Billy Joe - DNC Day 3

It is Arctic cold in the Pepsi Center this morning. They crank up the AC so when the crowd comes in the body temperature will balance out the cold and everyone will be comfortable. At 10 in the morning when nobody is in the hall, it is not comfortable. I’m filling in for my co-worker Mark Wilson on the main riser, better known as the “Cadillac” riser. I sat there for close to 3 hours waiting for an unexpected guest to do their walk through and sound check. Melissa Etheridge came out to rehearse her one song performance. She’s doing a medley of Americana songs, like Born in the U.S.A. and God Bless America. Very Patriotic.

Many things are happening today. The first big event was the convention roll call. The delegates officially cast their votes for who will be the party’s presidential nominee. It’s a long drawn out process, kind of boring actually. Both Obama and Hillary are in the running. There was plenty of excitement surrounding the New York delegation. Hillary was slated to announce New York’s votes and the scrum of all scrums surrounded the microphone in the delegation’s area. It was packed tight. I am so glad I wasn’t in the middle of that.

When New York was called to vote, Hillary walked out from the bowels of the Pepsi Center with New York Governor David Paterson and U.S. Senator Chuck Shumer. Hillary asked the convention chairman to cease the voting process and name Barack the nominee. No shenanigans from ol’ Hill as some thought there might be. How is that for unity? The crowd went nuts, people were breaking down and crying. It was quite the scene.

The day dragged on until Bill Clinton took the stage. The convention floor erupted at first site of Bubba. Democrats LOVE Bill Clinton. It was by far the loudest that hall had been since the convention started. The most surprising thing was that he was actually on time. Bill is NEVER on time. The standing ovation lasted so long that Bill actually said that people should sit down, he wanted to keep things moving. The crowd pretty much ignored him and kept cheering. He responded by saying “I really like this.” A typically stellar Bill Clinton speech followed. This is turning into the Clinton Show. People are now jammed in every open area of the convention floor waiting for the Buh-Buh-Biden to deliver is acceptance speech. The fire marshal isn’t happy. Red signs with “Biden” on them are distributed amongst the crowd. Biden’s son Beau announced his father who came out to thunderous cheers (not as loud as Bill’s though) and hugged his son which appeared to bring tears to the senator’s eyes as he slyly pulled a tissue from his pocket to wipe his eye. The speech itself wasn’t bad. He didn’t stutter, although I wish he would have, just to hear what that sounds like.

The speech ended in normal political speech fashion. His wife came out, they waved. It was cute. But that wasn’t it. Just like Steve Jobs always says at MacWorld. There was one more thing. I got the email from the campaign before the start of Biden’s speech that Obama would be joining his new running mate on stage. I think this was the only thing that could trump Bill Clinton’s adoration from the crowd. It was insane. Arm in arm, they waved to the crowd. Kind of weird move to have them both together a day before Obama makes his acceptance speech. Sort of like the groom seeing the bride on wedding day. After the long day with little food, we were going to try and find somewhere to eat. It was pretty late, around 10:30 so our options were limited. We ended up giving our freelancer Max Whittaker a ride to his hotel about 20 minutes south of downtown. He said he knew of a good Mexican place near where he was staying which piqued the interest of Spencer and Sandy. When we got there, it was closed. Max asked a worker if he knew of any thing that was open nearby and he responded immediately with “there is an Old Chicago about two blocks away.” Determined to not eat at another Old Chicago, we settled for a Perkins.

Running on Fumes

Mexico City was a complete blur. After checking in and then out of the Hotel Camino Real Aeropuerto Mexico in less than an hour we headed off to a press/delegation luncheon at the Four Seasons. I was hoping that since we were in Mexico that the lunch would be an assortment of local food since I love Mexican food. I was disappointed when service staff in neatly starched outfits brought out trays of chicken caeser wraps (which they tried to make sound Mexican by calling it a burrito), French fries and turkey sandwiches. The only thing that was remotely close to Mexican fare was guacamole and homemade chips, which was fantastic.

A few new faces popped up in the delegation crowd, most notably Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. I guess he must have felt bad about the Google plane dying in Ethiopia.

The lunch was quick but felt good to sit outside on the patio. We were soon gathered up and moved to the motorcade. We were headed to my last stop of the trip, the World AIDS conference. Bill would be giving the keynote address.

The convention hall was enormous, so big that it looked empty. The media mob was insane. There had to have been at least 30 photographers jammed up against the stage in front of the podium. Before Bill came out, the security people made all the photographers move from that spot into the aisles. This was great, because I have no idea how anyone was going to get a picture that way. It also opened things up a little bit for Barb and I to move around.

Midway through the speech I moved up to the stage. A security guard came up to me and said that I had to move back to the riser. I showed him my Clinton staff credential and he quickly and politely smiled, said thank you and walked away. No less than 4 minutes later he returned. It was a repeat performance of our last encounter. This happened two more times.

Filing was easy for once. I could actually use the Sprint card instead of the BGAN or painfully slow and erratic hotel wi-fi. My pictures were filed and I was done.

The airport was a breeze to get through. The departures board showed that my Mexicana flight to San Francisco was on time. Thank god. The first on time flight in a week. I had plenty of time to visit the duty free and stock up on my beloved tequila. I was dead tired, but happy to be going home.

But of course, what would this trip be without one more jab. The on time status of Mexicana 972 had now changed to delayed. Albeit a short 45 minute delay, it was still a delay. All I wanted to do was get on that plane and rest my head against the wall and go asleep. It was looking good as I approached aisle 19, one guy on the aisle and the middle seat open. It wasn’t until I reached my row that the middle seat was in fact not open, but occupied by a toddler. Someone kill me now. For the duration of the flight the kid alternated between crying, bouncing, kicking the seats all around or being punished by her short tempered father. Needless to say, I am looking forward to my bed and a few days off.

One more thing. For a brilliant account of the trials and tribulations of the Clinton Africa trip, please check out Anne Kornblut's article in today's Washington Post. You can access the article here.