Welcome home!!
Was anyone inside the DNC taken in by the vicious social media rumors of a Beyonce appearance? We got suckered ITT lol
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Dirt, we want all the dirt.
Seriously, very much appreciate the inside view.
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Day 3 started with our breakfast, which was full of exciting speakers. Everyone wanted to come to CA’s stuff because we’re awesome and the home of the nominee, of course.
But before I get into that, I’d be remiss to leave out the fact that I received an absolute deluge of texts and DMs from people because motherfucking Michelle Fucking Obama and Viola Davis both posted a clip of her speech on instagram and I happened to have a close-up. I clipped it down to a few seconds. Michelle has 57 million Instagram followers.
Anyway, our breakfast. Disclaimer: I didn’t get pics of all the speakers…there were a lot.
First up, our other Senator, Alex Padilla. His speech to us was, oddly, much more animated than the one he gave on stage Thursday night.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was next
One of my faves, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland
After a couple fillers, we got the favorite of the day, of course it’s Pete!
I tried so hard to catch him coming out of the VIP room, but after a quick press gaggle they whisked him away to his next thing. And I mean that literally…they were practically running. I did, however, manage to catch Chasten
For a brief explanation as to why Pete didn’t stop to chat:
Some of the other speakers this morning were Jennifer Newsom (Gavin’s wife), April Verrett (SEIU president), and Angela Alsobrooks, who gave the keynote speech the night before, and running for senate in MD.
Our whole group was pretty beat so we took the opportunity to rest, then took an Uber to the United Center so we could try to get good seats.
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When we arrived at the United Center on Wednesday night, it was early enough that they were doing sound checks. We didn’t really have any insider info on what the speakers/order would be, and were finding out when everyone else did. We kind of freaked out when Stevie Wonder did his sound check. It was like a private concert, heh.
I was super excited that Cincinnati mayor (and rising star) Aftab Pureval got a speaking slot. Did you know the Brent Spence Bridge across the Ohio river into Cincinnati carries 4% of the US GDP every day? Anyway
I don’t want to argue in this thread, but I want to say that the speech by the parents of the hostage was heart wrenching, and the entire arena remained standing and quiet through the entire speech. It was the utmost sign of respect. I was offended by the insistence of certain groups that the DNC include a speaker for the “other side” because these parents covered both sides. They called for a ceasefire. They called for peace and an end to the killing of innocents. What could another speaker say that they didn’t?
Anyway, I have thoughts about the subsequent demands by the “Uncommitted” folks, but whatever.
As for Bill Clinton, I’m not entirely sure if it was widely reported, but the teleprompter broke in the middle of his speech and he had to ad-lib half of it…which might explain a bit of the rambling. It was completely frozen when we looked at it. Anyway, it’s hard to explain to younger folks why Clinton is so popular with GenX and Boomers, but you have to understand, he pulled us out of 12 horrible years of Reagan and Bush Sr. and he will forever be a beloved President for that alone.
Also, his "count the “I"s” line was actually really genius.
Nancy Pelosi is Nancy Pelosi, what can I say. I have a better story about her in the post about Thursday, tbh. As for Shapiro, He’s good at hyping up the crowd but I can see why Walz was a better pick all around. His rally speech was fine, but a bit shouty, and of course once you hear the copying of Obama, you cannot unhear it.
Oprah was amazing, of course. she was a surprise not just because she was there, but for the quality of her speech. I wasn’t sure how well her talk show style would translate to a political rally speech, but it was a banger.
Wes Moore is a rising star too. Jesus, we have a great bench of GenX and Millennial leaders. He also gave a rousing rally speech.
I have been using “rally speech” in this post because for the most part all of the speeches at the DNC were that…meant to get folks hyped up. There were a few exceptions, and those stick out most in my mind. On Monday, it was Hillary Clinton. On Tuesday it was Michelle Obama. Thursday was, oddly enough, Leon Panetta. And Wednesday, of course, was Pete. These were the speeches where yes, there were cheer worthy lines, but the meat of the speech had the audience silent and listening to the message and the storytelling. Like on Monday where I said the underlying hubbub of the convention floor died down when Hillary spoke, so too did it go silent when Pete was speaking, because their messages were more than “rah rah Harris Walz”.
“…the makeup of our kitchen table, the existence of my family, is just one example of something that was literally impossible as recently as 25 years ago…This kind of life went from impossible to possible. From possible to real. From real to almost ordinary in less than half a lifetime. But that didn’t just happen, it was brought about through idealism and courage, through organizing and persuasion and storytelling, and yes, through politics. The right kind of politics. The kind of politics that can make an impossible dream into an everyday reality.”
Laying out the case why politics matters in under 8 minutes, and why we’re tired of darkness and ready for something new.
Full speech if you care to watch it again: https://youtu.be/tgFPxgstrbc?si=pvkvfQrIokALT_-2
After that, everyone was excited about John Legend, but my GenX heart was even more stoked to see Shiela E up there! Of course, I had to tell some of the young whippersnappers in my group that she was Prince’s drummer and how much it meant to have her up there performing this tribute.
One thing that’s a bit surreal about being there is that we don’t find out about the coverage “controversies” that happen until much later. We had no idea about the whole Gus Walz thing during Tim’s speech, we were just happy to see the whole family out on stage afterward.
Wednesday night was the CA afterparty at the House of Blues, so we went over to that right after the speeches. We had Tony Toni Tone play (they’re from Oakland, so yeah), then John Legend showed up to…not sing, but to be the emcee? kinda weird but whatever.
Speakers here were Laphonsa Butler, Nancy Pelosi, and
I have a feeling if Biden were still the nominee that Kamala would have shown up to this, but now that she’s top of the ticket, there’s no way.
We left pretty soon after that because none of us have Pete Buttigieg-level stamina and we had to find real food and sleep.
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that sounds like a target, wow.
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Yes, but also a little harder than a bridge on the east or west coast due to location alone.
The large percentage is because I-75 is the main artery from Detroit to points south.
I forgot to address this. The simple reason is that I have very small hands combined with very short arms. I literally can’t hold the phone steady and at the correct angle with one hand.
Phones are too fucking big now, i want them to go back to, like iphone 4 or 5 size
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This might be the only valid reason to ever use a selfie stick.
Excited for your Day 4 recap. Very curious to hear how the buzz on the floor compared to the rumor mill outside the convention.
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Not allowed in the venues, unfortunately.
Anyway, on to Day 4! The CA breakfast was a bit more sedate on Thursday, featuring mostly women leaders from the state level.
We did have Hakeem Jeffries stop by
SF Mayor London Breed made it
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair of the CA Labor Federation. I have some behind the scenes issues with her, but she gives a great speech
Jamie Harrison stopped by
Auntie Maxine always gets a warm welcome in CA spaces
Closed it out with Jasmine Crockett
We had some others, and now that I go back I guess this morning wasn’t as sedate as I thought. LOL
So now, cool convention story time. The best things come to those who ask, so earlier in the week I had found a tweet announcing this CNN Politico Grill thing that ran a program each day of one-on-one conversations between a reporter and a VIP/Elected/Candidate. The link indicated that it was for Press and other VIP types, but I clicked the “more info” button anyway, which took me to a signup form, so I said fuck it, why not try. I got an email saying I was on the waiting list and that more info would come soon, so I kind of forgot, until I got an email Thursday morning welcoming me to join them on Thursday at 1.
See, this thing was a pop-up building located right out the front doors of the United Center (inside security), so our group went over to the center at 12:30 to save seats (this is the downside of being the Nominee’s state delegation…when you’re on the floor everyone wants your seats so we had to get there early to not be in the back). I put my jacket on a chair and headed over to check out this Politico thing.
There was no one in line when we got there, doors opened at 1 and we were in the front row of what was MAYBE a 50-person venue.
First up was Jonathan Martin interviewing Nancy Pelosi. Martin is a toxic asshole, and by the end you could tell Nancy wanted to punch him. I would have held him down for her if she had. He kept pressing her about if the Biden hated her now, and other stupid shit, and she was tired of it.
Funny, “Nancy is human” story: one of her shoes slipped off her heel and she struggled to put it back on when the interview was over. I caught it on camera but it made me have a “just like me” moment, hah. Also, she was the only one they let stay and take selfies…after that they were behind schedule and rushed everyone on and off stage.
Next was some CEO that they had to interview because it was a sponsor, then it was a freshman Congresswoman from IL talking about the farm bill.
After that was Debbie Stabenow, retiring Senator from MI, also talking about the farm bill
Next up was Bennie Thompson with a good discussion about the Jan 6th Committee
Next was Sen Laphonsa Butler, who I had heard give a couple speeches earlier in the week, but this format really made me sad that she didn’t run for Senate again because she is absolutely fantastic and would have won easily once Californians got to know her. As it is, she’s friends with Kamala and I will go on record her saying she’ll have a cabinet spot in the Harris Admin, possibly even Chief of Staff.
Finally, the reason I actually signed up for this in the first place (and apparently everyone else since a bunch of people packed in right before and it was standing room only)
No selfie with him because he was already running late and had to get to the next thing (see reasoning that I posted above…the man is a machine).
Anyway, I made it back to the arena about 10 minutes before they were gonna give my seat away, grabbed a hotdog to stuff in my bag so I could sneak it onto the floor, and got settled in for the evening.
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First time I’ve ever been jealous of someone being at the DNC.
Someone ITT and Debbie Stabenow were valedictorians at the same high school about 20 years apart.
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more coming I promise, I’ve just been absolutely swamped with work and meetings.
meanwhile, how is one supposed to feel when Barack Fucking Obama shares a DNC recap video with you in it right at the beginning?
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OK, I am so fucking sorry, but catching up on work for three candidates has been absolutely nuts this week.
Night 4!
As I mentioned, they were being super strict about seating on the floor, and I barely made it back in time to keep my seat with the rest of the San Diego team.
Ok. first thing’s first, I know y’all are wondering about the big rumor of the night and what we had heard. Everyone in that arena was just as taken in by the Beyonce rumors as everyone else. Hell, we even had contact with a super-VIP (big donor, personal friend of Kamala) who was texting us from the box seats about how Beyonce had just arrived.
It’s really fascinating how someone’s fervent wish can turn into misinformation, run rampant over the internet, and turn into an actual news story…fascinating and a bit scary. Also, for those people who say “Twitter is not real life,” this was perfect evidence to dispute that claim. Twitter absolutely drives news cycles, and is thus terrifyingly real.
Anyway, some PhD candidate is starting their doctoral thesis about this already, I’m sure, because it really is a great sociological oddity.
The warm-up speakers tonight were actually a bit underwhelming. Alex Padilla gave a much better speech to our CA breakfast than he did in the arena, and nothing really exciting happened until Elizabeth Warren made all of us verklempt because SHE got verklempt at the reception she received.
I wondered a little bit about the speaker order after that, since there were two “America, Fuck Yeah!” folks (Pat Ryan and Elissa Slotkin) talking about military and intel and security, and it seems like they would have been better placed later, but whatever.
Then it was Al Sharpton and the Central Park Five (four? no explanation given about that), and that was actually pretty powerful. Rev. Al’s still got it.
After a couple climate speakers (including one of my faves, Deb Haaland), we got our “big surprise” of the night HAHAHAHA
California, yo.
Anyway, After Colin Allred seemed to wake up from his months long hibernation to finally appear and start campaigning, we got the upside down drummers then the Chicks for the national anthem. I had to go back and listen to it later because the sound system in there is just not the best for music, especially more subtle harmonies.
On to the family! The bit with the nieces teaching people how to pronounce Kamala’s name was unbearably cute. Then the next bit with the older girls was nice, too. Ella Emhoff is an icon, no doubt about it.
I have a lot of feelings about Mark Kelly and Gabby Giffords. It was absolutely astounding (in a good way) to see one of the most well-known politicians in America silently help his wife to the podium, support her, and help her offstage without once doing anything that could ever be construed as taking attention for himself. It was a moment as powerful as it was subtle.
Pink then sang the song I knew she would sing, along with her daughter who has seemingly inherited her mother’s pipes. I love that song anyway, and the acoustic version was fantastic.
Back to “America, Fuck Yeah!” with Mark Kelly, Leon Panetta, Ruben Gallego, and all the congressional Dem Veterans (which was actually pretty cool).
Look, everyone in the room was like 
when Leon Panetta was announced, as I’m sure you all were as well. But here’s the weird part. His was one of the best speeches of the night! I know! We were all shocked, too, but like I mentioned before, each night featured at least one speech that was less “rally speech” and more substance, and this was the one for Thursday.
Oddly, Big Gretch was a bit subdued in her speech, not sure why. She’s usually much more dynamic. She was also oddly-placed, right in the middle of the AFY section, but we got right back to it with Adam Kinzinger.
After that, NC Governor Roy Cooper introduced Kamala, cementing the idea in my mind that had he not withdrawn himself from consideration, he was absolutely her first choice for VP. Apparently they have been friends for a long time (since their AG days) and his speech demonstrated why NC loves him so much and why he probably would have been a great pick.
Kamala’s speech was great, of course, though like all of the speeches, parts were hard to hear from being drowned out by cheering. I had to go back and watch a lot of them on Youtube to pick up what I missed.
I’ll be a little self-indulgent with this picture as proof I was there, and it gives a decent perspective on the view from our seats. the 3 guys in front of me were all really tall, which is why I didn’t get on camera much on night 4. Oh well, Obama made me famous 
After that came the balloon drop, which made me much more sympathetic to Hillary Clinton and the reaction that launched one of the internet’s most popular gifs
I’m pretty sure I and most of the people around me made similar faces during the VERY PROLONGED balloon drop. They did not. stop. coming.
We had climbed on our chairs and eventually there were so many balloons we had to take off buttons and start popping them to even have a place to put our feet to climb down. I cringe at the environmental impact of all that rubber/plastic going to a landfill…
And that was that! All that was left was to once again find food at the hotel bar and try to pack while slightly buzzed. My flight left at 10 on Friday morning.
I have more thoughts, but that’s enough for this very long post…
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Any chance you were able to do the Chicago architecture tour?
Is that the one on the boat?
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to do that. Just not a lot of free time and what little I had was spent resting.
It is, and was my favorite thing I did on my first trip to Chicago
Makes total sense. Hopefully you get a chance to go back and do the tourist shit. Its such a cool city.
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Co-sign on the architectural tour. Just seeing all the buildings is amazing in itself, but we had a fantastic tour guide (reminded me of Kevin Pollak if he was an architect) who seemed to make it 10x better.
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I did a walking Chicago architecture tour and it was pretty good.
The host of several of the best podcasts used to give that tour. Here he is revisiting it.
If you have never listened to 99% invisible you are really missing out.
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