Thursday, August 28, 2008
Convention So Far
Here's what I have experienced in Denver over the past few days.
Day 1:
My journey over there started off pretty cool. I saw Jon Stewart at the gate, he went on my flight, and our paths kept crossing all the way to the baggage claim in Denver.
Dinner that night was kicked off by an extremely left senator, Jamie Raskin of Maryland. It seems this guy believed every single left thing he read on the Internet. Fortunately, I met a Republican girl and a libertarian guy to help me survive that.
Then we were told all of the things we couldn't do (drugs, physical harassment, or.......nevermind). We were also told to avoid the protesters/hippies at all costs, because they're trying to get their cause on TV and the easiest way to do that is to punch a teenager's lights out.
Day 2:
We visited the Colorado State Capitol to learn about how local and state government works. After that, we went back to the hotel, and we did mock primaries and elections. We have three candidates. We also have special interest groups, too. They're representing the opposite sides of several issues: Education, National Security, and Foreign Policy. The "candidates" are supposed to win our favor during our free time in the week.
I forgot to mention Michelle Obama's speech, amazingly. I thought it was quite good, and inspiring for many people. She said, plus or minus one or two: Change = 4 times; Hope = 10 times; Belief/Believe = 5 times. I could have counted "hard work" but that isn't a catchphrase specific to Obama and his campaign.
Day 3 (today):
We went to our state delegate breakfasts today (had to get up at 5 this morning). They were very nice and acommodating. We met Jon Corzine as well, and he seems to be doing fine. The breakfast wasn't particularly interesting, it seemed like all they did was mention how historic Obama's nomination was, and PSE&G (New Jersey's primary energy company) mentioned how important energy is.
Later, we attened a forum on National Security. Edward Collins, Phillip Crowley, Richard Falkenrath, Dr. Stephen Flynn, Dr. Douglas Jackson, James Witt, Major General Mason Whitney, and Suzanne Mencer were the people present. Richard Falkenrath of the NYPD and Deputy Commissioner on counterterrorism, had the best ideas and arguments, in my opinion. Overall opinion showed that we can better prepare ourselves against terrorism and extreme weather (like Hurricane Katrina) by merging private and public sector, and by improving the responses of local and state governments. Different ways that ordinary citizens could contribute were also mentioned.
Later that night, we watched Hillary Clinton's speech on a huge screen in a park, with lots of drunk and baking hippies. It started to rain, so it transformed more into "listened to the speech under some cover" but it amounts to the same thing since visuals are unimportant when it comes to speeches. I thought the speech was quite good, and it did the job the Democrats wanted it to do: unite the Hillary supporters and Obama supporters. However, it basically just repeated what every single Democrat politician has been saying this whole time.
Day 4:
Today, we listened to a lecture by John Rogers, who runs a stem-cell advocacy group. We learned about his cause, and the strategies employed by advocacy groups, such as who to support and where.
However, the best bit of news came before lunch today: we managed, through some miracle, to get tickets to go to the actual convention itself and watch Obama give his speech! Alright, I managed to dump all of the pictures on the memory card onto my laptop, so I'll be able to take some more pictures.
We went to the DNC Watchfest earlier tonight, which essentially means we watched CNN the entire time. Fortunately, CNN was acting more like C-SPAN that night, and was continuously covering the convention without any commentary in-between speakers.
Basically, everyone was saying the same things over and over again. Bill Clinton and Joe Biden were very well spoken however, and John Kerry, of all people made some of the most poignant comments, mostly by making fun of himself. He described how McCain is guilty of "Flip-flopping", being "for it before he was against it, and vice-versa", and how there is a massive difference between McCain the Senator and McCain the Candidate.
Tommorrow will be very interesting, and I'll have the camera ready and charged.
9 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed Aug 27, 08:57:00 AM:
Great to hear that Jon Corzine is doing fine. Unfortunately, the state is in the toilet. The longer he stays in Denver, the better off we are.
Thanks for the report. Enjoy.
By , at
Wed Aug 27, 11:05:00 AM:
TH Teenager,
Did tell Corzine it was a good thing he wasn't rear-ended like the previous governor in office?
By 
Dawnfire82, at
Wed Aug 27, 01:21:00 PM:
Is this a National Youth Leadership Forum?
I attended one of those myself when I was in High School. The one on Defense, Intelligence, and Diplomacy, naturally...
I had the interesting story of being in the State Department Situation Room when a 'Situation' developed... something about explaining away a satellite failure as something other than what the problem actually was. The officials kept speaking in euphemisms and giving our guide dirty looks to get us the hell out of the room. Heh.
By , at
Wed Aug 27, 04:15:00 PM:
Go buy another memory card. We want to see the pictures.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Wed Aug 27, 04:31:00 PM:
Excellent post, Tigerhawk Teenager.
By , at
Wed Aug 27, 09:27:00 PM:
Great report, THT. Keep up the good work, please. I refuse to watch a minute of this canned fiasco, and you are the only reporter I trust.
Also, if it isn't too late to start, could you count the number of times they utter, "Improbable journey," or some variant? I think that is becoming one of the more hackneyed catchphrase of this candidacy.
By , at
Thu Aug 28, 02:39:00 PM:
I've not seen any comment on the votes of the delegates from Florida and Michigan. They were given "full" status a day or two before the convention after all the tempest over being punished for their early primaries. What happened on the floor?
By CW, at
Thu Aug 28, 04:16:00 PM:
Ah, yes. Fear not, TigerHawk, about THTeen's foray among the Jackasses. Many a conservative was once a Democrat when young and inexperienced.
cw/chsw
By Georg Felis, at
Fri Aug 29, 12:09:00 AM:
THjr, here are a few conversation starters for the Convention:
Sorry Mrs. Clinton, close, but no cigar.
Nice speech Mr. Biden, but I think I’ve heard it before somewhere.
Mr. Gore, you left your lights on in the parking lot.
Excuse me Mr. Obama, I have a few moments, can I get you to outline your domestic and foreign policy experience?
Excuse me Bill? Has your daughter spoken to you about our close personal relationship yet?
Mr. Rather, I have some documents here that I think you could use in a story. They’re not the originals, I took them out and burned them for security purposes, but they are pretty fair photocopies.
So Mr. Jackson, how do you feel about Barak being the first African-American presidential nominee of a major party in US history?
I got my ticket for free from a guy handing them out at the street. Did you have to pay much for yours?
Disclaimer: Following advice from the comment section of a blog may result in traumatic results and long-term consequences. (i.e. being forever known as "that kid that Hillary k/o'ed at the Convention")
