Convention Fun, part four

The Parties of Convention Week

Gosh. That's about all I can say about Wednesday through Friday of convention week. By a complete set of chance circumstances, I had the good fortune of meeting a bunch of Hillary Clinton delegates and got into two of the best parties of the convention. This requires a bit of a backstory.

So Angela Cobian, a good friend of mine, has been working on the Mark Udall for Senate campaign and decided to introduce me to a friend of hers, Ryan, who had also been working here in Denver this summer. Ryan was in town for the convention before flying back to school in Boston, so we decided to enjoy some convention festivities. Wednesday we all got tickets to a political comedy show, which was okay at best (one of the guys was terrific, he writes for Salon, but the rest were eh). After that, we think we'll go into downtown Denver in order to hang around and see some famous people.

Well Ryan had met a few of the delegates this week, and called one of them to see if anything was going on. Victor, who was from Texas, told us to come to LODO's on Market St. for a party hosted by America's Credit Unions. America's Credit Unions, you ask? Why yes. We know, it sounded really lame. Ummm...it wasn't. It was simply put the best party I have ever been to in my life.

We walk into the bar (Victor can get three of us in) and proceed to start ordering drinks (it's an open bar). Needless to say, that means that we would get nicer stuff than we could normally purchase ourselves. I was introduced to a few members of the Texas delegation, and two guys from South Carolina, along with a bunch of people from Colorado. At one point, I had a ten minute conversation with Mark Ferrandino, a state representative here, about education policy and the upcoming elections, which was lots of fun. Mark is the youngest state rep in CO (he's 29) and also the first openly gay man elected to the Colorado statehouse. He's got a really bright future in front of him, and so I got his card (the first of many that night). There was great music, and the people were so friendly. We stayed until 2:30, when I poured myself into a cab to make the 30 block ride home (leaving my car downtown...look how responsible I am). The best part of the whole night was just how good a mood everyone was in. I was in a group of all Hillary delegates, not a single Obama supporter in the primary among the dozen or so of them. They all had "Clintonites for Obama" or "Hillary Supporters for Obama" buttons on and couldn't say enough about how great the convention has been for both candidates. They were sad of course, but thrilled to be a part of this history. 

Thursday night was just the icing on the cake. First of all, I got tickets to Invesco to see Obama's speech. I got a call at 4 pm from Lauren Gutstadt, my new favorite human on the planet, saying she had a ticket. More importantly, when I got there at 6:30, she had a way to sneak me into section 108 of the stadium. FOURTH ROW. I was in the posse of Virginia governor Tim Kaine. Ashley Judd was right behind us (If you saw her on tv, which you might have, we were 5 seats to her left and 3 rows in front of her...that's right, we had better seats than Ashley Judd). 

The speech was masterful. "Political Symphony" was the wonderful description David Gergen gave it. Everything about the event was spectacular. I'll have pictures up in the next few days, showing you just how close we were to the floor. I was close enough for John Kerry to wave at me. It was pretty sweet. 

That night saw the end of the convention though, and with it, the last night for shenanigans. So Ryan, Danae and myself headed out the the final party, which we thought could be the hardest to get into. It was the Texas delegation party, and thus the third biggest of the night (after the Google/Vanity Fair party and the California event). It was at the Pinnacle Club at the top of the Qwest Building here in Denver (floor 38). More importantly, it had lots of security. So we have to mention several of the people's names who were are there to see, and they skeptically let us inside. The party is being put on by the co-chair of the entire convention, TX senator Leticia van der Pute, who is also a great dancer as we learned around 1 am. Beyond the free food and the drinks that were flowing, the party had a big band playing everyone's favorite oldies dance music. Just awesome. The last twenty minutes were spent chanting for Obama in 2008. This was the face of a party that was ready to head straight for November. Especially with John McCain's beauty-queen VP Sarah Palin on the other end of the ticket....but I digress. 

Friday morning, after waking up late, we decided to take the Texans on a hike over outside Littleton. We got a great view of the front range and a slightly obscured view of the Flatirons over nearer Boulder, and the Texans seemed to really enjoy themselves, except for Ruby during the short period when there was a rattlesnake traversing the trail with us. I just can't say enough good things about these people though: young and engaged with the process, passionate, and people who put the country ahead of our particular candidate (unlike, you know, certain Republican candidates). Moreover, they were a blast. 

I've caught the bug. Four years from now, I'll be running for a national delegate position. I can't imagine not being at the convention now. It's just too much of  a transcendent event.