Revisiting Yesterday

There are just a couple of things from the events yesterday that I forgot to mention.

Another featured speaker at the Unconventional Women event was Congresswoman Hilda Solis from California. I specifically wanted to mention her because of her work on the issue of violence against women and helping to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act in 2005. My work is about domestic violence, and VAWA has helped us to make huge strides in the services that are available for all those who experience violence at the hands of an intimate partner. Domestic violence, especially among the immigrant community, is something that is a big issue in Solis' district, and I appreciate her committment to it.

And Donna Brazile spoke, who is just Donna Brazile - she is amazing. She is speaking at a lot of stuff this week. BTW, it's a good thing I'm not a professional reporter because I am terrible about getting quotes right. So, she said some really cool stuff, but that was about 36 hours ago and I've heard a lot more stuff since then.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi was also a big highlight of the speakers at the convention yesterday. They played clips of when she was elected as Speaker in 2006 and had her grandchildren all around her. I cannot see that moment and not totally tear up (why yes, I do cry at everything).

Something else that I thought was a cool feature was that among all of the politicians who spoke, they scattered regular people who were just there to tell their stories against the backdrop American Voices: American Values.

Apologies to the Denver City Planners

I discovered today that the trek between the Convention Center and Pepsi Center really is walkable. My problem yesterday is that I was not in control of a map or the info about where we were going. So, bonus, today I walked a lot down the 16th St. Mall and got lots more photos of fun political chum and other random stuff for you to enjoy. Bet you can't wait for me to post it.

Besides being pretty pedestrian friendly, Denver is very green.

A Proposal

If you watched any local (Phoenix) news coverage, you probably saw this, but two of our delegates got engaged at the convention last night - Ruben Gallego and Kate Widland. It was really funny because Ruben and Kate are the whips, and they're supposed to tell us when to hold up our signs and stuff. Well, Kate wasn't there, and Ruben was really distracted wondering where Kate was because he was planning to propose. Kate said everyone kept texting her to find out where she was, so she thought she was in trouble. Anyway, when she got there, Ruben gave the signal to hold up the "special signs".

She said yes. I'm sure it was a proposal neither of them will ever forget. Hopefully, we will be much more disciplined about our sign holding tonight because our whips will both be paying attention to what we're doing. Congratulations Ruben and Kate!!

At the Pepsi Center

Getting around to the different events has been somewhat challenging. Denver is kind of spread out, like Phoenix, and although public transportation is a little better, nothing is really walkable. I thought that the Convention Center and the Pepsi Center were the same thing, but they're not - silly me. Most of the daytime events are around the Convention Center and then we have to get to the Pepsi Center for the convention around 3.

Anyway, although it probably looks way better on TV, here is a picture of the convention floor:

When I first walked in, I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm here! It was pretty amazing.

The Arizona delegation is seated right below the boxes for the Biden and Obama families (so, lots of opportunites to see us on TV):

That is how close we are to Joe Biden. He got way more attention last night than he ever did during his Presidential race. I think he was kind of enjoying it.

One of the highlights of the evening was the tribute to Senator Ted Kennedy. Also, Michelle Obama's speech was absolutely amazing. I cried.

P.S. We aren't allowed to bring computers on the floor, except for Ted, who is our official blogger (linked on the side). If you want live blogging, I recommend going there, except that his battery ran out before Michelle's speech.

Political Chum

Walking around downtown where all the events are is really fun. Denver is a great city and the weather is beautiful! There are convention-goers everywhere and all kinds of campaign-related stuff for sale on the street corners. The best I've seen so far are these Obama dolls.

A Day of Inspiration

On Monday, I attended the event Unconventional Women, which was put on by a group of organizations, mostly nonpartisan, that work to increase women in elected office. It was incredibly inspirational. The highlight for me was hearing from two freshman Senators, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. They talked about their experiences as women in the U.S. Senate (there are still only 16 of them!). Also, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York talked about her new book: Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated - Why Women's Lives Are Not Getting Any Easier. I plan to go get a copy.

Then I headed to the Women's Equalitea (get it - a tea about equality) sponsored by NOW and the Feminist Majority Foundation. To get in, we had to walk though the throng of abortion protestors - they actually had delivery trucks with really awful pictures all over the sides driving around the block. Because women's equality is really only about abortion. What made me really sad about it is that these are the same protestors who sit outside of women's health clinics, so even women just going in for a routine exam or birth control have to go through that. This poses a barrier for them accessing necessary healthcare. So, we still have a long way to go. The event itself was great - I love Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California! All of the speakers paid tribute to Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones of Ohio who died last week and was a great champion for women's issues.

Didn't Mean to Disappoint

The schedule they have us on here is GRUELING!! Breakfast at 7am, events, caucuses, more events, the convention floor, parties, sleep a few hours, repeat. So, I know you all are waiting for my posts so that you can vicariously be here, but when I got back to the hotel last night (this morning), my computer was freezing up and I was too tired. I'll try to do better!