Friday Fun – Behind the Scenes Tour of DNC Convention

WARNING: It’s “Yuuuge!”

This one is for us hardcore political junkies who enjoy the nuts and bolts on getting things done at Conventions.  And fortunately two of the Owners/Administrators – David Allen (Skinner) and David Allsopp (EarlG) at the blog DemocraticUnderground.com scored Press Passes to the DNC Convention!  What a thrill!

They posted a daily gallery of their adventure, and what it’s actually like being in Philadelphia documented with LOTS of photos.  [Links will be provided at the end for a more complete viewing, because I left a LOT out].  And while this will NOT be “National Geographic Photo Contest Winners” quality – I found them quite compelling.  I’ve tried to narrow it down to the ones that were both representative and interesting.

But first, a bit of news.  Apparently I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed a good guffaw yesterday when Ben Carson announced that Trump is simply “too humble” for “self-praise”.  (Yeah, he actually said that – and with a straight face!)

NOTE: Since there are quite a few photos, to save at least a little real estate I’ve made the rest smaller than full-size.  To view them full-size either right-click and choose “Open in New Tab/Window” or scroll-click if your mouse has that feature. 

If you just click on them they’ll also open in full-size – but it’ll be as a new window, so then you have to do the return feature to get back to the article.  Sorry, but you can't format them to open separely like hyperlinks.

Let’s meet David Allen and David Allsopp as they head out.  (Allen said he dug around and found a souvenir t-shirt from the 2008 campaign.)

They made it!

Of course not everything got a “Thumbs Up” from them

Here are their Press Passes

 

Like a lot of convention goers, their motel was quite a ways out in the ‘burbs.  And so like a lot of convention goers they commuted in every day on buses … lots, and LOTS of buses.

They were surprised how smoothly and quickly the security checkpoints were run

Of course they ran into quite a few celebrities – like Dan Rather

And I did a double-take thinking that our own TomCat actually made it Philly

I thought they’d be assigned a designated seat for the entire time – but they only are given a general section to occupy … and it changes based on how crowded the arena would be. 

If you got there early enough, you had the place pretty much to yourself

So before the crowds showed up they grabbed a couple of orienting photos

 

And of course the first night featured Sen. Bernie Sanders!

And Michelle Obama – who brought the house down!

With the Keynote Address by Sen. Elizabeth Warren

The signs that we all enjoyed seeing the crowd wave are actually handed out at appropriate times, so the crowd can more easily “stay on message” (something that’s very foreign to Herr Drumpf)

The second day they took in some tourist attractions and enjoyed some fun stuff

 

This is the NBC Today show set/stage – and it’s about as crowded here as it was during their morning broadcasts when I watched (Disclaimer: I loathe Matt Lauer)

The small "Today" show crowds were odd because it’s right across the Green from Independence Hall

So of course they had to stop to see the crack in the Liberty Bell

Then headed back to the Convention – with all those crazy hats.  What is it with those hats?

 

And they even ran into Jill Stein of the Green Party

But things improved when they actually got to meet Civil Rights Icon Rep. John Lewis

They got good seats to enjoy Pres. Bill Clinton regale the crowd with his “In the springs of 1971, I met a girl” story introducing us to Hillary.

And they had a chance to chat w/ Sen. Ron Wyden (eat your heart out, TC)

As things kept picking up and ticket holders actually showed up, they got moved further and further into the rafters.  But one of them snuck out just as Pres. Obama was winding up his speech, so they grabbed this shot

Things did not begin auspiciously on their fourth and final day: They had the terrible misfortune to run into (wish it had been literally) Andrea (nee Mitchell) Greenspan

I missed the "Card Stunt"  on TV while visiting my Mom in Illinois because I had stayed up the night before (Wednesday) to watch Pres. Obama’s entire speech (probably a good call).  So I went to bed before Hillary spoke.  But prior to the finale with Hillary, the crowd was involved in a Card Stunt.  Did anyone see it?  How did it turn out?

They were given instructions on their handouts, so this is a series of how it was done

 

 

You can see they were in the rafter for the main event.  That's Chelsea on their screen in the lower right introducing her Mom.

And the tension builds …

Before the Grand Entry …

 

And of course ending with the balloon drop

 

So we bid “Adieu” to two very lucky Davids.  What a treat that would have been, to see history being made first-hand!

LINKS – with ALL the phots (and believe me, there were a LOT  MORE!)

Background

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512289134

Day 1

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512302902

Day 2

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512311193

Day 3

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512317490

Day 4

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512323910