August 25, 2008
Denver was warm and friendly when I got here mid-afternoon Sunday. As I was arriving, the political buzz still was about the pick of U.S. Sen. Joe Biden as vice presidential pick, but the even larger undercurrent was about how the Clintons and their supporters were going to affect the convention. On the street, a small protest took place (at least it appeared to be 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 DNC members.
It did start feeling a little more like a convention later in the evening, though, when I went to the Red Lion 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 – start with the simplist, 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 see 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.