Getting Started at the DNC

[Authors Note: As I adapt to the pace of the convention I hope to more evenly pace my entries]

I arrived in Denver Sunday late morning. On the flight out was our state DFL Chair and the Associate Chair, Brian Melendez and Donna Cassutt, Former Senator Mark Dayton, several MN media members and a couple of dozen delegation members.

We were greeted at the airport gate in Denver by convention volunteers with welcoming signs. Volunteers offering assistance were easily found throughout the airport. The entire MN delegation is staying together about 20 minutes by LRT from the convention center.

Sunday evening was a national all-delegations party to recognize the post Katrina recovery efforts in America’s gulf coast. This is one example of many breaks with tradition at the ’08 convention. Usually, this first event time slot is for individual states to hold a welcoming event.

I did groove on the thousands of convention attendees all being together. There was good food (the gumbo and the crawfish toast were incredible), good drinks and great people. I’m guessing I met maybe 50 folks from all around the country.

The main speaker for the evening was DNC Chair Howard Dean. His messages were; the party will unite and McCain = Bush. Good ones for this crowd. Looking around the room I was very satisfied about the look of this delegation – young old, all colors and styles.

Monday morning:

At 7 a.m. Monday morning our delegation had breakfast and meeting. Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak and Senator Amy Klobuchar ran things as our delegation co-chairs. The message was unity. VP Walter Mondale shared some valuable historical perspective. He had strong words of support for Biden as the VP choice.

We were addressed by Brad Slawson, Jr. the MN president of Teamsters Local 120, our breakfast sponsor, and James P. Hoffa the president of the Teamsters International. Hoffa is a folksy, engaging speaker. His message was about coalition building and the importance of supporting the American middle class. He may have had the best lines of the morning. He said,

“McCain is just Bush in drag. He is just an old George Bush!”

Doug Steeland the CEO of Northwest Airlines also addressed the delegation. His airline is the sponsor for the MN delegation into the carbon sharing program. Each delegate will generate something like a ton of carbon dioxide through the convention. The carbon share program offsets that 100%.

Franni Franken introduced Al, who was making a one day visit to Denver before returning to campaigning at the MN State Fair. He says the corn there is especially great this year. He stressed that it is investment in our infrastructure, R & D and education that builds prosperity in our country and that those investments have been lacking with the current Republican administration.

Franken was pretty hard-hitting on the Republicans. Essentially Norm = Bush. On energy he said we can find “win, win, win” solutions. He was logical,

“We know each barrel of oil we buy in the future will be more expensive. We know that every kilowatt of electricity generated by wind in the future will be cheaper. Let’s choose cheaper!”

To me, the most significant part of the buffet breakfast meeting was the “Know Your Delegates” part. Several delegates shared their reasons for being here.

An you African American man who is a student in Greater MN explained that he does not know how he will pay last year’s $9 thousand student loan as he starts a new school year and that he no longer opens his medical bills for an asthma generated emergency room visit because he knows he can’t pay it. He shared some poignant family history about his grandmother in the South having to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar to be allowed to vote.

A mother from a rural community talked about her college age son’s inoperable brain tumor and how she told him in his hospital bed that she would never stop fighting for universal health care (the son survives).

An elder woman originally from Iowa talked about how she and her Depression era family benefited from FDR’s social programs and compared these times to those. She believes that we are here to stand together and to help each other. Her words really say for me what is missing from the Republican Party’s philosophy,

“It’s not for us we are doing this; it is for everyone. We are doing it for country.”

We had s surprise visit from Howard Dean, Chair of the DNC. Dean opened commenting on RT’s footwear (sandals no socks) and his own. This was some sort of moccasin an indirect reference to McCain’s $500 shoes.

From Dean’s remarks he is clearly aware of the political situation in MN and understands nuances here. He outline the Party’s door knocking strategy – strategically knock multiple times on your neighbor’s doors, doors in you r own community and on those of people you know.

He carried the McCain = Bush message. Lightly touching on the Commander in Chief question he emphasized Obama’s support within the active military. Obama has raised more money from the military than McCain, something like four times as much. He had an interesting statistic; that 50 veterans ran for federal office in 2006 and that 49 of them ran as Democrats.

We were issued our daily credentials; floor passes for delegates, hall passes for alternates. We got some instructions for the day (we take the nearby LRT to the convention hall) and set out for the day.