Author: jen-sorensen

No wacky hats or celebs, I’m afraid, but this should give you a sense of how I spent my time.

Trying to find the end of the security line. It was longer than in previous days, even though I arrived earlier.

A breathless moment in the hall: Hillary releasing her delegates

The DNC Blogger Lounge, a small room off of the larger blogger/press filing area I was in the other day.

Some Blogger Lounge levity

I miraculously managed to snag a floor pass just as Biden went on.

The hall goes wild as Obama makes his surprise appearance (I think it was actually a surprise for most people). If you look closely, you’ll notice a few people are staring down in concern at the collapsed man, not shown.

The three-day party at Pepsi is over. On to Mile High Stadium.

I’ve been keeping my eyes open for the much-ballyhooed Bitter Hillary Supporters, and while there are certainly a large number of enthusiastic Clinton delegates here, I’m just not sensing the bitterness. According to a Gallup poll cited in the Congressional Quarterly freebie given out daily at the convention, 23 percent of Clinton supporters consider themselves open to voting for McCain. While I’m sure there are still some disappointed Hillary fans here, no one is making a big stink about it as far as I can tell, except for one guy I saw in the lobby on Monday who kept loudly proclaiming he was voting for McCain. I’m guessing he might have been a Convention troll of some sort, though I have no way of knowing for sure.

While roving the floor yesterday, I came across a Clinton delegate who seemed to be making herself available to the media. Jo-Ann White is here representing Democrats Abroad; she currently resides in Florence, Italy (nice!).

Jo-Ann insisted that spiteful Hillary supporters are an overblown media myth. She’s proudly casting her vote for Hillary here at the convention, but has no problem with voting for Obama in November. She emphasized the importance of getting the millions of Democrats living abroad registered to vote.

As a Democratic activist, Jo-Ann clearly reflects the party line on unity — yet as I mentioned, I have yet to see any substantial evidence to contradict her. But I’m only capable of being so many places at once, so it’s possible that there is more going on than meets my eye.

Hillary’s speech did draw a wildly effusive response from the crowd last night, which I suppose you can interpret either as a sign of unity or a sign of divisiveness. From my notes:

"Huge applause for video [shown before she appeared onstage]."

"Biggest applause of the night by far. She waved, people in my section waved back. Packed house. Deafening cheers."

"Lone guy during the middle of her speech: ‘WE LOVE YOU!’"

As for myself, I thought her speech struck just the right tone, and most everyone I spoke with was in agreement. And wow, she even mentioned gay rights. My wonderful hostess in Highlands Ranch, who is not a Democrat, raved about it, even comparing it to Obama’s speech in 2004.

Overall, it appears to me that the Dems’ decision to give Hillary supporters their space, and plenty of respect, has worked out reasonably well. I expect we’ll find out more during the nominating process today.

What did you think of Hillary’s speech? Feel free to weigh in below.

Here for your enjoyment are some snapshots from yesterday at Pepsi Center.

The best (and, um, corniest) hat I’ve seen so far.

Walter Mondale. Some ditzy girl kept saying "It’s Jimmy Carter! It’s Jimmy Carter!"

Delegates from South Carolina spreading the good word

Another delegate with plenty of flair.

New Mexico Guv and former presidential candidate Bill Richardson

The entire hall poses for a panoramic group photo

Thoughts on Hillary Clinton’s and Mark Warner’s speeches coming soon.

I made it down to the convention floor this afternoon in search of the Old Dominion contingent, who occupy some of the sweetest seats in the house (along with Illinois), smack dab in front of center stage. Hmm… I wonder if this has anything to do with Virginia being a major swing state and source of a certain keynote speaker.

Some background about traveling down to the floor: press credentials give you access to the surrounding seating only. Reporters must trade in their press passes for a rotating floor pass, which they may keep for an hour (or sometimes only half an hour). If you don’t get the floor credential back in time, you’re in trouble. When I returned mine, a woman began chastising me for being late until she realized I was not the delinquent writer for the Washington Post she had in mind.

In the Virginia section I tracked down a delegate from Albemarle County. Judy (below), from Ivy, is a strong Obama supporter who said she never was for Hillary, adding that this seems to surprise some people since she falls into the stereotypical demographic of Clinton supporters.

When I asked Judy what she thought of Michelle Obama’s speech, she ebulliently exclaimed "She NAILED IT!" She said Michelle came off as "real" and "a dynamo filled with passion." I should also note that Judy lit up with almost as much excitement when she realized that I was from C-VILLE Weekly. Almost.

Another delegate explained to me that all of them were issued the Mark Warner t-shirt you see above.

Even for someone with a media pass, getting close to Pepsi Center was a challenge.

The light rail stop at Pepsi Center is closed, meaning I had to get off at Invesco Field and walk through a warren of fences and concrete barriers to reach the convention. Feeling like the proverbial mouse in a maze, I had to ask cops how to get out at multiple points. Below is a major highway sealed off, something you don’t get to see very often. It felt a bit eerie and post-apocalyptic.

I passed a lonely-looking parking lot that a bystander informed me was one of the free-speech zones. There were about 5 people gathered there, looking like they were about to do something. The day before, a bunch of anarchist types raised a ruckus on the pedestrian mall (yes, they have one here too — but ours is better). On Sunday, about a thousand protesters briefly shut down access to Pepsi Center, but the only sign of them I saw last night was downtown, several blocks away from the convention. A street had been shut down to accommodate them, causing my exasperated cab driver to say "they need a good whoopin’."

While security seems very tight around the perimeter of the Center, getting through the main checkpoint to the building was remarkably quick — much quicker than many airport lines I’ve been through.

Some of the best conversations I’ve had here have taken place on the light rail train going to and from downtown. Last night I chatted with Barb, a convention volunteer from Highlands Ranch, where I’m staying. She’s been working since June to ensure the credentials for everyone work correctly. The passes are deceptively high-tech — they look simple enough, but they’re embedded with a microchip and other security features. When you pass through the checkpoint at Pepsi Center, officers scan the chip with a reader that gives you the green light (or not). Barb said she and other volunteers had to hand check 100,000 credentials to make sure none of them had any techno-glitches. That’s one tedious, behind-the-scenes task that never would have occurred to me.

Barb was also very excited to show me her newly-painted toenails:

Yep, those are tiny Obama logos! She was hoping to start a trend. I promised her at the very least, her feet would be famous in Charlottesville.

Coverage of convention speechifyin’ to come. The danged thing ended very abruptly after Michelle spoke last night.

I walked out of Pepsi Center alongside Al Franken last night:

Afterwards, I went to the Rolling Stone/Trojan Evolve "Condom-vention" where I watched Bill Maher deliver a raunchy and hilarious (if a bit old-school in the gender department) comedy routine. As you might expect, the place was scattered with jimmy hats. Towards the end I managed to catch up with former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders, whom you may recall was canned from the Clinton Administration for (gasp!) suggesting masturbation is okay for teenagers.

A personal aside: I remember the day she was fired very clearly; I was visiting my mother’s classroom in Pennsylvania (she was an elementary school teacher, now retired) feeling horribly depressed and angry at Clinton. I admire Dr. Elders so much for her sensible, BS-free approach to health care, and am thrilled to have this picture. Props to my cartoonist friend Ward Sutton for taking it.

Elders spoke before I got there, even though I came straight over from the convention. But she did remark to us that abstinence-only "education" doesn’t work, and that teaching about condoms is the responsible thing to do. To echo that sentiment, we hear a lot of lip service from the right about "personal responsibility" —  and if you ask me, realistic, science-based sex ed is part of that.