Sunday, June 20, 2004

Other Reports from Texas State Dem Convention


I am too tired to do my report, and may not get to it tomorrow because of other plans but I can link to others. I did not get out until after 6:30 PM and I then went with three very attractive and intelligent ladies to Kim Son Vietnamese restaurant where we stayed talking until after 10 PM. Long days, but I did drop off several resumes and had several conversations about positions.

Typically the Houston Chronicle, where the convention is being held, buried the first day below the fold in the local section and carried a non-story tortured headline "Democrats debate party loyalty at convention." There was no debate, people only wanted to hear Texas D's speak. The Chronicle headlines the only debate about this in the home district of both members. There are thirty-one districts. This minor matter apparently was made the headline and top of the article to move U.S. Senator Edwards electrifying speech back to page b36. Today, as of very early Sunday morning, they are only carrying a short AP story - "seemed more like a peace rally today" of the close of the convention.

The Free State Standard shows why the AP story was only somewhat slanted - "I did get to hear Dennis Kucinich speak. I was quite surprised at the number of Kuchinich supporters at the convention. However, he is so energetic and has such a powerful message I can see why his delegates are so devoted. Lots of folks were walking around with peace-related banners, and the atmosphere was totally electric."

Here is a more reasonable story of the first day from the San Antonio Express: VIP ... or VP?: Edwards energizes Texas Demos.

Houston Cable News has better reporting than the Chronicle, "the only metropolitan newspaper to never win a Pulitzer": Party faithful believe anger and resentment spawned by the redistricting fight could lead to some upsets in November.

Bloggers: Aggro mentions the poor technology workshop. I attended the later good one. Sarah also thinks Edwards would make a great VP, as did about everyone at the convention. Greg's Opinion: What a grind. There is more about the convention on his blog. Burnt Orange Report notes: "even though there are no "Dean" delegates, Dean people will make up around 1/4 of the Texas Delegation to Boston in July, around 75 people." I will note that there was the largest percentage of first-timers at a Democratic State Convention, some reports I heard from the platform say 80%, which seemed high for my district (maybe 30-40%) although others said that 80% was about right for theirs.

Partly why the convention got out hours late. Vince also does some name dropping and has a conversation with candidate Jim Nickerson. (I have a surprise email interview coming up.) I seem to always miss the blogger meetings - check out this one at the convention. Morrison said: "the DeLay scandals have upset a lot of Republicans who generally support limited government." Off the Kuff had some of the best linkage about the convention.

From my reading and understanding of Texas political history this was the most moderate and liberal Democratic convention ever and produced a great platform and resolutions. When the Democratic platform gets posted online it will invite a side-by-side comparison with the Republican party platform which seems written by the John Birch Society.

Something happened to the journalist blog that was supposed to occur.

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