Convention - Day 1

I'm not sure how much time I'll have to write here, seeing as how we didn't get OUT OF BED UNTIL 12:15! But there isn't much scheduled for today, so that helps.

Yesterday was pretty low-key, as there were only two things scheduled and one was a 2-hour training session and one was a party. I could get used to that schedule 5-6 days a week. In the training session, there were probably 200 people in the room, and I kept looking around and thinking, "This is a sight you'll never see at a Republican Convention." It was made up of probably 60% people of color. I was definitely in the minority. There was a lot of enthusiasm but also a not unexpected amount of confusion that was really well handled by the speakers, who answered every question at the end very carefully and directly.

I cut out a little early from the training, since they were covering some things that didn't involve me. If you hear on the news that some catastrophe happened involving a poorly trained volunteer, you'll know who it was! Part of the reason I left early was to beat the crowd going to get our official blue volunteer polo shirts, about 10 or so blocks away. I met up with a woman from Greece, I think she was, with a heavy accent, and we walked there together. She is a local volunteer too, as most people seemed to be, and very nice. The wait for the shirt was probably a half-hour, less than what we had heard some people had experienced, so we probably picked a good time to go.

The bag with my shirt had some cool convention swag in it: a poncho, a pedometer (?!), a 6-inch generic plastic ruler (again: ?!), a nice little guide to the week ahead, an Obama pin from Univision, hmm, i forget what else. Maybe it wasn't all that cool now that I list it, but it's always nice getting free stuff.

Then I killed time until Cheryl came back from the hotel, so we could go to the state delegation party, which included a number of states. The party was much better than I expected. Lots of small food and strong drinks! We both had vodka and cranberries - probably 6 or 7 of them over 4-5 hours. Ok, maybe eve more than that. We met a lot of interesting people, from Philly, Ohio, Illinois, as well as a few folks from our local Chester County delegation, including Bill Scott, Kathi Cozzone and their spouses. It was Kathi's birthday, so I bought here a free drink. :-) We really wanted to meet someone from Hawaii and make friends with them so we'd have someone to visit...OK, stay with (!) if we ever were lucky enough to go there, but the first person we met, just after she gave us both big hugs, I accidentally bumped her arm with my elbow, knocking her drink on the floor, shattering it all over, so having nearly caused an international (to the extent one of the 50 states can be considered international) incident, we pretty much stayed away from the lovely Hawaiian people the rest of the evening!

The party had performances from a cheerleading squad, a drum group and lots of loud music and it was held in a 5 story art museum, which was a perfect venue.

After the party, we decided to walk off our buzz, since we had to drive 6 miles back to the hotel. I took Cheryl to the Black Finn, where Morning Joe will be shot the rest of the week. We had another drink and shot or two, but spread it over 2-3 hours, so we were in good shape by the time we left.We met a succession of interesting local characters, all very interested in talking politics.

Interestingly, they were all Dems, but a number of them expressed the same concern that I've realized is the single biggest factor working against Dems in all elections, one I've heard from a number of my facebook friends as well, though only my R friends. It's not gay rights, tax cuts, jobs, the economy in general, or Obamacare. It's welfare.

The way I often hear it expressed is this way: "Why should I have to give some of my heard-earned money to those people?! They just sit around all day doing nothing and I have to give them some of my money?" Interesting that this issue has been around for 50-80 years, but all of a sudden I hear it over and over. Maybe it's the line of R attacks that has been (falsely) accusing Obama of removing the work requirements from welfare. And even though the majority of folks getting welfare are white (much to the surprise of many), the image is of the dreaded Welfare Queen, as if someone would prefer to be on welfare than to have a job.

Anyway, I'll come back to that issue another time. It was an entertaining series of folks we met, some quite drunk, some trying to be. One guy kept telling us to remember his name: Brett Squirwofbwbsdonton, I think it was, or at least that's what it sounded like in the noisy bar. He kept trying to tell us how Amurrican he is and how he can convince anyone to like him. I think he's going to be disappointed by anything less than a 100% approval ratings, so that could be an issue for him. But hey, remember the name:  Brett Squirwofbwbsdonton!

Home around 2:20, to bed about an hour later. (see the post above this one.)