Roemer's pitch to the DNC members was met with a large amount of hissing when he alluded to how the Democrats should embrace Anti-Women's-Safety (i.e. anti-choice) advocates, but this was not the most outrageous thing he said, not by far. The most disturbing moment came when Roemer began using the 9-11 card, adding another "I wish I was a republican" feather to his already plumed hat. First, Roemer touted his 9-11 commission experience, and his instrumental contributions to the commission getting formed in the first place. Roemer then moved on to the 9-11 widows, and especially the widow who gave Roemer her dead-husband's ring because she knew that Tim "was strong". But, as I started laughing harder and harder at the nerve of this asshole to try and use that painful day against us yet again, he gave the punchline, which had me literally falling out of my seat. It turns out that not only was the ring from a 9-11 victim, but it was found on his severed and rotting hand six days after the attack (Actually, I added the rotting part for effect, Roemer just mentioned that the hand was severed and found six days after the attack). I was waiting for the encore with either the ring turning out to be the one from the Lord of the Rings, or with the wife telling Roemer "I went to a séance the other day, and my husbad came back and told me that he too wants you to be Chair of the DNC," but unfortunately I had to settle with what he gave. Ah well, it was still a priceless performance.
OK, now back to our regularly scheduled blog, already in progress...
I started out the day at a coffee hour hosted by Rosenberg. I have to say that walking into the hotel, and then into the small room where Simon's supporters were gathering, I was getting a bit nervous and I felt really out of place. Everyone was wearing ties, which I never wear (not even on my wedding day), and looked like they had just stepped off of Wall Street. But, that feeling of being out of place dissipated pretty quickly once I entered into Simon's breakfast meeting.
The first thing that I noticed when I entered the room, which made me feel immediately more at ease, was the diversity of those who were attending, in terms of age, sex, race and class. The second thing that put me at ease was Simon himself. The first thing Simon did when he came into the room was acknowledge the Tufts (where Simon graduated from) Campus Democrats, who had driven all night to support him. He was visibly excited that the kids had come (he even gave them a shout out during the DNC meeting itself), and he kept coming back to them to try and talk more before getting pulled in another direction by one of his staffers who were trying to make sure that he paid ample attention to the DNC members who had stopped by.
During one of his chats with the Tufts kids, I overheard Simon mention his blog support, and I introduced myself as one of those supporters. "Thank you so much" he told me "it really means a lot to me", in a way that seemed genuine and unforced. He then started to talk about Joshua Micah Marshall's endorsement the previous day and how much it meant to him that Marshall had given him the nod of approval, before going into Marshall's great work on behalf of saving social security, amongst other things. Of course, he got pulled away again as we talked about the importance of the Netroots (and as many around here like to say- the guy "gets it"), but his friendliness and his calm demeanor broke the ice for me and I spent the rest of the morning talking with the other folks who had gathered to show their support.
One of the most interesting conversations I had was with an older couple who were contributors to NDN about how DNC members get chosen. Long story short, nobody seems to know, you just have to be at the right meeting at the right time and have the right friends in the right places. We talked some more about the extremely opaque nature of the DNC, about the ability of the internet to attract new blood to the party and to politics (like me), about just how bad a candidate John Kerry was, and about the loser .
At another point I overheard Rosenberg talking to one of his supporters about Kos' coining of the phrase "rosenbergiac", which Simon seemed to get a real kick out of.
After coffee I went and met up with the Driving Votes folks (YOU GUYS KICK SERIOUS ASS!!!), and I meandered around the room for a while watching the Daily Show correspondent interview/embarrass various people, including Al Sharpton and Elena from driving votes.
Pretty soon we all got in, and I have to say that unlike some other posters here I felt that the organizers of the event were EXTREMELY nice, helpful and considerate, and most of us got in without any huge problems and got seats in the balcony, with great views.
Anyway, this is already getting waaay too long, so let me just give my quick impressions of each candidate.
Martin Frost. Wow, I didn't know that people could talk that loud, is it a Texas thing? Is he just deaf? Other than that I thought the guy was pretty good. I know that he's been getting slammed for his pro-Bush commercials during the primary, but if he had won in a district with 65% Republicans do thing we'd still have reason to complain? I do wonder if Frost really gets the grass roots, as he and everyone else claimed that they did, but I definitely got the impression that the guy is a real Democrat, with mostly progressive values, the attack ads not-withstanding.
Wellington Web. I had never really heard of Web before the debate, but all I can say is that he came off looking like a great leader for the party, and he did seem to be more in touch with what grassroots meant than Frost.
Howard Dean. I don't think that I can say anything about Dean's speech that hasn't already been said, but once again I came away with a mild disbelief at his "rock-star" status to many activists.
Simon Rosenberg. This was the first time that I had ever seen Simon speak publicly, and frankly he seemed a little nervous at first. Other than that I thought that he presented his case perfectly, and he definitely shored up my support for him as the potential "Karl Rove/Ken Mehlman" of our party.
Donny Fowler. "Don't you dare talk down on my daddy" (when the "Fowler amendments was brought up) was the most memorable of Fowler's moments to me (sorry Donnie, but really, this isn't high school and those weren't "your momma" jokes). Other than that I think that Fowler also "gets it", but he seemed a little inexperienced to be the chief strategist and fundraiser for the party. But, if he got the chair I wouldn't slit my wrists, the guy's got "spunk" and I'm sure he'd energetically work with the party and try to modernize it in many of the same ways advocated by Dean and Rosenberg. Unlike...
Tim Roemer: Douchbag-extraordinaire. Nuff said.
David Leyland: He seemed nice enough, and definitely seemed like a progressive. But come-on, are you really going to keep touting your experience as Ohio state chair? Hey David, do you really think that Ohio is a great example of where the Democrats need to go? Really nice guy, I bet he finishes last.
The last thing that I want to say is, I got so much positive feedback from DNC members and their staff that I want to say THANK YOU! to you all. You don't know how many times I was asked "are you one of those `bloggers'", and how many smiles I got when I told them that I was. There was a definitely positive vibe towards the amount of attention and energy that has been brought to this process, and I hope that this is an encouraging sign for the future of the Democratic Party and for the candidates who really "get it" about the netroots, i.e. Dean and Rosenberg. Here's to hoping that those DNC members "get it" and choose one of those two as there leader. The future of our party depends on it!
Oh, and once again- THANK YOU to Driving Votes for getting us all in.
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