Pot, Porn, and Prostitution

1980 Libertarian presidential candidate Ed Clarke gave a thirty minute talk in Butte, Montana about why the three above things should be legal, and successfully convinced the present Washington Post reporter that he was right.

That reporter was TR Reed, who spoke to our group this morning about covering presidential campaigns, and candidates. His talk was by far the most entertaining thus far of the week. He reminisced quite a bit about pre-internet reporting when journalists only needed to write one story a day as opposed to the current blogosphere where updates to stories are expected every thirty-three seconds or so. He discussed the near-impossibility of covering an American candidate objectively since after spending all hours of the day with the candidate for weeks on end your either going to like or dislike the candidate. TR Reed was also great because he wasn't afraid at all to express his opinions on candidates, completely trashing the tactics of George H.W. Bush's campaign in 1988, and lamenting that Jesse Jackson shifted from such an inspiration to a relatively unaffective politician. TR Reed was a great story-teller, and his blunt nature was refreshing in the political summer-camp bubble I find myself in.

We also heard from Cameron Moody and Travis Dredd this morning, two CEOs of the democratic party in charge of in and outside the convention hall operations. For the last year they have probably been two of the busiest men in the world, helping plan everything from the construction of the Pepsi Center, Media logistics, booking over 17,000 hotel rooms, and co-ordinating the operations of the local police and the secret service. It was apparent that they were slightly distracted while giving their presentations and answering questions, but they did a sufficient job explaining the massive effort it took to plan an event of this magnitude.

This evening was the official welcome dinner for the Washington Center program, which was held at Invesco Field, where Obama will be giving his speech next Thursday. Since there's a preseason football game this friday, the stadium is still a football field. It will be interesting to see how different it looks when Obama is takes the stage.

Overall the beginning of the program I believe has been quite successful. My main objectives coming into Denver were to learn as much as possible about behind the scenes political action, meet interesting people, and meet famous people. Meeting famous people I have on hold until the convention starts (unless academics count), but the other two I seem to be making quite a bit of progress on. Learning about Reverand daughtry's faith outreach program, and listening to TR Reed's story about being screamed at in a plane by Howard Dean for writing about his bad temped have been exciting to hear about. I have a possee of new friends from Texas, as well as new friends from Massachusetts, and have shaken hands with the two leading scholars on the American Presidency in the world. (Tom Cronin and Michael Genovese) Sure with all my new acquaintances were still in a slightly awkward phase where we can have casual conversations but still don't know each other's senses of humor well enough that there are an abundance of awkward silences, but that's all natural. Also, I was scoffed at by a grocery store cashier for not having a safeway card. And nearly hit by a car. (twice. Right turners in Denver really need to look before they turn since people have walk signals) Whatever.
But seriously, if the program continues to go as well as it has gone so far, it will be everything I could have hoped it would be.