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slow is the word of the day (2008 Travis County Democratic Convention)

Whoops! A “liveblog” post that never got…posted:

Just now getting around to certifying the alternates delegates. We can’t vote on our delegates until the alternates are certified. That could be another hour.

People’s tempers are starting to come out as this drags on. I think the newer delegates are the ones more prone to disgruntlement. Those who have been around know the process takes time.

March 29, 2008 | Filed Under Things | Leave a Comment

live blogging the county convention

up and at ‘em. Coffee is made, and I’m about ready to get my delegate on.

We’ll see how the live blogging from the iphone goes today.

8:00PM update: Hm. Not so good on the live blogging front, it turns out. Once at the convention, I could only get a 169 IP addy from the “Public Wifi” network, and the cell reception in the building was decidedly EDGE unfriendly. But I can summarize the day pretty well from memory:

Leave the house at 7:20 to walk to the designated rendezvous point in the neighborhood. Realize the ride I was going to catch left at 7:00. Double check e-mail. Second wave of folks leaving at 7:30. All good.
Queue up on Decker Lane to turn into the venue. Wait there for 30 minutes or so to actually get on the grounds. Once in, we decide that once one has purchased a Prius, there is a chance there might not be enough room for three other passengers and the carload of smug with which some select Prius owners may drive around. (Note to self - smug probably won’t count as a passenger for the HOV lane…)
Fight through the line/crowds to get in line in front of the window issuing credentials for our precinct. Wait.
Get credentials. We’re in! Yay! Find our precinct’s seating area. Wait.
Decide to see the governor about a horse - or haircare product. Wait.
Back to seating area. Start to put Obama sticker on my Canadian sportswear sweatshirt labeled “ROOTS.” Decide that, while I like the ironical nature of that, others might not. Take off sweatshirt, place sticker on kinder, friendlier “DemocracyFest 2005″ shirt instead. Wait.
Go person two of the tables in the exhibition area. Put on an Anti-McCaul sticker. Gain some level of perspective. Place Larry Joe sticker under my Anti-McCaul sticker.
Speeches start. Head back to precinct seating area to see what’s up with my Obamatriots. Wait.
Listen to more speechifying. Wait.
Wait around. Wait.
Start process of elevating alternate delegates. Find out we can’t caucus for Obama/Clinton yet. Return to seats. Wait.
Eat sandwich. Wait.
Sit. And wait.
Stand. And wait.
Wait. And wait.
An announcement. I wait with baited breath to hear if we should stay away from the brown acid. Instead, told our senate district is close to certifying delegates. That’s great. In the meantime, I’ll wait.
Standby to standby to wait.
4:00ish - Released to caucus. Finally. We select delegates for the state convention. By 4:30 (and about two hours late), we’re done with the most important part of the convention for the bulk of the folks who where there.

For my part, I think our precinct chair/delegation chair - a Clinton supporter, ran the vote in as fair and open manner as possible. Others in the Obama delegation may disagree, but I think he did just fine.

And though there were many delays throughout the day, I believe that should have been expected, given the unprecedented turnout. I think, by and large, things were handled fairly well. Though I’d like to never have to revisit that venue again. I don’t think it was conducive to people milling around and visiting. That said, the bathrooms were sanitary, never ran out of paper towels, they turned the ticket windows over to food concessionaires once everyone had gotten their credentials, and even set up additional porta-potties. It could have been bad there. Oh, not Superdome/Katrina bad…but bad nonetheless.

Some photos from the convention (click for larger version):