Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Oh To Be Part Of The Convention Confusion...

I just eat up the reports about the Democratic National Convention that are coming from our Idaho bloggers. The confusion, hard work, and long hours are summed up nicely by D2 at 43StateBlues, who describes a typical blogger's day at the Convention. And although she is not at the Convention, RedStateRebel's dedication to posting everything that's happening includes an excitement that reverberates in the blogosphere.

For the typical delegate's day, check out Megan Nagel's descriptions, who puts more activities in a day than I thought possible. From events to interviews to getting those daily credentials to travel time to enthusiasm and to catching up on eluded sleep, Megan describes it all.

Of course, being both blogger and mom, I keep turning to my son, Julian, page and youngest member of the Idaho delegation. He has done well with meeting people from Evan Bayh (they are in the same hotel) to Bill Richardson to John Oliver, and, while on the floor, ran into Howard Wolfson, with whom he briefly joked about his role in Hillary's campaign. Hey D2, maybe you can talk Julian into letting you get those pics out of his camera....

Those are some of the highlight moments in days that begin closer to 4:30 am, and which keep Jessica and Julian very busy from carrying signs to running credentials to making sure everyone is present for roll call to listening to both the mundane and the most exciting speeches. And Julian, like so many of us in Idaho, loved Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer's speech, whose enthusiasm, wit, and passion is so inspirational.

Julian and the other delegates have also been featured in various news articles. Julian was lucky enough to be interviewed by AFP, which was picked up all over the internet. Richard Hill, a delegate from Moscow, was featured on NPR. Jerry Brady reports about the souvenir collecting at the Convention, which is interesting just in terms of what's being offered. Megan Nagel was picked up by the Norwegian Dagbladet, although they had trouble with their geography thinking that she came from Ohio. The National Journal Online couldn't resist asking Keith Roark about Idaho potatoes.... Albert Wilkerson was stopped on day one for his take on Obama. And there has to be more to come!

Go Democrats! Go Obama!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Idaho at the Democratic National Convention

Wow! Idaho is at the Convention and our Idaho delegates, bloggers, and reporters are doing their best to bring the convention to all of us. With charm, wit, fun and great reporting, 43StateBlues is Idaho's "official" blog at the Convention. Watch the videos and feel like you're there (and you'll also find out why D2 and Serephin have to "share" a floor credential). You can also follow their every movement (well, almost) at Twitter and Flickr.

Of course Red State Rebels is on top of everything in spite of reporting from Idaho. She notes some of the other reports coming from the convention, including Jill Kuraitis from NewWestBoise and Nathaniel Hoffman for the Boise Weekly. I especially liked the excitement that emanates from delegate Megan Nagel's report in Blue Girl From A Red State, and, of course, that informative and interesting blog from one of Idaho's best legislators, Nicole LeFavour and her Notes From The Floor. We even have reports from our very own Jerry Brady who, as a delegate also provides a well-rounded description of Convention events.

With 3 news people for every one delegation member, delegates and anyone with those special lanyards, are being interviewed left and right. As many of you know, my son, Julian Langness, is the youngest member of the Idaho delegation and is there as the page from District 1. He says he has been interviewed by so many different people, he can't remember all of them. But Mom was smart enough to sign up for GoogleAlerts and discovered that Julian and roommate Steve Mercado have already appeared online at New West Politics. I liked the article because I believe that the youth that Obama has drawn into the party are my future, if not yours.

Go Democrats!