(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

If there was any doubt about the unity of the Democratic Party, tonight Hillary Clinton squashed those doubts. If you missed Sen. Clinton’s speech, you missed something special. She made it clear that this is a race of clear choices — between four years of the same with John McCain and a fresh new direction for all of the things that Hillary Clinton stood for during her campaign.

Tonight it was definitely Senator Clinton’s night. The Colorado Democratic Party even took the unusual move of assigning the best seats in our delegation — the first two rows closest to the podium — to the Clinton delegates. But the message that we need to all support Barack Obama was not lost on any delegate in the delegation.

The night was an exciting night — Keynoter Mark Warner showed why many consider him a lock for taking over an open Senate seat in Virginia. And if you missed Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer’s speech to the convention just before Hillary’s speech, you missed a speech that truly energized the hall and got the crowd dancing. Former Denver Mayor and Clinton cabinet member Federico Pena spoke earlier in the evening, as well, before coming down to join the Colorado delegation.

Today was a very busy day. We started with the delegation breakfast. Congresswoman DeGette and Congressman Perlmutter spoke to us. We were also joined by a Colorado native named Kelly Doherty, who is the executive director of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Kelly, an Iraq and Bosnia veteran (and a good childhood friend of Brandy’s), has helped found and now leads an organization of veterans committed to ending the war in Iraq. She gave a great breakdown of the organization’s goals, and the crowd responded with a standing ovation for her.

Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano also spoke; however, I had to leave the breakfast early to do a taping of a television show, GritTV with Laura Flanders. I headed over to the television studios and taped a segment discussing the “transformative” nature of the Denver Convention with Laura and the Washington editor of The Nation magazine. You should be able to see it at http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/.

After handling the taping, we went down to Civic Center park to take a look at the protests that the media has been reporting on lately. I was rather surprised by how few people were actually there protesting. There were a wide number of different types of protests, but in reality, the park was not filled like I had expected from prior conventions.

We met up again with Kelly, where we got to meet Ron Kopic, who is the individual whose life is purportedly portrayed by Tom Cruise in “Born on the Fourth of July”. From there, we headed back up 14th to see some IVAW members participate in some street theater — portraying what it is truly like to patrol the cities of Iraq.

From there, I switched roles and took my turn as Brandy’s guest. We went over to the Denver Downtown Aquarium for a reception honoring the Rules Committee members (Brandy is one). It was a nice break to a busy day, and we got to see the wonderful exhibits at the museum.

From there, we finally headed over to the Pepsi Center, where we saw a great program which was capped by the speeches I mentioned above.

Finally, after the convention, we headed over to the DCPA, where we saw a wonderful performance by Boyz II Men. We ended the evening on the rooftop of the Denver Athletic Club, where Congresswoman DeGette was sponsoring a reception. It was a great chance for Colorado delegates to cut loose — and to cut a rug. Brandy and I even briefly got out on the dance floor, and that’s pretty rare. When I finally get around to posting all of the pictures from the Convention, I’ve got a few of Colorado delegates dancing and enjoying the evening.

Tomorrow is a similarly busy day. I’ll be a guest with Congressman Perlmutter on Colorado Matters, which is both on Colorado Public Radio and on public television in Denver. If you get a chance, take a look! Also, if you’re around C-SPAN tomorrow afternoon, note that Senator Ken Salazar will be speaking to the convention early — probably in the first hour, between 3 and 4.

Of course, I’ll write more when I can!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 12:35 am and is filed under National Convention 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.