Tag Archive: Yale on the Trail: Democratic National Convention

  1. Obama vows to ‘change’ America

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    By Thomas Kaplan

    DENVER — Sen. Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday, vowing that “it’s time for us to change America” after what he called the failed presidency of George W. Bush ’68.

    Before countless Elis in front of their televisions and an energized crowd of tens of thousands at a football stadium here, the 47-year-old cast himself in sharp relief to the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, on policy matters foreign and domestic.

    Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, called on the American people to muster the courage to restore what he called an American promise fallen under siege by the Bush administration. [Read more →]

  2. Obama: ‘We are a better country than this’

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    By Thomas Kaplan

    DENVER, 5:22 p.m. — The Obama campaign has released excerpts from the speech to be delivered this evening by Senator Barack Obama, the Democrative presidential nominee.  In remarks entitled “The American Promise,” Obama critiques the “failed presidency” of George W. Bush ’68 and — guess what — calls for change.

    “America, we are better than these last eight years,” he said. “We are a better country than this.”

    More excerpts are after the jump. (more…)

  3. Tonight’s schedule

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    DENVER, 2:15 p.m. — Courtesy of the Democratic National Convention Committee, here is the schedule for the festivities at Invesco Field. DNC chair Howard Dean ’71 speaks at 5 p.m. local time. (more…)

  4. Welcome to Invesco Field

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    By Thomas Kaplan

    DENVER, 12:22 p.m. — We’re here in the press box at Invesco Field, where 75,000 people will watch Senator Barack Obama accept the Democratic nomination for president sometime this evening. The gates open to the public at 1 p.m., although Obama will not take the podium until around 8 p.m. local time.

    More photos after the jump. (more…)

  5. Stalking famous people, day 4

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    Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at the Pepsi Center on Wednesday night.

    DENVER, 12:15 a.m. — In the time between speeches by Bill Clinton LAW ’73 and Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, I had the chance to roam around the suite level at the Pepsi Center, where most celebrities and high-powered politicians sit during the convention.

    It was a celebrity-stalking feast. Among the highlights: Forest Whitaker, Charles Barkley, Ashley Judd, Madeleine Albright, Al Sharpton and Brian Schweitzer. More photos after the jump. (more…)

  6. The folkiest governor in the whole wide world

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    By Thomas Kaplan

    DENVER, 9:23 p.m. — Keynote? What keynote?

    Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer stole the show from former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday.

    If you’re going to watch a single speech from the convention by someone without the last name Obama, Clinton or Kennedy, this could be the one. Out of nowhere, Schweitzer brought down the house with a distinctly Montana-flavored address last night, which included what may wind up going down as the best one-liner of the entire convention:

    We simply can’t drill our way to energy independence, even if you drilled in all of John McCain’s backyards — including the ones he can’t even remember.

    Watch his speech here.

    (Photo: The Associated Press)

  7. LIVE: Bill takes the stage

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    By Thomas Kaplan

    DENVER, 6:15 p.m. — Former U.S. President Bill Clinton LAW ’73 will speak here in about an hour, and, as with last night, all the attention is on his speech. We’ll be in the Pepsi Center to bring it live to you.

    7:26 p.m. | “America must always be a place called hope,” Bill says. He’s done! I made it! The guy next to me is very excited. “Write in your blog: He hit it! He hit it! He hit it!” he said. A few people leave the section now that Clinton is off the podium, and I take one of their seats. Good thing, too; the fire marshal comes to inspect no more than 30 seconds later.

    7:24 p.m. | The fire marshal is still in the adjacent section, struggling to remove a few stragglers. Keep stalling, stragglers! Bill is almost done!

    7:23 p.m. | Clinton now compares himself to Obama. Remember, Bill says, that I was once called too young, too inexperienced. “Sound familiar?” Bill asks. “It didn’t work in 1992 because we were on the right side of history. And it will not work in 2008.” Nifty line. The guy sitting next to me approves. “Throw it back at him, Bill,” he exclaims. “Throw it back at him.”

    7:22 p.m. | Yep, one section away. It’s almost over.

    7:20 p.m. | Uh oh. I see the fire marshal coming out of each tunnel to see if the aisles are clear in the section above. They’re about two sections away at this point.

    7:13 p.m. | “Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States,” Clinton promises. I guess the wounds to the Clinton ego have healed over.

    7:07 p.m. | Clinton strikes the same tone as his wife did last night. “I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November,” he said.

    7:05 p.m. | “I’m here first to support Barack Obama,” Clinton says. Huge ovation. “That’s it,” a man next to me exclaims. “That’s all you have to say.”

    7:01 p.m. | We’re in, although sitting in a stairwell. Bit of a fire hazard, but we’ll cross our fingers that the thousands of American flags passed out in the crowd are not flammable.

    6:48 p.m. | The bowl of the Pepsi Center has filled up, and thousands of people are roaming the corridors, mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. I feel pity for the ushers who are stationed outside each entrance, desperately trying to keep people out of sections that are already full. It’s like: No, sir, I’m sorry you’ve traveled 2,800 miles just to hear this six-minute speech, but you’ll have to be content watching it on a television next to the frozen-lemonade stand.” Perhaps the most undesirable job in the world.

  8. Klobuchar vs. rich people, round two

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    DENVER, 12:42 p.m. — Senator Amy Klobuchar ’82 of Minnesota made her second appearance of the convention Tuesday, highlighting the economic struggles of the middle class in brief remarks during a segment focused on Democratic women serving in the U.S. Senate.

    Klobuchar, who is in her first term, told delegates the story of her grandfather, a miner who never graduated high school but saved money in a coffee can to help send Klobuchar’s father to college. The theme was a consistent one: On Monday, she spoke of hauling decades-old dishware in her Saturn from Minnesota to Washington upon her election to the Senate.

    “If we are going to protect the family checkbook, we need a president who’ll fight for middle-class tax breaks and affordable health care and education,” she said. “This November, we can’t afford more of the same. Let’s elect a president who looks out for the middle class, not the privileged class.”

    Full speech after the jump. (more…)

  9. DeLauro to speak tonight

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    By Thomas Kaplan

    DENVER, 12:37 p.m. — Representative Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of New Haven, will address the convention this evening. She is scheduled to speak along with several other members of the House of Representatives between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Mountain time.

    Other speakers of interest to Elis include former U.S. President Bill Clinton LAW ’73 and Senator John Kerry ’66 of Massachusetts, both of whom will speak between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Mountain time.

  10. Someone’s missing from this picture…

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    The Connecticut delegation posed for a group photograph at the Marriott Tech Center following breakfast this morning. Can you spot who’s missing?

    By Thomas Kaplan

    DENVER, 10:48 a.m. — After they had breakfast at their hotel this morning, members of the Connecticut delegation to the Democratic National Convention migrated toward the lobby to take what Senator Christopher J. Dodd called “a family picture.”

    Absent, of course, was one of the elder statesmen of that family: Senator Joseph I. Lieberman ’64 LAW ’67, who will speak at the Republican National Convention next week. I couldn’t resist asking Dodd whether he missed his old Senate pal.

    “Yeah!” Dodd told me. “I do. I wish he were here.”

    Others, however, do not. “If he showed his face,” a Texas delegate told The New York Times yesterday, “he’d have to leave town in the back of a trunk.”