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charging through the room just before a screening of "Outfoxed." I was SO delighted because I was afraid the observer credential I'd earned from many hours' volunteering wouldn't get me into the dinner. He was stirring and WUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNderful!!! He brought the place to its feet, again and again and again!
Met Congresswoman Diane Watson, LA Mayoral hopeful Antonio Villaraigosa, and was very impressed with the size of the turnout (even though, at the end of registration on Saturday afternoon, there were many delegate badges left unclaimed).
Hilarious on Friday night (the opening night) when workers for one of the state treasurer candidates, Dunn, arrived in green top hats, green feather boas, and lots of green plastic necklaces, passing out party invitations. They were promoting free green beer. Colorful, to say the least.
I was a registration volunteer both Friday and Saturday, so I spent most of my time there, but was able to break out and buy some buttons and pick up some souvenirs. A young woman opposed to Der Schwarzenazi's special election gave me maybe 100-or-so stickers to pass out around town, after I told her I lived on the Westside, near arnold's neighborhood.
MANY people were there lobbying for Sheila Kuehl's healthcare bill. I helped proctor a brainstorming session on various health care issues and people were really starting to think about ways to present and frame the issue to grab more attention from the public in general and the media in particular. GREAT and SO encouraging to see!
On Sunday mid-morning, after Antonio spoke, there was a panel discussion in the general session hall about FRAMING THE MESSAGE - with Ann Lewis (formerly of the DNC during the Kerry campaign), Arianna Huffington, a TV writer formerly with Bill Maher and now with Dennis Miller (at every mention, Maher's name drew cheers and Miller's name was booed), and a Hispanic pollster/researcher with some seriously interesting and disturbing statistics (republi-CONS making inroads among Hispanics by tapping into a "we know you" type of warm-fuzzy emotional pandering job with lots of music, Hispanic flags, and images of duhbya hugging and kissing people and talking love and family and children and faith stuff - and worst of all, people were buying it).
Ann Lewis had one VERY interesting point: latch onto an issue you really care about, and hone it down to 45 seconds or so - less than a minute - about the length of time you'd have in an elevator ride). Arianna was ferociously popular, and talked about getting BOLD and being BRAVE and not being afraid to say the war was wrong and the republi-CONS are screwing us. She said our reps who try to find things to agree upon with the enemy are DEAD WRONG, because the point should be NOT TO AGREE with them, AT ALL. MAN, did that bring rousing applause again and again. She said what so, so, so many of us here on DU have been saying: don't be afraid to let 'em have it. In fact, the operative word when her turn came, in describing Democrats' efforts to stall the republi-CON juggernaut, was "chickenshit" (she then joked that she thought, for a moment, that she was still on HBO).
It was altogether WUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNderful. If I loved Howard Dean beforehand, I love him even MORE now - for caring enough about those who couldn't get into the dinner to come speak to us, even if only briefly. That mattered a LOT. Besides, if I'd been able to get into the dinner, the way it was set up, no way would I have been able to shake hands with him.
It was just terrific to be able to talk with SO many others of like mind, to link up, face-to-face, with people I knew only online and via email, and to make some new friends, all of whom shared my view on bush and the war and the whole republi-CON criminal enterprise. Party chair Art Torres came through our registration room and stopped to personally thank every single one of us volunteers, sitting at the registration tables. THAT gesture went a VERY long way. Lots of the volunteers noticed and appreciated it, and were talking about it afterwards. Even if I hadn't been a volunteer, I would have found that extremely meaningful and considerate. Because the volunteers worked their (our) butts off.
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