The First Day

It's late or should I say early and I have completed the background materials in earlier postings and am working on getting the first day photos and comments up. I just learned how to turn the comment links on. If you want to comment, just hit the links at the end of each post. Hopefully, tomorrow I will be up to speed and hope to be able to do some posts during the convention itself.

(Above) Michelle Obama and daughters speak live with Barak in Kansas during last night's finale.

After breakfast they sent us off to our choices of Caucus meetings and parallel events. There are dozens of special briefings, speakers, parties, tours and even concerts sponsored by non-profits and corporations to choose from every day. I'm sending Floyd to check out meetings on many issues for me. Events are spread out throughout the city, I wish I had a bike.

Today I chose to go to the Asian Pacific Islander(API) Caucus down at the Convention Center about a 5 block walk from our hotel. Security is tight police, sheriffs, and others are everywhere. The convention center was mobbed by vendors selling any kind of Obama souvenir you could imagine, leafleters, and protesters.

By the time I found the center, got through security, and found the caucus it was well under API leaders have already emerged. Congressman Mike Honda is the "senior" leader and their was a short panel of elected officials but many speakers were young activists. The first Chinese City Council member from New York City, a young Vietnamese Texan who started the Asian Americans for Obama website, and Convention Secretary Alice Germond, who noted the record estimated 264 AAPI delegates at this year's convention, a 20% increase over 2004. I enjoyed meeting these young leaders and will try to squeeze in some time to help in their political training sessions on getting out the vote tomorow. (Above) Elected API officials greet the caucus.

Then the real Convention began: I rushed back to the hotel to catch the Delegate shuttle. While not that far, traffic and security checks made it about an hour before I got in my seat at the Pepsi Center. The gavel had come down at 3 pm and I missed the official opening but got there in time for discussion of the platform. Not much controversy it passed easily. At 4 pm the center was about half full, delays in security, media interviews, and distractions made it hard to get in. By 7 pm right before President Carter and Ted Kennedy spoke the arena was packed. When Michelle Obama made her passionate and amazing speech, there was standing room only.

Walking into the center is the largest concentration of media that I have ever seen. We have to wade our way through reporters, camera crews, everywhere but in the Center it is extreme.

The California Delegation has a special pride in the role of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and cheer wildly each time she comes out as chair of the convention. (left)

Listening to 6 hours of speeches, takes some endurance and concentration in the middle of what is really a huge party and reunion. The California delegation is to the right of the main stage, right in front of the platform that all the big commentators are sitting on. We watch Carvelle, Anderson, Borger, Brazille and others make their comments. Once you have your seat, you have to walk, stretch, dance and visit with other delegates between speeches or go crazy. But since there are not enough seats, a buddy system soon develops and we take turns saving our seats.

One of the best benefits of being at the convention is a chance to talk with people from around the state. Friends tell me that they caught me on CNN last night, sitting next to LA Mayor Villagarosa. We had a good talk about the state budget, our ports, gangs, police reorganizations, and immigration.

I cannot imagine trying to give a speech here, even one of the short two minute reports at the convention. The noise, constant buzz, and thousands of distractions are a challenge to all but the nation's best speakers. I appreciated including "regular" Americans and their stories of the mortgage crisis and the national shame of our lack of universal health care.

The first person to capture the entire convention's focus tonight was Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. His oratorical style is reminiscent of his famous reverend dad. His comment that this is the first convention "where we can see the top of the mountain" brought tears to many of us who have toiled in the civil rights movements for a long time.

I also smiled when Barak's sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, who is half Indonesian, told us how their mother expanded their horizon's. "She showed us microscopes and telescopes to widen our world and let us know there were other possibilities." That's just how I feel about he Chabot Science Center at home and why I work hard to get schools and families up there. >>Barak's sister Maya and her family in Hawaii.






The Kennedy family defined my generation's Democratic Party. Caroline Kennedy marked the new generation of leadership when she spike about Obama, "I've never had someone to inspire me the way people tell me my Dad did. Now I do," Then the surprise appearance of the stalwart, but frail looking Ted Kennedy still recovering from brain surgery unified the entire hall.



Finally, the passionate and almost perfect speech by Michelle Obama clearly seemed to relieve the tension here and will speed up the healing process. Her graceful acknowledgement of Hillary Clinton's work, sparked heartfelt cheering in our delegation dominated by her delegates. Unfiltered by the media, her passion and intelligence gave us a preview of someone who will be one of history's great First Ladies.