Today has been something of a comedy of errors, which I suppose is to be expected at an event like this — confusing emails about where to pick up the all-important credentials, and garbled cell-phone messages leading to the three of us standing around in a hotel lobby wondering why no one knew about the event we thought we were attending, which it turns out was in a different hotel (the critical difference is between “Crowne Plaza” and “Brown Palace”). As a result, unfortunately, we missed Governor Patrick’s speech to an event about young voters sponsored by the Harvard Institute of Politics. The Gov then hopped a plane back to Boston in order to be able to attend tomorrow’s funeral for Army PFC Paul E. Conlon, Jr. If all goes well, he will be back in Denver in plenty of time for his speech tomorrow night from the Convention floor.
Nonetheless, it’s very interesting to be here. On our walk back from the Brown Palace hotel, we ran into what is apparently a moving protest. We were told that they stake out a spot designed to disrupt downtown traffic as much as possible; the police arrive and move them along; and then they find another, equally disruptive location. The police are putting on quite a show of force — lots of riot gear and automatic weapons on display. Here’s a quick view:
I’m now back in the Big Tent, home of the new media gang. Here’s the view from the inside:
Charley and Bob will be on the convention floor later on this afternoon. More soon.
