol: Fired Up. Ready to Go.

Note: I'm going to post pictures. I'm not sure if they'll be in this post or in a separate post, but they are coming.

Thursday afternoon, Elsa, Marcus, Dave, Marsha and I left our hotel to get on the  Delegate shuttle bus to go to Invesco Field for the Convention. We had to leave earlier than usual to get through security and get good seats. Elsa and I kept having moments. We would grab each other by the arm and say, "I can't believe it!" One time I screamed for no good reason and practically gave Marcus a heart attack. He thought I saw Oprah. (I didn't see her, but she was in the restaurant across the street from my hotel, and there were about 100 people outside with their cameras. Spike Lee was having a drink on the balcony above.)

The excitement in the city of Denver was off the charts. People were hanging out in the lobby of our hotel with signs begging for tickets into Invesco. I managed to get an extra ticket and gave it to Heather the Adorable, who works on Nick Leibham's campaign here in San Diego. She had tagged along with Dave and Marcus, but didn't have credentials.

When we got to Invesco, we really got a sense of what was coming. The Pepsi Center is a big arena, but Invesco is, well, enormous. After going through security, where my tambourine was confiscated (it's much easier to shake a tambourine than to clap as much as the level of excitement requires--I'm just being pragmatic here) we made our way toward the entrance.

Delegates entered through the same place that you see football players run out of at the beginning of the game. We came out right at the bottom of the field through a tunnel. When we walked out the end of that tunnel, we walked into a stadium that reaches up to the sky and all the way around us.

The entire delegation was seated on the field itself, in front of and around the stage area. We were surrounded by the media platforms and banks of cameras. Andrea Mitchell was walking around us so much that I finally got tired of taking pictures of her for posterity.

It was bloody hot on that field, people. A woman in front of me had to be taken off the field for heat stroke. I found out later that she did manage to come back in before Barack's speech. I left the field a couple of times to stand in the shade. We were all grateful when the sun dipped below the rim of the stadium.

Things started to get very crowded by about 6:30 p.m. The media was swarming, trying to find places to camp out among the delegates, and they kept getting shooed away by the fire marshalls, who wouldn't allow people to stand in the aisles, even if they did work for The Washington Post. Every delegate seat was taken, as far as I could see.

Oh, and those fire marshals would shut down entry to the delegation area at any time. One San Diego delegate, who was a Hillary delegate, missed Hillary's speech on Tuesday night because they shut down the entryways to the floor. You can imagine how upset she was. I was extremely careful after that to be quick if I left my seat and not to leave my seat at all after about 6:00.

The evening was awe-inspiring. The 84,000 people--let me say that again, 84,000 people--who came to see Barack speak, were in high spirits. There were flags passed out around he stadium fluttered, including a number of large flags that the campaign dispersed throughout the crowd.

Up above, in the highest area of the stadium, if you looked carefully, you could see the sharpshooters around the perimeter. God bless 'em, I was really happy to see them there. I'm not someone who owns or likes guns, but I was relieved by the presence of police with guns that night. 'Nuff said.

I'm not sure how much of the event aired on the networks, or if you might have caught some of it on C-SPAN, but the speakers and performers were all outstanding. Cheryl Crow rocked, Stevie had us all singing and swaying, and will.i.am and John Legend brought the house down with the "Yes We Can" song. If you haven't seen that video online, you really need to watch it now.

Howard Dean was awesome and tough. I love Howard! You know you're a political junkie when the phrase "50-State Strategy" makes you weak in the knees.

Al Gore invigorated the crowd, which is sad and funny, considering he was the Original Wooden Man back during his 2000 run. Let's try to not even think about what life would be like now if we'd had President Gore.

When Barack finally took the stage, what I felt was a sense of overwhelming pride and amazement. We made it. We were there to nominate Barack Obama as our candidate for President. I need to go back and watch the whole speech again on YouTube, because there were places where I wasn't paying attention due to sheer overwhelm. Sometimes I got distracted by other people in the crowd who were crying, laughing, hugging, and obviously feeling so proud and thrilled that it was almost impossible not to look at them and just enjoy the feeling of shared humanity.

I won't go into the particulars of the speech. I hope you watched it, or that you will watch it online.

By the end, I was crying (I pretty much gave up on doing anything fancy with my makeup after the first night). An African-American man in front of me was turning around very slowly, looking up around him at the crowd with tears just streaming down his face, his flag held high.

Back in January of this year, Barack Obama gave his famous "Yes We Can" speech, in Nashua, New Hampshire. He said, "We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."

I buy it, people. I buy that he wants to change things, and I buy that we can help him do it. Our system demands that we participate, in order for it to thrive. Even if Obama wins (God help us if he doesn't), we will need to hold him accountable, and we will need to continue to support people running for office at the local level.

He is human, he will let us down. He will make mistakes, he will make some poor choices, and there will be very powerful people whispering in his ear. When Barack says that this movement isn't about him, it's about all of us, "the millions of voices calling for change," you don't have to believe him.

But you do have the power to make it true.

The Dol: These People Know What They're Doing

Yesterday morning, when we signed in for our daily Convention credentials, we cast our vote for either Obama or Hillary. It was simply a sheet of paper; we checked the box next to the candidate's name, and signed it. Voting within the Democratic Party is not anonymous. All in all, it was fairly unspectacular. We weren't sure how the balloting would be done, and this seemed anticlimactic. We weren't sure how the balloting would occur later in the day at the Pepsi Center.

After going to the Hispanic Caucus with Elsa, where I saw Michelle Obama, LA Mayor Villaraigosa, and Barbara Boxer, we grabbed lunch and headed over to the shuttle to the Convention Center. We wanted to get there early and get good seats.

Some of our San Diego friends had saved a row of great seats in the prime real estate within the California delegation seating area. California is the largest delegation in the country, with 441 members, so we sprawl across a large section of the arena. Not long after arriving, the gavel went down to reconvene.

In case you didn't know, they do open and close the convention with a prayer. I might be more uncomfortable with this if it weren't for the fascination factor. We've had various Christian ministers, an Orthodox priest, a nun, and who knows who else I missed since I haven't arrived in time for gavel down before yesterday.

The roll call came early in the proceedings. I can't remember if there was a speaker before that or not, except for Nancy Pelosi, who is our Convention Chair and opens the convention every day.

Our San Diego Obama delegation is hardcore. They are people who have worked for Obama and believe in him deeply. They are some of the smartest, most organized, friendliest people I know. They have worked with the campaign as media people, precinct captains and specialists, voter registration gurus, and fundraisers. They traveled all over the country during the primaries and made many, many hundreds (possibly thousands) of phone calls to get out the vote. I feel not only honored, but also fairly humbled, at being part of this group.

So, you can imagine how important that roll call was for our delegation. (To explain: the roll call was each state reading their ballot tally from that morning.) I know that the feeling was mutual throughout the convention center, but I do know that we shared some anxiety and uncertainty in our group. We were literally on the edges of our seats.

When Arkansas' delegates overwhelmingly went to Obama, after having gone to Hillary by a huge margin in the primary, we were all thrilled. California's turn came, and our state's chairperson announced that we would pass, which confused us all and raised the tension in the room. We didn't know what was happening.

I was so proud of New Mexico, my home state, and then they amazed us with their pass--to the state of Illinois. At that point, we guessed that Illinois was being given the honor of putting Obama over the top. Imagine our further surprise when Illinois passed to New York. Let me tell you, by this point everyone in my general vicinity was crying. We imagined the symbolism of New York, Hillary's state, being the one to give him the nominating votes.

And then Hillary appeared on the big screens and the room went wild.

We realized that she was going to come out and make the announcement for her state. Rather than announcing the totals from New York, Hillary moved that the delegates vote to stop the roll call and nominate Obama by proclamation. Not a dry eye could be found and our delegation was all standing arm in arm.

Nancy Pelosi came out, and when she asked that someone second the motion, the whole room screamed, "Second!" She then asked for Ayes on the motion, and we screamed, "Aye!" If there were any Nays, I didn't hear them.

Then we all danced and held hands. You can't make this stuff up, people. The Obama people who are orchestrating this convention are pros, and they seriously know what they're doing. I've never seen anything so exciting in my life as last night's convention.

We had an amazing night of speakers after that. John Kerry was fan-freaking-tastic. We all lamented that we wished he'd been this tough four years ago. There was a whole portion of the evening devoted to veterans and the military, and it was extremely moving. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War vet and former candidate for Congress (she lost, unfortunately), spoke about veteran's health care. She had sort of snuck up on the stage during the video, and most people gasped when she left the podium and they saw that she had lost both legs in Iraq.

Joe Biden rocked the house, and I think everyone got a taste of one of the reasons he will be a great vice presidential candidate: He's a fighter. I look forward to seeing him stand up for all of us against the attacks that will be coming for the next couple of months, not to mention during Obama's presidency. Boy, I hope we get there.

I really didn't expect Obama to show up last night. I spoke with my brother yesterday, and he asked if we had seen Obama yet, and I told him we wouldn't see him until Thursday evening. So they really topped off the evening by surprising us with a visit from Obama. It was a huge thrill.

I'm pretty sure that this account will sound a little over-the-top to all of you. I know that yesterday was stage-managed for effect, but it worked. And regardless of how they planned the roll call to get to the "magic number," we all felt the importance of the moment.

Yesterday, we nominated Barack Obama, the first African-American nominee in the history of our country. The motion to nominate him came from Hillary Clinton, the first woman to make it within a hair's breadth of winning the nomination. Stage managed or not, we only got here because of the grassroots organizing of passionate people around the country who are mad as hell and don't want to take it anymore.

Tonight, Obama will accept our nomination at Invesco Field. I wish you could all be there with me.

Forty-five years ago today, Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech. The symbolism is almost unbearable, and the 75,000 present are only a small portion of those who I wish could share the moment with me in person. I hope you'll find someone to watch with tonight. Attend a watch party if you can, by going to My.BarackObama.com and searching Events.

Last night was stunning and moving, and tonight will be a night that we can all tell our children about. We need to grab hold of this excitement and use it to fuel the massive task of beating the Republican machine on November 4th. Let's get inspired, then let's get to work.

The Dol: Kumbaya and The Glass Ceiling

So, last night was a big night. Maybe you watched it on the teevee machine. The Pepsi Center was packed to the rafters. Not only were delegates and other credentialed people there, but there were hordes of people who got special credentials for the night just to see Hillary give her speech.

But before I get to that, I'll tell you a little about how I spent my day yesterday. After credentialing in the morning, I went to the Women's Caucus. They had a huge lineup of speakers who talked about women and the vote. In case you didn't know, yesterday was Women's Equality Day.

August 26 is the anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which gave women the right to vote. I was going to get on my soapbox about that, but I won't. Just vote, y'all.

Women like Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood and daughter of beloved former Texas governor Ann Richards, spoke at the Women's Caucus. She recounted the famous line that her mother coined: "Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels." Oh, love that line.

I also saw Fran Drescher of "The Nanny", and one of the Desperate Housewives (Elsa isn't here to tell me her name). Donna Brazile, a Democratic political strategist and pundit, spoke to the crowd and brought down the house.

We heard a lot at the Women's Caucus about the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, which refers to Hillary Clinton and her extraordinary candidacy this year. Many of you know that Hillary Clinton wasn't the candidate I supported. But I tell you what, last night she knocked it out of the park.

I heard that the media is telling one of their usual stories: Hillary's speech didn't talk about Barack enough; Hillary's supporters still aren't on board with Obama; the Democrat's are fighting and they can't get it together.

It ain't true, people.

I've spent the last few days sitting next to Hillary delegates--die-hard supporters who worked for Hillary as hard as Obama's supporters worked for him. They are disappointed that their candidate lost. I would be, too. But they are not fools. They realize that a McCain presidency would be a disaster for this country. The mess being left behind by George W. Bush would not be cleaned up by his sidekick, John McBush, it would be made worse. Don't believe the story, folks. Democrats will be united this November behind Barack Obama.

The media does love their storyline, though, and they do heart John McCain.

Dan Abrams, media guy with MSNBC, got taken down yesterday at the Hispanic Institute panel by my hero, Markos Moulitsas. Abrams was moderating the panel, and a question came up about whether or not we should obsess over McCain's recent ads, which use Hillary Clinton footage. Abrams said he thought it was valid to look at all this, but Markos, founder of DailyKos (my home away from home), pointed out that only one ad has actually been run on the air by the McCain campaign, and yet MSNBC has given three ads coverage on their network.

The McCain campaign is grateful for this, because, as Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri just said about one minute ago: John McCain has nothing to talk about between now and November except for attacks on Obama and the Democrats. He doesn't have a vision for this country, and he doesn't have the judgment to get us out of the current mess. He would love for the conversation for the next couple of months to be all about Barack Obama's crazy pastor and Hillary Clinton's angry supporters.

I watched so many stars walk by me that I started to be unimpressed by the B-listers. My friend and fellow San Diego Delegate, John Baden, saw Charles Barkley, and asked if he would run for Alabama governor. Charles reply: "Don't know yet." Spike Lee and Angela Bassett passed in front of me, and I watched Toby from the West Wing chat with Jane Seymour. Elsa and I started a list of celebrities, but she's not here yet and she has it in her notebook, so that's all I got on the glitterati front.

Oh, I saw Gray Davis, recalled governor of California, walk by. Hilarious Delegate Greg said, "Oh, look, Gray Davis. I'm bored just looking at him." Poor Gray. Living up to a name like that is unfortunate.

Truthfully, I had a hard time paying attention to some of the early speakers because I was so busy watching for famous people. And was it just me, or were some of last night's speakers a little on the bland side? Not all of them, mind you.

I know some of you will be horrified (and I sort of am, myself), but I missed Kucinich. I didn't realize he was on the early part of the schedule, and I stayed at a panel that ran a little late. I heard he was really fantastic. The money quote from Kucinich, according to my friends who were there, was, "Wake up America!"

Wake up, indeed.