When the Democratic National Convention Committee announced Monday that Barack Obama would be delivering his acceptance speech from the roofless confines of Invesco Field at Mile High, local and national news outlets, each with their own reasons, were quick to jump on Mother Nature. Local dailies, knowing too well the…
Shiloh Benson Tillemann Dick has a head – a very large head – for politics, one that stands out even among the feisty politicos of the colorful family profiled in the July 10 Westword. The 18-year-old correctly predicted Obama’s church affiliations would prove problematic – last August. Shiloh took time…
As reporters headed into the Pepsi Center on July 8 for the second – and final – media walk-through, a volunteer was handing out doughnuts. Fried doughnuts. You better believe that members of the Democratic National Convention Committee, which organized the walk-through, are fit to be fried over the ribbing…
Poor Gary Hart. The former senator, erstwhile presidential candidate and subject of two recent Westword Q&As (click here and here to check them out) got to walk the red carpet with — woo-hoo! — Arianna Huffington prior to an American Film Institute tribute to actor/director Warren Beatty, and he was…
John McCain, fresh from his Denver town hall that made nearly as much news for the ticketing of a protester than for what he said, must be a little lonely. After all, the guy lacks support from liberals — even those who used to have some grudging respect for the…
The American Presidential Experience, the largest traveling presentation of presidential memorabilia, will set up shop in Invesco Field’s parking lot during the convention. Here are some of the items you will not see at the exhibit: -Back-up set of George Washington’s false teeth with MO DOLLAZ spelled out in diamonds…
Before Barack Obama settled on accepting the Democratic presidential nomination in Invesco Field at Mile High, convention organizers also considered Coors Field as an alternative to the Pepsi Center. But Invesco has two advantages over the ballpark: It can hold 20,000 more people (a total upwards of 76,000) — and…
View larger image Virgin Islands Total Number of Delegates: 9 Pledged: 3 Unpledged: 6 How to Recognize a Virgin Islands Delegate: Blown (way) off course during his second voyage, Christopher Columbus chose a religious theme and named this grouping of islets for the virgin handmaidens of some obscure marriage-avoiding saint…
Back in November, when the Democratic National Convention Committee held its walk-through at the Pepsi Center for the national media, Leah Daughtry, DNCC chief of staff, stood before hundreds of reporters and pointed to a bunch of balloons hovering above the floor. That, she said, was where the Democratic presidential…
Anyone who was surprised that Barack Obama criticized Denver jazz vocalist Rene Marie for singing the tune popularly known as the Black National Anthem instead of the “Star-Spangled Banner” prior to Mayor John Hickenlooper’s state-of-the-city speech doesn’t have a very long memory. In doing so, he was simply having a…
It is a testament to the optimism of the Obama campaign — ignoring the fundraising woes of the Denver host committee and staring squarely at the state’s electorate that’s only gone Democratic three times in the past sixty years of presidential races — that rumblings surfaced Thursday of moving Obama’s…
“Funk the War!” stood out amongst the signs offering kettle corn, salted nuts and burritos as Rockies fans funneled past the intersection of 20th and Blake streets on July 3. While an American flag is not an unusual sight the day before the Fourth of July, it certainly drew more…
Bobby Jindal, Republican Governor from Louisiana, is rumored to be near or at the top of the McCain Vice President list. But in the past week, Jindal has flip-flopped on pay raise legislation (perhaps in response to a recall petition mounted against him in response to his original support of…
On July 2, the Los Angeles Times’ political blog published “A Short But Sweet Gathering,” which reported that unnamed aides for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama had floated the idea of ending the Democratic National Convention one day early, on August 27, in order to give their guy “an…
For Mark Udall, 2008 must seem like the perfect political storm. After seeing what could have been his one shot at the U.S. Senate pass by in 2004, when Ken Salazar’s victory was one of the few bright spots for national Democrats who lost seats in Congress and saw a…
The number 50,000 has been getting thrown around a lot by DNC protest planners. Recreate 68’s Mark Cohen has used the figure several times over the past year to estimate how many demonstrators his group could bring to Civic Center Park, while Adam Jung of Tent State (i.e. the Alliance…
With the TV in his office on Capitol Hill showing live shots of his peers on the Senate floor preparing their legislative case against Republicans for November, Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) speaks about his role on the Senatorial Campaign Committee and on spending late August in Denver. The junior senator…
On CBS’s Face the Nation this last Sunday, genial host Bob Schieffer asked General Wesley Clark to talk about John McCain’s war record, specifically his criticisms as to McCain’s readiness to serve in the highest office, and how that compares to Barack Obama’s. Fair enough. But what it turned into…
With Barack Obama slated to accept the Democratic presidential nomination on August 28, the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, black TV networks will be all over the convention in Denver. In her piece in the June 30 Denver Post, Joanne Ostrow quotes TV…
View larger image Vermont Total Number of Delegates: 23 Pledged: 15 Unpledged: 8 How to Recognize a Vermont Delegate: Vermont has a reputation as a haven for hippies and trust-funders, but loaded wannabes are only fooling themselves if they think they can be a Green Mountaineer simply by relocating and…
Let’s get this clear up front: This is not some sort of liberal swift-boating. The fact that John McCain’s Vietcong jailer has backhandedly endorsed him for president isn’t — or shouldn’t be, anyway — anything more than one of those weird political stories. McCain spent over five years as a…
Since the Dems’ national convention is bound to be a highly scripted affair, it’s probably a good thing that indy filmmakers are getting busy now, cranking out five-minute shorts for Cinemocracy.org, a joint project of the Denver 2008 Host Committee, the Denver Film Society and the city’s Office of Cultural…
