DNC Day 4 Mega-Photo Recap!

Greetings from the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia! I am officially too exhausted to write a proper introduction!

DNC Day 1 Mega-Photo Recap!
DNC Day 2 Mega-Photo Recap!
DNC Day 3 Mega-Photo Recap!


We started our day as usual, picking up credentials at the Convention Center. A small contingent of pro-Palestine protesters were doing their thing outside when we got there.




Inside the Convention Center, I got myself a nice "Dads for Hillary 2016" button to go on my DU shirt.




Then I headed up to Hall G to prepare the Day 3 recap, while Skinner poked around the Convention Center to see what he could see. What he ended up seeing was Bowzer from Sha Na Na at the Seniors Coordinating Council meeting. He said he made a living performing music from the 50s and 60s, "But I don't want to return to the 50s and 60s."




Skinner also saw Corey Booker addressing the LGBT Caucus...




And inside Hall G we ran into -- and had a nice chat with -- blogger extraordinaire and DU member Egberto Willies.




Then it was time to leave the Convention Center and head over to the arena, but wouldn't you know it -- it was absolutely pouring with rain outside. Fortunately they were giving out ponchos on the way out, which provided us with our best look of the convention so far.




Philadelphia City Hall getting wet.




What's up with all this damn rain, Benjamin Franklin?!?




We spotted another donkey! Georgia this time. Only 54 to go! You know, somehow I don't think we're going to manage to find all of these things before the end of the convention.




Since we stayed downtown today instead of going back to our hotel, we rode the subway instead of the media shuttle.




Arena time! And no sooner did we arrive than we spotted former RNC chief Michael Steele...




And Andrea Mitchell. I think she was asking Alan Greenspan if he'd remembered to feed the cat.




We had managed to score a second hall pass for Thursday, the only problem was that mine was a media pass and Skinner's was a guest pass, which meant that we had to sit in different sections...




Although technically we were still able to sit next to each other.




Caution: EarlG




Intriguing plastic bags attached to all the seats informed us that we would be part of a "card stunt" later in the evening.




Aaaaaaand.... nap time.




Unfortunately we were stuck up behind the stage again, so our photo-taking angle wasn't great. But we still had a good view of the proceedings. Early speakers included...

Chad Griffin of the Human Rights Campaign, who fired up the crowd




Sarah McBride, the first transgender American to ever speak at a national political convention




Dolores Huerta




Katie McGinty, running for Senate in Pennsylvania




And Tammy Duckworth.




Here's a pic of me taking a pic...




...of the balloons that were going to be covering the arena floor in a few hours.




VIDEO: Carole King got everyone on their feet


More speakers!

James Clyburn




Barbara Mikulski




Elizabeth Warren




And Barbara Boxer.




By this point there were lots of sore butts and rapidly discharging batteries up here in the press section.




Here come the Hillary signs...








More speakers!

Nancy Pelosi




John Hickenlooper




Tom Wolf




Jennifer Granholm




Former Reagan administration official Doug Elmets, who got a big cheer with the line, "I knew Ronald Reagan, and Donald Trump, you are no Ronald Reagan"




Reverend William Barber, who absolutely rocked the house




And Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who got a laugh by introducing himself as Michael Jordan and then saying that Donald Trump probably couldn't tell the difference.




The arena had been packed for hours by this point -- nobody could leave (unless you wanted to lose your seat) and our phone batteries were getting disturbingly low.




Nevertheless, we still managed to get some pictures of...

General John Allen




Chloe Grace Moretz




Sherrod Brown




And Katy Perry.





Video of Katy Perry


And finally it was time for the big moment -- first up was Chelsea Clinton...




Followed by her mom -- the next President of the United States!

Video of Hillary's big entrance


















I have no idea how the speech came across on TV because I still haven't seen video of it, but in the hall the atmosphere was electric and the crowd was utterly enthusiastic, despite the constant interruptions from a small hardcore group of "busters." Hillary seemed to handle the interruptions with aplomb, and I particularly liked her line -- delivered with a smile -- about how Donald Trump loses his cool when he sees protesters at rallies. The comment was aimed at Trump, but the subtext was obvious.

When the speech was over, it was time for... card stunt!




Except nobody seemed to know what to do, despite relatively clear instructions. So we all held up our cards and hoped for the best.




I have no idea how this came across on TV but it actually looked pretty cool inside the hall!








These are the eyes of a man who has not left his seat for seven hours.




Fireworks!




Total balloon madness!




And with the convention officially wrapped up, it was time to head for the exits.






Let's do this again in four years, assuming the circulation has returned to our legs by then.




PS. Finally, I wanted to give one more shout-out to DUer JusticeForAll, whom I met briefly on day 3, and also DUer Gothmog, whom we tried to meet up with at the end of day 4 but were thwarted by the madness of the end of the convention -- sorry we couldn't get over to you. Hope to see you -- and more DUers -- next time!

Thanks for reading!

DNC Day 3 Mega-Photo Recap!

Greetings once again from Philadelphia! Wednesday found the Admins with tired legs and sore feet, not to mention just a tad hungover from the Arizona delegation shindig on Tuesday night. Those guys really do know how to party.

But the show goes on, and so must we! So here's our collection of photos from Wednesday. (See here for Monday and Tuesday.)

We spent the early part of the day in the Convention Center, which really is a vast place.




Where it is very easy to get lost...




I eventually made it to Hall G, a very relaxing media spot where I could plug in my laptop and drink free coffee, to prepare Tuesday's photo recap thread.




Meanwhile, Skinner decided to go see what was going on elsewhere in the Convention Center. There was another PoliticalFest exhibition here with yet more interesting exhibits.














By the time I was done posting the photo recap thread we didn't have too much more time to hang around, so we headed over to the arena. Walking around the concourse it seemed that there were noticeably fewer protesters inside the building than there had been on previous nights. To be clear, at no time did we see anybody causing a major disruption in the concourse, but there were definitely quite a few "buster"/Green Party types hanging around on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday seemed relatively free of those folks.




Although there were a handful of exceptions.




The Trumpbuster guy was back again today! Here's a much better shot of his buttons.




Also spotted on our way in: Keith Ellison...




And Terry McAuliffe.




Once again we only had one Hall credential so it was Skinner's turn to patrol the concourse while I took a seat inside the arena. It was a full house, so I had to sit in the media area which was way up behind the stage.




Unfortunately this meant I wasn't able to get the best shots of the speakers, but it was still cool to be in the hall to see:

Jerry Brown




Chris Murphy




Gabby Giffords




And a very powerful speech from Christine Leinonen, who lost her son in the Orlando nightclub shooting.




Meanwhile, Skinner was checking out the activity in and around the arena, spotting:

Rosa DeLauro




Robby Mook




Ron Wyden




A psychic vampire




And Frank Luntz wearing his Hamilton jammies.




He also found time to play a bit of Mario Kart (apparently there is a gaming tent here which NOBODY TOLD ME ABOUT!!)




And pondered whether posting a photo of the Instagram booth to Instagram would break the space-time continuum.




Which it did.




Back inside the hall, Donald Trump was getting his ass kicked hard by a series of speakers:

Rear Admiral John Hutson




Leon Panetta, who got some boos from protesters in the crowd, but made a solid case for why President Donald Trump would be a complete and utter disaster for America.




And Michael Bloomberg. Trump must have been punching tiny holes in the wall at this point.




Back outside, Skinner encountered this gentleman who was giving a press conference to at least several semi-interested reporters. He was making a strong case for why it was imperative that the superdelegates change their minds within the next 48 hours to prevent Hillary Clinton becoming the nominee, apparently not aware that she had already been officially nominated the night before. "A" for effort though.




Inside the hall it was getting increasingly difficult to take good pictures because the major speakers weren't appearing on the large hall screen, so even if I posted them you wouldn't really be able to tell who was who. However, I did get some short videos which you can see at the following links:

What the World Needs Now! (Part 1)
What the World Needs Now! (Part 2)
Joe Biden's big entrance
A bit of Lenny Kravitz
Tim Kaine: do you really believe Donald Trump?
The end of Tim Kaine's speech
President Obama's big entrance!
It gets loud for POTUS!

Meanwhile, Skinner managed to get the score of the night. He wouldn't tell me how, but I have to assume it involved some kind of Jedi mind trick. Passes to the CNN Grill.




While he was over there he managed to catch Tim Kaine's speech...




And raised a glass to POTUS.




Back in the hall, I sneaked out right before the end of the big speech -- my phone battery was almost dead -- but I managed to get a better pic of the President up on the big screen from behind the Washington delegation.




And the other reason I needed to sneak out slightly early was so I could meet up with DUer JusticeForAll after the speech. He's a member of the Arizona delegation!




As the arena festivities had ended, it was time to head over to the CNN Grill to take advantage of free convention stuff.




Free CNN beer!




Free CNN wings!




Free CNN Jenga?




In case you ever wondered what Don Lemon looks like from the back, voila.




And finally, we really did almost break the space-time continuum as I got a photo of Skinner in the CNN Grill, on CNN, taken on a TV showing CNN, in the CNN Grill.




Mind blown! One more night to go and the final update tomorrow, or you can follow our updates live on Instagram and Twitter. Thanks for reading!

DNC Day 2 Mega-Photo Recap!

Welcome to day 2 at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia! If you missed our mega photo recap from Day 1, you can see it here.

We began by traveling downtown once again to pick up our credentials from the Convention Center.




Where there was plenty more wackiness on display!




Credentials secured, it was time for another quick trip to Reading Terminal Market. Mmmm.... donuts.




We'd heard that the Republicans were complaining about the lack of patriotism on display at the DNC, so I figured that a picture of me holding an apple pie in front of an American flag in the center of Philadelphia ought to redress the balance.




We'd spent much of Monday getting our bearings, but now we had a better idea of what was going on we decided we had time to do a bit of sightseeing before heading to the arena. We walked from the Convention Center in the direction of Independence Hall, which took us through Chinatown...




Past this cool tunnel roof...




And the Philadelphia African American museum...




Right before we got to Independence Hall we came across the National Constitution Center where they're holding part of a citywide event about American history and politics called PoliticalFest.




We decided to stop by and take a look inside.




They had a really great museum inside with a number of interactive exhibits, and, well, we just couldn't resist.






Skinner with the Liberty Tree Eagle




High five Michelle!




I have no idea what this is, but it's super-weird.




I am not a crook!




This pretty much speaks for itself.




Who's your favorite president?




Hillary is 45!




On this wall anyone could stick a post-it note describing the first thing they would do if they were president -- very cool.












I'm not even going to comment on this.








Bronze statues of the Founding Fathers.








We found another donkey! Rhode Island this time. Only 55 more to go...




Back outside, we stumbled upon the (empty) MSNBC stage.




And across the way, Independence Hall.




Finally, the real Liberty Bell this time.






Wy didn't anyone tell us there was DLC transportation??? We could have been riding around in this all week!!!!1111




Time to head over to the Wells Fargo arena, but on the way back through the Convention Center we ran into James Clyburn just hanging out giving a speech.




After travelling over to the arena we decided to take a bit more of a look round, and discovered a ton of stuff that we didn't even realize was there yesterday. Here's Skinner with Dr. J.




And the CNN Grill. We tried to get in here but you needed an invitation. We didn't have one. The nice lady at the door asked if we knew anyone at CNN, and Skinner said, "Umm... only the people I see on my television." Needless to say we did not get in.




So we went into the arena. First media spot of the day: Clarence Page




Once again there were plenty of crazy sights to see inside the arena. Here's Uncle Sam (ish)...




And I have no idea what is going on here.




Just around the corner there was a major media scrum going on.




It was Jill Stein, who had somehow obtained credentials and was causing a general ruckus.






A bunch of security showed up and started walking her off... I thought they were actually going to kick her out.












But no, they were just escorting her back over to her chums at Fox News. Guess that's how she got in.




Our credentials for Tuesday only allowed one of us to get inside the hall itself, so while I was chasing someone who will never be president around the concourse...

...Skinner was inside the room witnessing history!






I decided this would be a good time to do some people watching, so I did some laps of the ground floor of the arena. This was where all the delegates were going in and out of the hall, so it was a great place to see folks like...

Jerry Springer




E.J. Dionne




Tom Harkin




Sander and Carl Levin




John Lewis




Elijah Cummings






Al Franken (The conversation went like this: Me: "Senator Franken! Senator Franken! Can I get a quick picture with you?" Senator Franken: "Not right now.&quot




Meanwhile Skinner stayed inside the hall and caught a bunch of great speeches by:

Terry McAuliffe




Jimmy Carter (video message)




Eric Holder




Mothers of the Movement




Howard Dean




I decided to see what was going on outside the arena.






This guy was feeling the Bern big time:




There's a large media tent outside the arena. I think this area had been occupied by protesters earlier in the day, but there was nothing going on when I got there.




The Univision treat truck seemed popular.




Back at the CNN Grill, which was actually a good spot to hang out.








So while Skinner was inside the hall watching Bill Clinton...






I was hanging out at the bar watching the Big Dog on the big screen.




At the bar I made friends with members of the Arizona delegation -- this is AZ Democratic Party Executive Director Sheila Healy and AZ State Senate Minority Leader Katie Hobbs.




They were totally awesome and very generously invited us to a party along with members of their delegation.



Actual exchange: Me to Arizona State. Rep. Ken Clark: "Hello! We've been invited to join your party." Ken: "Oh really? Which party do you belong to currently?" Me: "Uh... no, your party over at Ladder 15."

And the rest was history!




Ow, my head! More coming tomorrow! Follow our updates live on Instagram and Twitter, and I'll post another recap thread tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

DNC Day 1 Mega-Photo Recap!

Greetings from sunny Philadelphia! Skinner and I are here in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection observing the festivities so each day we'll be trying to grab as many photos as we can from in and around the convention. We're posting most of these live on Instagram and Twitter, but for those of you who like it old-school we'll be doing a daily recap here on DU with a bit commentary. So without further ado...

Ready to hit the road.




It's only a short drive for us to Philadelphia, about two hours.




Welcome to Pennsylvania...




...and the Democratic National Convention 2016!




Here's the Wells Fargo arena where the main events are taking place -- all the roads are closed off around here.




That's okay though because our first port of call was the Convention Center downtown to pick up our media credentials. Our brilliant plan was to simply drive straight into the city and park the car. Madness you say? Apparently not! We managed to find street parking a block from the Convention Center.

Right outside the Convention Center we found one of the 57 donkeys representing each delegation on display around the city (although this is actually the only one we've seen so far).




Also hanging around here were a various assortment of weirdos, which is absolutely typical for a political convention like this.








Inside the Convention Center the security line moved pretty quickly...




...and before long, we had our credentials.








Also inside the Convention Center -- the actual Liberty Bell, designated as a "selfie spot"! Surprised that they let people get this close to it, and also I never knew that it was made out of plastic.




Credentials in hand, it was time to grab some lunch at Reading Terminal Market, which is quite the scene.






Time to head back to the car and drive to our hotel, but first the biggest news of the day so far: Skinner caught a Zubat!




And leveled up.




We drove to our hotel which is way out of town (but that's what you get for booking late). The good news is that it's way nicer than the craphole we stayed at in Charlotte.




The other bit of good news is that there's a media shuttle which runs down to the Wells Fargo arena every afternoon -- very convenient.




The Philadelphia skyline on the way in to the city.




The Wells Fargo arena is right next door to Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles.




This is where the road closures began and security became pretty intense. Fortunately our media bus got to go in through a back route.










It really was hot here yesterday. These poor security guards are sweltering under a tent.




Lots and lots of buses. These are for transporting delegates and media back into the downtown area (and elsewhere) once the convention is over for the night.




One quick trip through the metal detectors and we were at the front door.




...after passing by the Fox News trailer.




Our first order of business was to get our bearings and check out the sights and sounds of the arena. We were here pretty early -- the convention was about to be gaveled in -- so a lot of people were milling about.








The first of many fabulous hats.




This guy had "Trumpbusters" buttons all over him.




Media spotting: within a few minutes of each other we saw:

Alan Colmes...




Cenk Ugyur...




And Dan Rather.




Inside the hall itself it was still pretty quiet, but it was a good time to take a look around.








Would the person sitting in seat 3 please return and collect their fern (wtf?)




Marcia Fudge.




Barney Frank.




The center of this section is where the disruptive delegates were sitting. On television it probably sounded like the entire hall was interspersed with "booers" but in reality they were mostly grouped into a couple of small sections, the largest being behind and to the left of the stage. From where I was sitting it seemed like there were about 100 people doing the booing, which really wasn't that big of a deal by the end of the night when the hall was filled with 16,000 perfectly happy Democrats. However, in the early stages of the proceedings when the hall wasn't full they were able to make quite a bit of noise, and I assume that the media focused in on them a lot.




Outside the hall for a break, we snagged our first signs of the day.




Back inside, Ben Jealous got a good reception from the crowd.




Demi Lovato spoke on the need for improved mental health treatment.




Karla and Francisca Ortiz spoke on immigration.




The media booths around the inside of the hall. It's always fascinating to watch these -- you can see the pundits inside gabbing into the cameras, all sitting with their backs to the proceedings on stage.




Al Franken.




Disability rights advocate Anastasia Somoza gave an amazing speech destroying Donald Trump.




Paul Simon sang "Bridge Over Trouble Water"




At this point Skinner's phone battery was way low and I needed to stretch my legs, so I took a walk around outside the hall and grabbed a few random shots. Unfortunately I missed Cory Booker...








But managed to get back in time for Michelle!












She really brought the house down. In fact, all the prime time speakers did, including Elizabeth Warren...






And, of course, Bernie.










Back to the bus, ready to do it all again tomorrow!




Monday's swag total: not bad.




You can follow our updates live on Instagram and Twitter, and I'll post another recap thread tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Pic Of The Moment: Clinton/Kaine 2016!

Pic Of The Moment: Anger! Hatred! Fear! Mayhem!

Pic Of The Moment: Just Another Day At The Republican National Convention

Pic Of The Moment: Christie Tells Convention "We Cannot Reward Incompetence And Deceit"

Pic Of The Moment: I Ctrl-C What You Did There

Pic Of The Moment: Angry Mob Forms In Downtown Cleveland