JOHN EDWARDS FOR (VICE) PRESIDENT

Lorika and I continued on the Road to Democracy this weekend at the Minnesota DFL convention. Saturday proved a very exciting day: Lori was upgraded from an alternate to a full delegate (in action below), I managed to get myself a press pass (I AM THE MEDIA!), and the pinnacle - Sen. John Edwards. So inspiring, so charismatic, so wishing I could push a button and make him President of the United States.

Edwards on Abu Ghraib: Accountability lies with Bush (Quicktime, 1.5 MB)
Edwards ends speech with message of hope, diversity (Quicktime, 5 MB)

Senate district leader Noah explains what's going on to Lori.

Senator Mark Dayton introduces Senator John Edwards: "John Edwards is always standing up for the little fellers against the Rockefellers. Paul [Wellstone] taxed the Rockefellers, John sued them, and I married them."

Later, Mark Dayton gave a fiery, impassioned speech. I've never seen him so pumped up. He usually seems nervous and uncomfortable in his own skin, but these days he's got fire in his belly.

Edwards as Citizen Kane

What they say is true - when Edwards speaks, he owns the room. If only his theme song wasn't John Cougar Mellencamp's "Smalltown."

Edwards signs his last of many autographs before disappearing into the secured area.

The first of two gatekeepers checks my badge: "Yup you're press, okay..."

And I'm in! Woohoo!

My weapons of choice: This blog and a video camera. And a poison dart gun - shhhhh.

Just one of the camera guys. Sort of.

Edwards makes fleeting eye contact with me and thanks me before walking out the door.

It was exciting getting into the Edwards press conference. A blogger in the inner sanctum. Unfortunately I didn't make good use of the opportunity. I was going to ask him about blogs, but real journalists were asking somewhat important questions (about being Kerry's VP - no comment, about the current political tone, and so on) so I waited. Suddenly it was one more question, quickly seized by Eric Eskola, then some rushed photo-ops and he was out the door.

Mostly, it was nice having the press pass because it allowed me onto the main floor.When Lori was upgraded to a delegate, I filmed a lot of our Senate district leader Noah explaining things to her. Some people thought I was making a documentary on the convention process, which I really should do because maybe then I'd understand what the hell was going on. Lori and I were both confused much of the time, and I think they could benefit from a "Delegate Guide for Newbies." Oh, with an accompanying video, which they'd pay me to make. Anybody? Bueller?

Saturday night we went to Mark Dayton's hoopla party at The Depot and hung out with a great group of fellow lefties, among them Minneapolis documentarian Michael Sutz. You might recognize him as the campaign manager in one of my favorite documentaries, Run Some Idiot.

That's all for now... I'm sure Lori will post more about it. We had delicious wild rice veggie burgers + beer at Fitgers with Starfire + Nick + Barrett + Ca-Chee and met their unbelievably adorable puppy, who tried to crawl into my hoodie. Probably because it was 40 degrees and super fricking windy - Brrrr! (Want the cute puppy?)

And now, I must trick convince the Jerome Foundation to give me some money. If not for Blogumentary, at least to fix their terrible web site.