Day 1: Democratic Convention 2008

The first day has been quite an experience.

We got off to a late start this morning. The breakfast for the North Carolina delegation was scheduled to begin at 8:00 am and last through 10:00 this morning. My wife and I arrived at about 9:30am. Yikes!!!!! Any benefit in the change of time zones went uncapitalized. Once we got there, I signed for my credentials and we went inside to eat breakfast. The entire delegation was already eating and there was a speaker addressing the audience. Not the ideal way to make an entrance, but my wife and I headed to a table where two seats were being held for us by our neighbors, Wake County Commissioner Lindy Brown and Tonya Jiles. As we headed towards them, I could see a couple of the local TV news organizations had sent their contingents as well. There was David Stogner of WTVD 11 and David Crabtree of WRAL 5, each of them staked out in different areas of the conference room with their cameramen. Within the room, I saw a significant number of North Carolina's top political leaders. Former NC House Speaker Dan Blue, US Senators Bob Etheridge and G.K. Butterfield and NC House Representative Ty Harrell and many others were in attendance. It was hard to believe that I was in a room with so many political leaders of North Carolina. After the speaker finished, I hurried and got a plate of bacon and eggs and a glass of milk and quickly scarfed it down. After the breakfast, we headed out to our caucus meeting. Today it was the African-American caucus. We took the shuttle from our hotel down to the rail line and caught the train to the Denver downtown convention center. Denver's rail cars are really cool, and clean too. The ride was about 15 minutes to downtown Denver and there was a palpable excitement in the cars as people from all over the United States shared stories about themselves and where they were from against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains as we rode.

When we arrived at the convention center, there was a mass of people doing all number of things. Some were selling souvenirs while others were protesting. Everyone there was representing some cause or organization. It was amazing to see. We made our way into the center and found our caucus meeting. The topic was relative to improving the circumstances of the African American community. There were 6 speakers ranging from community organizer to CEO of a corporation. All of them were giving their support for a new governmental administration under Barack Obama. All of them indicated the need to change the current conditions and their belief that we can make those changes with the help of a new president. While there, I was able to get a photograph with former political strategist Donna Brazille, who served on President Bill Clinton's campaign staff and is now currently a political analyst for CNN.