r-alexander's blog

I know this is late, but I thought I'd say a few words about Obama's DNC speech.

Fortunately, all the ONU crew who wanted to were able to attend the speech. The weather fully cooperated as it was probably our most pleasant day in Denver.

Things are certainly not winding down here at the DNC.  Instead, the energy has risen and the excitement is mounting.   Tonight, instead of watching speeches with the Ohio Delegation, several of the students and I went to a rather large community watch party at the Wells Fargo Theatre. I'm really glad we did this because I believe it provided a better sense as to how Democrats on the street reacted to the speeches. I want to talk a bit about a few of them.

Each and every day there is more and more buzz! The students have met so many folks.  In this post...I want to do 2 things: (1) give you a sense of what it is like here (apart from what you are getting via the media) and (2) give you some political analysis (from a practicing political scientist) about what I have seen out here ove the past few days.  As the week continues...I may try and give more insight in regard to what I'm observing.   

First...I'd like to set the stage out here in Denver.  

A big welcome to the RNC participants! 

I was able to get some photos of several of you from TWC's Flickr site...see below

Andy Lammers... 

 Mike Hamper...doing the Governator? 

So many things have happened to so many in the contingent!

Several others have already blogged about the media party...so I'll keep it to a minimum. However, I'll probably have more to say on it later. Here's a photo of the fireworks display.

As you can imagine, we've all been very busy over the past few days. We're all going about 100mph in about 100 different ways. We can see the city of Denver changing by the hour. More protestors, more vendors, more media, more people! The students and I are taking it in the best we can.

I wish my family could be taking this in with me! 

Here are some highlights for the last 24 hours...

Another crazy day in Denver...

Kelly and Sam went downtown to see Nancy Pelosi at her book signing and low and behold...a tv crew from Denver wanted to interview both of them. Although they were both interviewed, through the magic of tv editing only Kelly's was used. She did a great job and represented ONU and all of Ohio quite well. I'm such a proud academic dad!

I'm sure Kelly will blog more about the Pelosi book signing (and Sam's role in trying to keep order there).

 The students and I have been kept very busy these past few days.  We've already heard from the CEO of the Convention Committee, the Executive Producer of the Convention, the Director for the Inside Logistical operations of the Convention, and the Director for the Outside Logistics relating to the Convention.  We've heard a great deal simply about what it takes to put on a convention...interestingly, we've heard very little about the political foundations relating to this Convention.  I think we will get quite a bit of that story next week (at least from the speakers). 

Today was the first day of the lecture series. Professor Cronin did an excellent job setting the tone for the seminars. In fact, he discussed a number of points I typically bring up in my course on the Presidency (not surprising since I use HIS textbook). I guess our students have an inside track on that lecture!

Who knew that the weather in Ohio would be better than that in Colorado?!  While Denver boasts 300+ days of sunshine, the last 2 days were not among them!  However, the weather forecast is looking good for the next 10 days!