Staff Blog
Greetings From Denver
It's early morning on the first day of the convention, though the convention-related activities have been happening for a couple of days now. Campaign finance laws prevent corporations from spending money to help elect candidates to federal office, but they don't stop them from throwing parties. The Blue Dog Democrats, those self-described fiscal conservatives, have found a loving partner in AT&T.
Conference attendees generally begin conversations by trading notes on just what kind of convention access they have, if any, and how close (or far) their hotels iare from the Pepsi Center where most of the convention is being held. A city the size of Denver just does not have nearly enough hotel rooms to support an event like this, so many find themselves having to commute in from places such as the Denver International Airport (26 miles) or Boulder (30 miles). I learned my lesson during the 2004 convention in Boston, and made my hotel reservation for this event 13 months ago.
Politics is, as the saying goes, Hollywood for ugly people. The conventions are their Oscars. Every four years members of the media wring their hands about just why they cover these events. The short answer is that they do so because it's fun, and because this is where the important people are. There may not be a lot of "news" going on here, but there are a lot of goings on nonetheless. Who wants to be left out?
I'll be here all week using this space to try to convey some sense of those parts of the convention and convention-related activities which aren't parted of the scripted prime time show. You can also follow along at my usual blog, and because blogs are so 4 years ago, at my twitter feed.
Oooh! First! Good to see you reaching out to them newspapers.
Someone might want to tell Atrios that the link to his blog goes to the Google map for the Denver airport.
You act like Denver is some small town unworthy of hosting an event like this or something.
I’ve lived here for 5 years now, and last I checked, Denver has about 2.5 million people in its metro area. Now I realize that’s not much compared to Philly, but it’s not small by any means…
no slight to Denver intended. The point is not that Denver is small, it’s that the convention is so big.