[Editor's note: The story below was constructed as a whole. You can skip around to independent pieces of it via these links: A Convention Descends on Denver; Anger, a Recurring Theme; PUMA; Paul Moreno; Don Williams.]

***

Denver was warm and friendly when I got here mid-afternoon Sunday. As I was arriving, the political buzz still was about Obama’s choice of U.S. Sen. Joe Biden as vice presidential pick. But the even stronger undercurrent was about how the Clintons and their supporters were going to influence the convention. A small protest took place (at least it appeared to be small from the news accounts, and from a girl with whom I spoke who was there).

The thing still was setting up, though. The Tent State gathering at Cuernavaca Park, on the northern edge of Downtown, surrounded by upscale high-rise condominiums, was just getting started with a concert organized out of the back of a truck by the Street Team from FightWithTools.org. The 16th Street Promenade, while packed, was not obviously overrun by Democratic conventioneers.

It did start feeling a little more like a convention later in the evening, though, when I went to the Red Lion Inn in Aurora, about 10 miles southeast of Downtown where the Texas delegation is staying, to interview El Paso delegates.

I was looking for a meeting either of El Paso delegates – there are 10, plus two superdelegates – or of Texas delegates organized largely by the El Pasoans. The El Paso Times reported, laughably, that "El Pasoans want Hillary Clinton in vice president slot." The only person quoted wanting that was Javier Aaron Paz, an El Paso delegate. Now, there are some facts that could be used to build that assertion – starting with the simplest, most available fact, that El Paso voted for Clinton by about 70 percent – but the story never did that. Sigh. As an aside, one might gather that in a Clinton town in a red state that is not in play, a headline like that -- which doesn't even reflect the thin story -- pretty much guarantees El Paso won't be visited by Obama, or even any high-level surrogates. But Las Cruces probably will.

The lobby at the Red Lion was not packed, but there were several clusters of delegates. Looking for El Pasoans, I ran into Don Williams first. He is a lawyer and a delegate for Obama, and was one of the key figures in the challenge that added Obama delegates to the El Paso delegation to the state convention.

We chatted briefly.

He said that picking Biden was "a brilliant idea."

Was it a sign of weakness, Obama admitting he needed help with foreign policy?

"Regardless of what he does or what he says, they (Republican) are going to try to use it against him," Williams said. "Regardless of why he picked him, had to pick someone he felt comfortable and meets all the criteria he mentioned. Joe Biden fits what he was looking for. It’s a team. So he should be given credit for making a wise choice."

What about the split – national, Obama v. Clinton, and local, Moreno v. state Rep Norma Chavez -- in the El Paso delegation?

"Every single person in El Paso I don’t feel is going for Barack Obama, I am going to register (for the vote) someone to replace them—the rest of this pettiness, let them wallow in it, because I am moving on.

"My gut reaction is that a good Democrat will do what good Democrats will have to do in the very end. I am going to give them some credit," Williams said.

Then I went to go speak with outgoing state Rep. Paul Moreno.

***

Moreno, apparently, did not get the memo reported upon by the New York Times.

The story, about pre-convention jitters largely due to uncertainty about the Clintons, ends like this:

"The Obama campaign is leaving little to chance. It has created a rapid response team — led by Craig Smith, a former top operative in the Clinton world — to head out to the convention floor at the first sign of any trouble from Clinton supporters.

"Mr. Obama’s campaign began sending out a one-page sheet of daily talking points to delegates, instructing them what to say and what to avoid in talking to reporters. (In one last week, according to a recipient, the central thrust was how to parry questions about Clinton-Obama strife and Mrs. Clinton’s speech by saying, “I can’t wait to hear Hillary Clinton talk about the future and am excited that her candidacy is unifying our party!”)"

Moreno didn't appear in the mood to celebrate party unity.

"Don Williams? I just chewed his ass out," Moreno said. "He tried to take a picture with us."

Moreno said that he was all-in for Hillary Clinton.

"When I support somebody I support them. No Mickey Mouse stuff," he said.

"Texas and the Southwest are deeply indebted to Clinton because of the great work he did for Mexican Americans. I don’t think Obama knows anything about Mexican Americans."

As an example, Moreno noted the Clinton judicial appointments of two El Pasoans, David Briones and Phil Martinez, and the near appointment of Enrique Moreno to the Fifth District Court of Appeals. Martinez was appointed by President George W. Bush (oops), but Moreno got the big picture mostly right (here's a 2003 news release from U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, touting Clinton's record of appointing Hispanics).

"My mind is made up," Moreno said. "Never in the political process did he (Obama) mention Cesar Chavez or the plight of farmworkers.

"Under Obama," Moreno said, "appointments (to Mexican-Americans) will diminish. Our education rates are low, and they're going to use that excuse, and go after appointments from Illinois or Detroit.

"I'm going to vote straight Democrat. What I'm saying now is not (meant) to poison … I'm just just telling you facts and truths that will not be erased easily."

I asked him about the split between him and Chavez.

"Norma, I never liked her. It's known I cannot stand Norma and she cannot stand me."

I asked him about the draft Hillary movement.

"I'm going to do whatever I can," he said. "I can't count too well but I know the millions of votes she got can be very helpful to the Democratic party or very detrimental."

Then I talked to Blanche Darley, another El Paso delegate, and Moreno's sister.

We'll get to her in a minute.

***

I left El Paso Saturday afternoon. It's 700 miles from El Paso to Denver on Interstate 25, which once it gets to Santa Fe dips slightly south before curving back north as it hugs the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains.

Before I-25 gets to northern New Mexico, it follows more or less the Rio Grande from Las Cruces. Not far outside Las Cruces is the Border Patrol checkpoint. It took about five minutes to get to the guard shack, and once there the agent questioned me more than usual (almost always, they wave me through).

Where are you coming from? Las Cruces? I had Texas plates, so I thought that might be an attempt to trip me up. Or maybe he just wasn't paying attention. No, I said, I'm coming from El Paso. Heading where? Albuquerque, Santa Fe? Nope, I'm a reporter heading to Denver for the national convention. While it seems minor, the whole thing put me off a bit, because it came on the heels of a conversation with a friend who suggested I might need a passport as identification for credentials at the convention, and it made me think of travel restrictions in Soviet Russia. I know, we're a ways from that. But, as Jefferson said, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, and we're all just frogs in a pan, you know?

Saturday evening, I stayed in Santa Fe with a friend. He asked me to call him Richard B.

We talked about El Paso and Santa Fe, and about politics.

The story of the day Saturday was Obama's naming Biden as vice presidential nominee.

While I had been on the road, and not heard any of the commentary and analysis, I had several telephone conversations about the choice. I immediately questioned whether it was playing into the hands of Republicans, who would point out that Obama wasn't ready himself to lead and needed the experience of Biden, particularly on national security issues.

When I said that to Richard, he got really animated.

"That's what the Republicans have been saying all day," he said. I didn't know that. I only had enough time to scan the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and articles, which made it clear Biden was to help shore up a perceived weakness.

Regardless of whether it's true or not, it just created a simple, powerful narrative. And I've never seen a vice presidential candidate prop up a presidential candidate, but I have seen a vice presidential candidate drag down the presidential candidate. Richard pointed out that what might be different this time is that Democrats as a group were ready to fight back against Republican attacks. He also argued that the media was not going to be one-sided in allowing Republicans to attack without repercussion, and he pointed me to Maureen Dowd's column as an example. There were no such strong counters when Kerry was being Swift-Boated.

Then he said something really interesting. I related an anecdote from someone with whom I spoke who claimed to have seen a luncheon event with Hillary Clinton where a supporter approached Hillary and said, I'm sorry, I just cannot vote for Obama. Hillary, according to this eyewitness, put her hand over her heart and said, I know. I don’t know if this story is true or not. It's just something this person claimed to have seen. As shown above, and I'll get back into it, there are people in El Paso's delegation who still are having a hard time with Obama.

Richard became even more animated. He said he voted for Hillary in the primary. But he's fully on board with Obama now. Obama won, he said. Get over it. And here was the really interesting thought, which I had not heard anyone say before: Hillary claims her 18 million supporters have to be respected? No. I voted for her, but she doesn't represent me any more. So 20 percent of her supporters might vote for McCain? Maybe 80 percent of her supporters aren’t her supporters any more.

***

When I spoke to Darley, there was no such nuance.

"This is my fifth Democratic Party convention," she said.

"Do you know what PUMA is?" she leaned towards me. "Party Unity My Ass."

According to Wikipedia, it also means "People United Means Action."

Either way, it's trouble for Obama. Tuesday, Clinton supporters will march in support of her, among other activities.

"I'm a PUMA, but that doesn’t mean anything, because PUMAs might not be around after the convention," Darley said.

I asked what she meant. Kicked out of the party? Bolt the party? Come to terms with Obama?

She didn't answer directly.

"We agree and disagree. That's what Democrats are about. At the end we might come together we might not. When you get behind the curtain you can vote for president or skip that race," Darley said.

I told her about a friend of mine who was so invested in Hillary that she wanted to hurt the Democratic Party, and said she was voting for McCain for that reason.

"I'd never vote Republican, never," Darley said.

"But what has Obama done? Has he even proven he's an American citizen? No."

Although Obama has posted a copy of his birth certificate, the story persists that it is not a true copy.

"A Mexican-American would have been crucified if he could not provide his birth certificate," Darley said.

So I asked the next question: Is there enmity between Mexican-Americans and blacks?

"Have the blacks ever stood up on our behalf? On immigration, for example? Yet we always vote to support them," she said. "Don’t get me wrong, I have very good friends who are black. They're different (from the black political leadership)."

Darley complained that people who are not black can join the Black El Paso Democrats, but cannot vote. But anyone can join and vote in the Tejano Democrats, she said.

I asked her about the polls that indicate Obama has wide support among Hispanics. You can say whatever you want, she told me.

Then I took a picture of Ramona de la Paz Torres, a political fixture known as "Monchis."

She too was a Clinton supporter. She just wasn’t so angry about it.

***

Anger is a recurrent theme here:

-- From the London Financial Times: "Historians of party conventions point out that their two primary purposes are to set a course for the general election and to demonstrate party unity to the nation. They also point out that candidates who lose presidential elections have often emerged from a divided convention. … Al Gore in 2000 … was overshadowed by none other than Bill Clinton. “The Clintons have done this before,” said the senior Democrat. “And they are capable of doing it again.”

-- From Politico.com: One senior Obama supporter said the Clinton associates negotiating on her behalf act like “Japanese soldiers in the South Pacific still fighting after the war is over.” A prominent Obama backer said some of Clinton’s lieutenants negotiating with the Obama team are “bitter enders” who presume that, rather than the Clintons reconciling themselves to Obama’s victory, it is up to Obama to accommodate them. In fact, some senior veterans of Clinton’s presidential campaign do believe this. “He has not fully reconciled,” said one political operative close to the Clintons, “and he has not demonstrated that he accepts the Clintons and the Clinton wing of the party.”

But then there is this from the NY Times: "More than half of the delegates that Mrs. Clinton won in the primaries now say they are enthusiastic supporters of Mr. Obama, and they also believe he will win the presidential election in November, the poll found. Three in 10 say they support Mr. Obama but have reservations about him or they support him only because he is the party’s nominee. Five percent say they do not support him yet.

"Forty-two percent of Mrs. Clinton’s pledged delegates surveyed say they would vote for her. But 43 percent say they would vote for Mr. Obama while another 15 percent have not decided what they will do when Mrs. Clinton’s name is put into nomination.
The poll of 970 Democratic delegates selected at random of the 4,439 total delegates was conducted July 16-Aug. 17 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points."

And there is this Associated Press story that said Hillary will release her delegates Wednesday before the roll call on the floor.

Norma Fisher-Flores, one of two El Paso "superdelegates" -- U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes is the other – said that "I've always been a big Hillary supporter but for party unity I'd have no problem going with Obama."

She said she was initially disappointed that Hillary was not considered for vice presidential nominee, but "I got over that real quick. I mean what can you do? I looked at the other choices and thought Biden would be excellent."

I asked her why Hillary Clinton had not released her delegates earlier.

"That’s what I don’t understand. I have to wait and see what she says. She's been supporting Obama all this time after she conceded why didn’t she release us?

"You're seeing people who are for Obama, who are for Hillary. People aren’t speaking. I'm not going to have any of that. Wednesday will be when we all make our final decision. Some of us will support Sen. Obama. I have always voted Democrat -- not always straight ticket – but I will not cross over to the Republican side."

***

So the convention thus far has been dominated by talk of Hillary and Bill Clinton, of disaffected supporters, or Joe Biden and foreign policy, and maybe, just maybe a bit about Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Bob Herbert, writing in the NY Times, thinks Obama needs to come out strong, take a few swings and get the attention back on him.

"Mr. Obama likes to say he’s skinny but tough. But with all due respect, he hasn’t yet demonstrated the degree of toughness needed to prevail in a presidential campaign. There is nothing genteel about these contests," Herbert wrote.

But the convention is really only a part of what is happening. It's the center, but not the whole thing.

I'm staying about two miles south of Downtown Denver, in a lovely, tree-lined neighborhood with a park, cafes, shops – the amenities of an at-least semi-cultures urban center. It's walking distance to the light rail that ends in the heart of Downtown.

Downtown, there's the 16th Street Promenade, about 15 blocks of tourists, hustlers, homeless, musicians, magicians, swells from the neighboring condo towers, public art. A real City. A free shuttle runs from one end to the other, and it's intersected in two places by light rail.

There are three stadiums within walking distance – a pretty good walk, but doable – and parks on the edges of the central Downtown district.

Sunday, the convention was a growing presence, but not yet overwhelming. I haven’t gone down there yet today, as I'm writing this, and a group of veterans were planning a protest march against the war this morning. It is likely the protests – whether for Clinton or against the political system – will mount as the week intensifies.

Yesterday, at around 5 p.m. when we were taking the train to Downtown, someone said people were being tear-gassed at a protest. That turned out not to be true.

In the Market Street Station, I hear two transit cops talk. One says to the other, are you getting on shift or getting off? Off. How's it going? Oh, a lot of protestors, but no violence.

The Promenade leads to the Commons Park and Denver Skate Park to the west and north of Downtown. The Little Platte River runs along the parks, which is long and narrow. On the other side of the river is Cuernavaca Park. Condominium towers on the Downtown side line the streets, dozens of them from two or three stories to high rises more than 20 stories.

Tent State is set up in the park. Here's how they describe themselves: "Maybe you consider yourself a radical, maybe a democrat. Maybe you'll vote for Obama, or maybe you think the whole system is corrupt. And maybe you think Obama can end the war, and maybe he can. One thing is certain though, the war won't end without all of us demanding and forcing it. It doesn't matter what ideologies are held, if some of us are planning to vote for Obama or vote NO to the entire system, we're coming together in Denver this August to tell Sen. Obama and the Democratic Party that if they don't end the war, we will!"

That group is working with FightWithTools.org, which describes itself like this.

"This event will last from Sunday August 24th through August 28th. There will be several performers including: The Flobots, The Coup, Wayne Kramer, Son of Nuns, The Tossers, Blue Scholars, Jello Biafra, Dr. Juess, Dyslexic Dinosaurs, Pnuckel, Fulcrum, Apex Vibe, The Flash Mob, State Radio, David Robic, Kombat, DJ Russh, Paul Garcia and many more!!

"We are a community of empowered music fans dedicated to turning the power of the music into positive actions for social change. Street Team wants you to Wake UP, Activate, Transform, and Step UP to be the change you want."

Rus Cordova, one of the organizers, let me take his picture. He said the music was the message, a positive message, as differentiated with anarchists, who he said may or may not show up.

"Anarchists want to make change through violence," he said.

A few hundred people were in the park. Various organizations had tents and displays. Veterans for Peace caught my eye, because they had a placard about the San Patricios.

Across the river, mounted police arrayed, but looked a little bored.

***

On the train back to the apartment, I spoke briefly to Danielle, a 22-year-old with piercings and tattooes. She started almost every sentence by saying, "The way I look at life."

So, for example, I asked her if it was true that the police used rubber bullets. "Well, the way I look at life, it's about experiences," she said.

Like getting shot with a rubber bullet, I asked?

No, I was in the back.

She said there weren't huge crowds. Enough for a small mass, but not enough to be scary.

Here is what the Denver Post wrote. The story does not mention rubber bullets, although that does not mean such tactics, which have become a staple of controlling political demonstrations, were not used.

I went to the apartment, took a few notes, and then to the Red Lion Inn, where I spoke with the El Paso delegates (the interview with Norma Fisher-Flores actually took place this morning via telephone).

By then, it was about 10 p.m. I was pretty fried. On the highway home, just before my exit, I passed a billboard truck.

Uncle Sam, about 10 feet tall, pointed his finger at me.

The sign said: "The U.S. needs your help. Vote Libertarian."