Blogging the Democratic National Convention

by Alan Brock, Wakulla County Delegate

August 27, 2008 

Publisher's Note:  Four delegates from Wakulla County will be attending the Democratic National Convention this week in Denver, Colorado.  The convention officially runs from August 25th to August 28th.  The delegates are Mary Mooney, Mike Williams, Maria Carter, and Alan Brock.  We will be featuring daily blog entries here on Wakulla.com, sort of like our own "You Were There" column.  This is Alan's first entry, emailed to us at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, August 28, 2008.

Hello from the “Mile High City”.  I am a little exhausted, but excited to share with you a little bit about what it is like to be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

First, let me thank everyone who came out to vote on Tuesday.  I am humbled by your vote, and the opportunity to continue my campaign as the Democratic Candidate for the District One County Commission seat.   

{sidebar id=1}I also want to thank Leon and Jo Ann Nettles for the campaign that they ran.  I have known them both for most of  my life, and running against family friends was the most difficult part of the campaign.  I have a great deal of respect for them both and appreciate their years of public service in Wakulla.  Leon is a good man, and I know that he will continue to stay involved in Wakulla politics.

Tuesday night was very exciting after the results came in.  I went from the Supervisor of Elections office to meet up with my friends and family in St. Marks at the Riverside Café, after which I went home and packed, and finally I was able to get to bed about 2AM--  only to get up at 4AM to get ready to go to the airport to fly out to Denver.  I arrived at the hotel around noon where I met up with Delegate Mary Mooney, had lunch, and that is where I learned that I had been tapped to write the daily convention blog for today.  After lunch I took a shower and headed over to the Pepsi  Center.  We left our hotel at 1:30 p.m. to make sure we were there on time and able to get good seats.

The security at the Pepsi Center is pretty intense.  There is a two mile perimeter around the center where cars are not allowed.  Our credentials have computer chips imbedded in them to make sure they are not counterfeit.  TSA, the airport security people, are searching all of our bags.  Nothing at all dangerous is allowed in to the center.

I was fortunate to sit next to my friend Corinne Rubin at the center and to hear the amazing speeches.  The speeches start at 3PM (5pm EST) and are broadcast on CSPAN all day.  (www.c-span.org ). The variety of speakers is very impressive.  The theme of the night is “Securing America” so there are a lot of veterans and soldiers discussing why they are supporting the Democratic Party.  You can read the text of their speeches here: http://www.demconvention.com/wednesday-speeches/ .

What hits you first when you walk in is the stage.  It is very impressive.  It has giant screens and lights that wrap into the rafters.  The show is a digital masterpiece.  It is truly a sight to behold.  It is hard to imagine that it is set up for only 3 days and nights.

During the first hour we took care of a lot of business.  Each state had a roll call vote where we gave the numbers of votes from our state for Senator Clinton and Senator Obama.  It was pretty intense, as my seat was right next to the microphone for Florida, and the crowd of cameras that crowded around and the people anxiously trying to get in the shot was overwhelming.  Shortly after Florida cast its vote, Senator Obama was named the Presidential Nominee of the Democratic Party.  Whatever happens this November, this is history in the making and it is a privilege to be one of the people here in Denver witnessing it.

The second hour focused on the Federal House and Senate races, allowing time for each of the candidates in tight races the chance to speak.  This allowed them the chance to have some major news coverage back home in their district.  It closed with a great performance by Melissa Etheridge doing a medley of songs.  

After Melissa Etheridge, Corinne, my friend sitting next to me, began listing all of the celebrities that she had seen out here already.   Tonight I saw many political and TV news celebrities, but also Chevy Chase and Blair Underwood.  It is a weird experience when you see these people you recognize and you start to try to figure out why and how you know them.  I always fall back into thinking that they must be political figures, and by the time I realize that it is someone my friends back home might want a picture of, they are gone.  It is probably for the best anyway.

The third hour began to prep the crowd for the last hour.  If you have the chance I encourage you to watch or read the speeches from some of the speakers.  I am sure that every speech had a dozen fingers in it, but there were some really great speeches tonight.

{sidebar id=1}The fourth and fifth hours were broadcast live on the networks.  Congressman Kendrick Meek from Miami came out to introduce President Clinton as the opening speaker.  I have heard President Clinton speak before, but this speech tonight was amazing!  He is truly a great speaker and a natural leader.  I commend the former President and his wife for their support of the Democratic Party and Senator Obama; I am sure it wasn’t easy.

Senator Kerry came out and gave the best speech that I have heard him give.  It always seems like the speeches are better once they have quit running for national office.  On Thursday Vice President Al Gore will speak, and I am sure that we will see something similar.

In between the politicians’ speeches there were soldiers, troop advocates like Beth Robinson, the wife of a Marine, retired generals and admirals who came out to speak and express their concerns with the way the military is being treated currently, the problems with stop-loss and continuing to redeploy our troops and reservists back to the war in Iraq.  Most spoke about how Senator McCain is trying to do away with the VA system, and how he was against the updated GI Bill.  You can read more about this here: http://www.democrats.org/a/communities/veterans_and_military_families/ .  It is a partisan website but you can see a lot of the information that was used during the speeches tonight.

While all of this was going on I kept getting text messages from friends back home who have seen me on TV.  The Florida Delegation is right up front so apparently we are being picked up on the different news stations a lot.

The last hour opened with a moving video about our soldiers and then Tammy Duckworth, the Director of the Illinois Department of Veteran’s Affairs.  It is rumored that if Senator Obama is elected President she will be the person nominated to replace him in the Senate.

Finally, the Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden introduced his father, who gave a fantastic speech.  The night closed with a surprise visit from Senator Obama.  Again, all of this is visible on dozens of websites and I encourage you to check out their speeches.

It was great to hear from and have the chance to honor so many men and women who have served in our armed forces.  It is very moving to hear their stories.   It has been an honor to be out here tonight.  After it ended, Corinne and I took some pictures, because tomorrow we will be at Invesco Field for the final evening, and then we took the hour bus ride back to our hotel.

I know that many of the people who read this journal entry will not be voting for Senator Obama this November, and also that many who read it will be voting for Senator Obama, but either way it has been an amazing first day out here for me.   I hope that this has provided a little insight into what it is like to be a Delegate.  I will send photographs back soon.  I look forward to the chance to catch up with everyone back home in the near future, to thank you again for your vote of support in the primary.  I look forward to seeing you all on the campaign trail.

Alan Brock
Wakulla County Delegate

Click here to view a great photo gallery of the DNC taken by Alan Brock, Delegate for Wakulla County. 

This blog entry was originally published on August 28, 2008.

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