Blogging the convention
Alright, the Democratic Convention blogging credentials came today via snail mail (kinda ironic isn't it, that there wasn't an e-mail sent out as well). It's sorta bitter sweet. With the Dean campaign, one of the things I did was head up blogger outreach. It didn't involve much, really, the entire campaign seemed to be about blogger outreach at times. I was more occuped with directing the online advertising efforts. But we had plans... Even as far back as the fall of 2003, Matthew Gross and I starting to talk about how to integrate the bloggers with the 2004 convention. Without a doubt, blogging and bloggers would be in a prominant position had Howard Dean won the nomination. Heck, we'd even be inside the hall! But this, especially compared to the GOP, rocks anyway.
So, what's it gonna be like? I've got a wee bit of experience covering conventions, as Markos and I did this once before. Back in March of 2003, we got ahold of the CA Democratic Party, and pitched the idea of blogging there. With the help of a staffer that Markos schmoozed via email, Bob Mulholland took the bait, and we arrived green-with-creds to sit among the Cragg Hines, Adam Clymer, and Tom McCurry's of the world. Here's kos blogging it (skip through the posts to read his daily accounts, especially this one). For MyDD, this old page (scroll down) has the goods.
We were not objective reporters by any sense of the word, meeting with David Bender, Dean's Sr. advisor at the time, to talk strategy, congratulating Dean on the speech; I was even cheering from the press bleachers during Dean's speech, and afterwards, in the pressroom with Karl Frisch, who worked for the CA Dem Party at the time, we three were beside ourselves in enthusiam to share with the more objective reporters as to what we saw had happened. But we played the blogger-reporter role as well. The most curious thing that I observed, was that by simply holding a mic of a pencil & pad, you could walk up to a politician/operative, they'd see the creds hanging around your neck, and start talking. Without wifi, we only had 10 minutes to work on the solo computer, so we were limited in the amount of blogging that we could do of the event.
Assurred that the Boston convention will have wifi, can't imagine otherwise, I'll blog a lot more of those moments, as well as share some video. I'm expecting that the DNC thinks we will hack for the Democrats, and we will, but with a twist of the unknown spin (authenticity) as well.
I know a number of bloggers were not invited by the DNC because they forgot to fill out their security forms, and that there are limited spaces. They were mailed out on Saturday, so if you are on the list, you'll probably get it by the end of the week. Even if you're not invited, you can always be a street-blogger. I'm getting airline tickets for the GOP convention in NYC this week, and plan to street-blog the event. Drop-in MyDD blogger Matt Stoller is going to open-up a blogger-pad (with wifi) near the Garden in NYC that week, from where we'll cover the event. If your on the left, starting position or on the bench, drop me a line and I'll keep you posted as it's organized.
Update: The DNCC has informed me that they screwed up, and that I will have access into the hall.
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