DNC Day 4 Mega-Photo Recap! [View all]

[EarlG]

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!