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…
Laura Kriho got her wish. The longtime local activist has spent the last several months putting together a website, www.comeuptodenver.com, that serves as a clearinghouse for political- action information connected to the Democratic National Convention coming to town August 25-28. And as the soundrtrack for the anticipated action, as detailed…
It’s rapidly becoming apparent that when Mayor John Hickenlooper said he wanted to “make this the greenest convention in the history of the planet,” he wasn’t talking about the kind of green that comes with pictures of dead presidents. While fundraising for the upcoming Democratic National Convention lags, the press…
Here’s a sure sign that the Democratic National Convention is less than ten weeks away: local crazy John Madden has updated his sign! Westword first wrote about the relentless political sign-flier in 2005. Three months after the presidential election and five years since Bill Clinton had been president, the then-63-year-old…
DNC protest group Tent State University, standing in for the larger protest amalgam Alliance for Real Democracy, has been granted permits to host a series of large concerts in City Park from August 24-28. Parks and Recreation planners expect as many as 20,000 participants will be drawn to the free…
So John McCain’s website has a new game you can play and/or embed in your Facebook profile called Pork Invaders, which you can sample below. Yes, I know it sounds like porn. No, I’m not sure they realize that…
In a June 24 article by former Denver Post religion writer Eric Gorski, who’s currently writing (and kicking ass) for the Associated Press, Focus on the Family spokesman Tom Minnery said that an aide for Barack Obama recently suggested a sit-down at the evangelical organization’s Colorado Springs HQ. Doubt something…
View larger image Utah Total Number of Delegates: 29 Pledged: 23 Unpledged: 6 How to Recognize a Utah Delegate: Based on national news stories, most Americans would think it was easier to get a second wife than a second drink while visiting Utah — as if residents of the Beehive…
Given all the “yee haw!” that’s gone on in the White House since Texan George W. Bush took office in the year 2000, a roundup seems quite appropriate, and Rik Clay of 20/08 Productions in Boulder, is organizing just that. The Great Marble Round-Up is a call to action for…
John McCain ends his new commercial with the following words: Reform. Prosperity. Peace. Wow. The images are a transparent play for the vote of environmentalists, and one has to give the guy (or at least his publicity team) credit for hitting the right buzzwords. But this is one of those…
The Mayor’s office has announced which groups have been granted slots to utilize the designated parade route during the week of the Democratic National Convention. In May, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the city for failing to assign what path demonstrators would be able to march through downtown and…
Democrats have made many mistakes over the years, as this slide show by Joe Horton makes clear. In fact, they’ve made too many to include in a single slide show. So here, a couple of honorable mentions:…
Karen Brooks of the Dallas Morning News certainly isn’t the first person to take umbrage with Westword cartoonist Kenny Be’s point of view, especially his Delegating Denver , an online series devoted to profiling the 56 state and territory delegations. But in this case, Brooks wasn’t insulted because Kenny was…
View larger image Texas Total Number of Delegates: 228 Pledged: 193 Unpledged: 35 How to Recognize a Texas Delegate: This state may be huge and populous, but the Lone Star mystique can be summed up in the image of George W. Bush and Jessica Simpson driving a Ford F-150 pickup…
