LIVE: From Invesco Field

By Kelly Nuxoll and Dawn Teo
Thursday, August 28th, 2008

Apparently, predictably, the wifi at Invesco is jammed with the digital transmissions of a gazillion realtime bloggers and emailers and instant messengers.... so our own blog updates will be delayed. Thank you for your patience.

3:16 PM

Just arrived at the bloggers area and plugged in. Took us about 30 minutes to go straight up 4 floors. Bloggers area is in the press box. First of all, one of the elevators is "reserved" and another elevator has been roped off for a private Dem Convention Committee Party (they roped off the party just in front of the elevators instead of behind them and wouldnt let us just get on the elevator).

About half of the area that was originally designated for bloggers during the walk thru has been sharked by other media, and so we have to be rotated out in 30 minute increments. I took the last available seat, and now a line is forming for seats. There are phones at the desks, bu we do not know what they are for. My seat is actually marked with both "Associated Press" and "DNC" -- no idea why.

This is a very testosterone filled room. Only 3 women (including Kelly and Dawn) out of about 45 bloggers. Things are quiet right now. Some are just in here to get out of the heat, others are actually blogging.

Everywhere in Invesco, the people are incredibly excited and happy to be here. Even when things are going wrong, people are jovial and laugh it off. As we were walking up the ramp to the press elevator, we had a great view of the line for the public ticket holders. It snaked back and forth across the 1/4 parking lot and then across some kind of overpass or bridge in the distance. The part we can see appears to be about a mile and a half long.

Now, it appears that the seats we were instructed to take (we have purple passes) are not open to the press, but there are NO open seats anywhere else. We may have to watch from the hallway! This is most definitely the most poorly run convention I've ever attended, and my expectations for organization and professionalism at this event are pretty low, so we'll see. Who was it that said, "I don't belong to an organized party, I'm a Democrat."?

2:45 PM

Dawn and I are here at Invesco Field, home of the Denver Broncos and, more importantly, site of Barack Obama's speech tonight. (See the Onion headline: Will Barack Obama Overcome His Debilitating Fear of Public Speaking in Time for his Big Event?")

It's a beautiful, blue sunny day in Denver, and at 1:45pm--only forty-five minutes after the security check points opened--the stadium is already about an eighth full. The line for ticket holders stretched at least three-quarters of a mile out the gates by the time I came screeching in. Surprisingly, I didn't get punched in the face as I race-walked alongside the spectators, depending as much on my hurried air of entitlement as my press pass to get me through.

Dawn, who was invited to ride on the CBS press bus (a worrying fact, since she had zero credentials--they just scooped her up), was waiting for me outside the press entrance, and we achieved a seamless lateral pass of the press badge. Lesson one, two, and three of the DNC convention: It's good to have cred.

Although there are rumors this is a logistical nightmare, we've seen no evidence of it so far. A couple spectators we chatted with on the way in said they had parked and entered in less than an hour. Inside the corridors, it smells like popcorn and feels like a football game the hometown team is pretty sure it's going to win.

For the moment, Dawn and I are sitting at the 50 yard line about two dozen seats from the field. The press are seated among the "honored guests" - special people, but not special enough to have suites. The band is warming up, and somebody just hauled two dozen American flags onto the sage. Camera crews are setting up, and somebody's selling Coke for $4. On the screen are fantastic Obama-campaign videos showing people from the primaries and conventions.
Despite the blazing sun, and the knowledge that we are at T-7 until the Nominee (who at last gets to drop the "presumptive") speaks, Dawn and I are giddy with caffeine, dehydration, and the thrill of what feels like the Superbowl of politics.

Follow Dawn Teo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dawnteo

Comments

[guyinAZ]

That's great reporting. I wish the TV networks would have given us inside views like this -- instead all we got to see is the fluff part.

[northcan]

sorry I didn't connect