Like a Kid in a Candy Store

In addition to being a political junkie, I am the kind of person who loves to see and recognize famous faces. The Democratic National Convention in Denver was the Mother Lode of famous faces. It is the Oscars for people like me who are addicted to political theater, particularly on the Democratic side of the aisle. I started out on Sunday once arriving in Denver making a list of all of the well-known people I either saw or talked to, and by Monday morning, I ran out of paper. Between the elected officials, the media and just standard celebrities, people now have to ask me if I saw so-and-so, not have me rattle them off. There’s just too many to count.

Walking into the Sheraton Downtown Hotel, home to the California and New York delegations, was like arriving at summer camp. You knew you didn’t know hardly anyone, but somehow these people were kind of your friends. You were all there for the same purpose…to have fun, vote for the future president and to be a part of history, and in this presidential campaign, we were plotting some significant new ground. Even as I stood in the line to check in, I was already engaged in conversation with delegates from New York and sharing the excitement and anticipation of the days ahead.

Pepsi Center was an absolutely outstanding facility. Finding and getting on the bus that one could only enter with the proper credentials gave me a real sense of importance, but it was entering the convention hall that was truly exhilarating. It was as if the Pepsi Center had been built to house the Democratic convention. The staging, the ornate décor, the video display and the complete layout was truly magnificent. Being seated just across from the CNN broadcast platform and watching Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, James Carville and the comings and goings of people to be interviewed was a real coup in my opinion. I loved every minute of it.

There were just too many special and magical moments to delineate here. Speeches that stand out to me are John Kerry, Bill Clinton, Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Ted Kennedy, Barney Smith (who delivered maybe the most memorable line of the convention when he said he wants his president to care more about Barney Smith than he does about Smith Barney) and of course Barack Obama. We live in a fabulous time when all speeches are available on the internet by going to YouTube.com, and please take advantage of this technology by going back and listening to some of the most profound speeches in American history.

I loved every minute of this convention. Denver went crazy hosting the Democratic Party. It is a beautiful, clean, friendly and innovative city sitting at the foot of one of the most breathtaking sights in the world, the Rocky Mountains. There are great restaurants to eat at, lovely shops to visit and the City of Denver welcomed the many thousands of visitors with great signage, decorations everywhere and stores with an Obama theme and spectacular displays. From the greeters at the airport to the people of Denver making all of us feel at home, it gave us all the feeling that Denver had become the center of the world in the Obama campaign.

I was interviewed by various newspapers, television stations and radio stations, and several stand out. I was interviewed twice by KGO Radio in San Francisco and twice by the SF Chronicle, but the most unusual interviews I gave were to a newspaper reporter from Holland and a television station sending its signal live back to Denmark. I was approached by probably ten different reporters from TV and radio asking me for an interview, only to turn and walk away when they discovered that I was an Obama delegate. They were only looking for controversy and spice, and being in the spirit of unity and the desire to turn the page on the Clinton candidacy, I wasn’t about to give any red meat to the rabid and drooling media.

I was able to watch the frost on about twenty percent of the Hillary supporters literally melt before our eyes. There were a few pretty militant Hillary Clinton supporters who wouldn’t give up the fight to somehow get her the respect she deserves. There were petitions being passed around the delegation somehow demanding that a full roll call of all fifty states be done even though Senator Clinton had already conceded and said that she’d suspend her campaign and relinquish all of her delegates to Obama somewhere in the middle of the count. I refused to sign the petition, as did quite a number of the delegates, most likely believing that we should follow the wishes of the candidate herself and of the schedule and protocols already established by the Democratic Party.

There were some unforgettable moments, however. Avid Cliinton supporter and women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred walked into the California delegate’s breakfast with a gag in her mouth in the spirit of the women’s suffrage movement as if her perspective and voice was being silenced, a sad and juvenile display if I’ve ever seen one. But this is a free country, and yes, I believe in free speech and free expression, no matter how offensive that expression happens to be. I did talk to Ms. Allred a couple of times during the convention, including being in line right behind her on Thursday night at Subway sandwich shop, one of the few restaurants still serving food after midnight, and yes, I even saw her wearing an Obama button.

That is what makes this selection of Sarah Palin of Alaska so ridiculous if John McCain actually thought that Palin being a woman would peel off Hillary voters. After what I saw in Denver, and if the Democratic delegation is any kind of representation of the general Democratic population, there aren’t many people left who will not vote for the Obama-Biden ticket. Sarah Palin’s political and social outlook could not be more different than Hillary Clinton, and I don’t expect too many Democrats who once supported either Obama or Clinton to jump over, compromise almost everything they believe in to vote for a woman simply because she is a woman. I am Jewish, and I wouldn’t vote for Lieberman if he was the only candidate on the ballot.

Among the wonderful people that I had the good fortune to talk to in Denver was one gentleman who randomly stopped my friend and fellow delegate April Vargas and I as we walked back from Mile High Stadium – we obviously looked like delegates – to tell us that earlier that morning, he was working out at Denver Athletic Club and all of a sudden Barack Obama showed up and sat at a machine right near him and started working out. He told us that he was just amazed to see Barack right next to him, and when Barack asked him if he’d like to join a few other guys in the gym for a little basketball scrimmage, he jumped at the chance. He said that he hadn’t been convinced to vote for Obama, but after seeing him in action, meeting him and getting to play basketball with him, he now is an enthusiastic supporter of Obama and wanted to tell us that he is genuine, real and cared about him as if they were old friends.

A few of the more prominent people that I met and had a great experience with were Terry McAuliffe, Paul Begala and former Governor Gray Davis, each of whom were warm, friendly and people that I had more than one conversation with. I’m a pretty good judge of character, and I found these gentlemen to be more than just friendly and congenial. I also saw several celebrities that were very nice, including Susan Sarandon, former Pittsburgh Steeler Franco Harris and Jennifer Garner (at least I thought it was Jennifer Garner). I was blown a kiss from Dana Bash of CNN and got my picture taken with people like James Carville, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher just to name a few. Like I said, I was like a kid in a candy store.

I could not imagine the Democratic Party doing a more thorough job and putting on an event with more pageantry, more important and dramatic moments and a more entertaining and beautiful convention. Thursday night’s extravaganza at Invesco Field was an amazing experience with an adoring and energized crowd of 83,000 and a TV audience exceeded the viewers of the opening night of the recent Olympics. Like Pepsi Center, it was another masterful and skillful effort to turn a huge football stadium into a wonderful stage and backdrop for one of the most spectacular, important and historic speeches of our time, and if you combine Obama’s speech with performances by Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson and amazing speeches by Al Gore, Joe Biden and Senator John Lewis giving tribute to Martin Luther King, you have the makings of a night that no one in attendance in person or on TV will ever forget.

I am so honored and humbled to have been elected to be the only male Obama delegate from my Congressional district, and being there from gavel to gavel was the most rewarding and thrilling thing I’ve ever done. I represented my family, friends and neighbors to the best of my ability, and it was my greatest honor and my highest privilege to cast my ballot for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. We still have plenty of work to do to get Obama into office, and it is every one of our responsibility to help in that process. We must register as many people to vote as possible, and it is also vital to make calls to swing states to get as many undecided or uncertain voters into the Obama-Biden column. We can do this, but it won’t happen by itself. Take a half an hour or more out of your busy schedule and do something for this campaign. Our future is dependent on it.