Back from the floor
Just returned from the floor of the convention hall here. Sheer
madness, just above the level of slightly organized chaos. (As
“press,” bloggers can check out floor passes for an hour. There’s
this whole hierarchy of pass colors.)
I wandered around the California and Massachusetts delegations (my home
and my current residence states) for a while, during Calif. Sen.
Barbara Boxer’s speech to the convention. Just so they get some
name credit (I’ll write more about our conversations later), I talked
with Lisa Mead (the mayor of Newburport, Mass.), Michael Lysobey,
Davids Bliss, and Emily Weinstein of California.
All of the Californians are fairly new not only to California politics,
but to being part of political or civic associations in general.
They all said that they had grown concerned with the shape of foreign
policy under the Bush administration, and, to a lesser extent, various
domestic issues (stem cells, economic policy, and governmental
secrecy). So, from being fairly uninvolved a year ago, they
decided to do something. And now they are delegates.
Mead’s a bit different. This is her third DNC, and she used to be
field director for John Kerry, so she’s personally acquainted with the
candidate, describing him as “strong, big-hearted, and smart.”
Most impressive for her about the convention was last night’s parade of
retired generals who support Kerry because of the direction military
policy has taken under the Bush administration. In reference to
former JCS Chair John Shalikashvili’s speech last night and the retired
top generals who supported Kerry on stage: “Here we have a general
who’s been Chair of the Joint Chiefs, fought in wars, and served
several presidents, and he’s supporting Kerry. And to have these
eight or nine generals support Kerry, you just don’t see that very
often with retired generals. That speaks volumes about the
current administration.”
All that aside, the floor gives off an incredible vibe. People
are packed in chock-a-block (even when it looks empty on TV or from up
here in the balcony, it’s still extremely busy), with reporters, TV
infotainer journalists, delegates, national politicians, poster brigade
members and security all moving seemingly randomly.
The “bowl” is the center of the beehive.
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