Religion and politics

One of the big surprises of the convention for me was that I was
probably exposed to more religion in that week than I was in the
previous 10 years. Every convention session started with a prayer
and ended with a benediction. Same thing with every delegation
breakfast. So I attended three or four prayers a day for four days.
The party made a point of inviting a range of religious leaders to
deliver these prayers, so we heard from pastors, rabbis, imams, and a
Buddhist priestess. It was actually quite nice to hear so many
different types of prayers, with so many different areas of emphasis.

Probably due to familiarity, the prayers of the rabbis resonated the
most with me. The emphasis on social justice and righteousness,
combined with a self-effacing form of humor, just really appeals to me.

But yes, I was exposed to faith through my participation in a
Democratic convention. Whoda thunkit?

Thursday pics

Hanging with the delegation at Invesco

We delegates have the nicest accommodations...

Will.i.am

Big Al!

Rep. Diana DeGette and former Denver Mayor Federico Peña

Gray Davis? Hanging with the Coloradans?

Delegates staying on message...

The Montana delegation enjoys the spoils of war

Palin?

I know nothing about Gov. Palin, although I imagine I'll know plenty soon.
Still, is this a wise choice for the campaign running on experience?
McCain thinks Obama is risky, but he, a man in his 70s who has fought
multiple bouts with cancer, picks someone younger and less experienced than
Obama for his veep?

That sucks

Missed my connection at JFK. I'm now late for my morning paper presentation. Why did I fly a redeye?

"Obamas Antrittsrede kaum überbewerten"

I gave an interview with a French television reporter the other day. That interview was apparently translated into German by Zeit Online:

"Man kann die Bedeutung von Obamas Antrittsrede kaum überbewerten", folgert Professor Seth Masket, Politologe an der Universität von Denver.

According to Google's translator, this is roughly what I said, translated from English to French to German to English: "You can see the importance of Obamas inaugural hardly overestimate."

That sounds about right.

Whoa

Charlie Rangel is on my flight.

Delegate reflections

Some things that surprised me:

-Hunger -- We were fed breakfast every day, but you had to really work the reception scene to get free lunches. I sometimes missed dinner since it's so hard to get on or off the convention floor after 6pm. I ate very few vegetables.

-Sobriety -- There were drinks to be had, but I was exhausted and dehydrated by the end of every day and had to be up for a 7AM delegate breakfast every morning. I really just wanted water. I'm old.

-It's good to be a gangsta -- Delegates are accorded a good deal of deference throughout the convention week, and we do lots of media interviews. Many are representing pretty sparsely populated areas and get a lot of press from their home town papers and tv stations. We get our own buses, we get lots of cool swag, members of Congress treat us as colleagues, etc. I'll miss that.

-Lots of foreign press -- I did interviews with French and Italian tv reporters as well as print journalists from Spain, China, and India. I'm guessing not too many American reporters are assigned to cover European party conventions.