Wednesday is always my favorite part of any Convention. As I attended a health disparity policy briefing in the morning, I received notice that there was going to be a televised rollcall, however earlier than expected, at 3:15 Mountain Time.
I love the RollCall. It gives each state (or at least the ones in the first half of the alphabet) an opportunity to showcase their elected officials, and rising star candidates. First time delegates 
were confused when California "passed", but I knew then exactly what was going to happen. And then the floor was shut down by Secret Service, and I thought "How nice for the party would it be for Hillary Clinton to push Obama over the top on delegates". New Mexico's Bill Richardson yielded to Illinois, and although the home state typically puts the candidate over the number of votes needed for nomination, the Illinois delegation yielded to New York. The floor WENT WILD and Hillary Clinton, in a classy move, personally put Obama over the top.
were confused when California "passed", but I knew then exactly what was going to happen. And then the floor was shut down by Secret Service, and I thought "How nice for the party would it be for Hillary Clinton to push Obama over the top on delegates". New Mexico's Bill Richardson yielded to Illinois, and although the home state typically puts the candidate over the number of votes needed for nomination, the Illinois delegation yielded to New York. The floor WENT WILD and Hillary Clinton, in a classy move, personally put Obama over the top. The floor was much more harmonious that I expected, and I would guess that about 25% of Hillary delegates chose to still cast their votes for her. And the way the nomination was handled, made that just fine. I did, earlier in the day, pass a small group of 10-15 Hillary holdouts who were marching to Pepsi Center, but the sentiment in the last 24 hours had clearly turned in the direction of party unity.
There was a nice salute to the female Members of Congress, a segment on defense and veterans, and then Bill Clinton went on and did exactly what he had to do. The hall loved it, and loved him. I headed out of the hall quickly to my friendly pedicab driver who was waiting for me. (I discovered quickly on the first day in Denver that this was the only way to travel), and hoofed it back to the hotel, through some pro-life protests, and what turned out to be an Obama motorcade, just in time for the Biden speech.
Well, the Democratic Party officially has a Vice Presidential nominee in Joe Biden, and can I say, I was pleasantly surprised. My colleagues know that I was a Jack Reed person, a Tim Kaine person, a Mark Warner person, even a Hillary Clinton person, but never said I was a Joe Biden person. However, the Joe Biden I saw this evening was human, humble, and confrontational without being overbearing. If he can be that way on the trail for the next three months, the Democratic Party has a dynamic duo.
Tomorrow is Invesco Field, and I am psyched. SS is encouraging people to get there by 1pm. That many hours in the sun will turn me Republican red, so I'm trying to find a way around that. If I can get a password, I'm going to join the other bloggers, and try to bring the day to you live.
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