Notes from Denver, day 2
Thomas Kaplan
9:27 pm, Aug 25, 2008
DENVER, 9:27 p.m. — Observations from Denver on the first day of the Democratic National Convention.
You might be asking: “What did the Connecticut delegation do today?” I’m wondering, too. You see, members of the delegation had a breakfast at their hotel this morning, an event I planned to cover. This was easier said than done. First, I spent 90 minutes trying to determine what bus to take to get to the Connecticut hotel (I struggle with mass transportation). Then I got on that bus — but going in the wrong direction. Long story short, I missed the breakfast. If you really, really, really want to know what John Larson has to say these days, Jesse Hamilton of The Hartford Courant can probably fill you in
This brings me to another issue. Having failed miserably on my attempt to use mass transit this morning, I decided I would walk to the McCain headquarters later today for the Carly Fiorina news conference. It turns out Denver is not exactly a compact city. I literally walked miles to get there. (As a silver lining, the view of the Denver skyline in the distance — I emphasize distance — was a nice treat.)
Denver, it should be noted, is a beautiful city. Alexander Garvin, a professor at the School of Architecture, says as much in his Study of the City course. All those nights I spent listening to him go on and on about the 16th Street Mall now seem so worthwhile. He was dead right.
I don’t want to harp on this, but I just don’t understand why the Obama campaign feels it necessary to starve me to death. You may remember this was a problem between me and Barack in New Hampshire. Well, it’s no better here in Denver. And before you suggest it, I’m not paying $6 for a hot dog inside the Pepsi Center. (I can assure you I will get increasingly disgruntled about this as the week goes on and am already planning a full post reviewing the overpriced food options here in the arena.)
But there is some good news: Yale did not name a provost today. When I was in New Hampshire, Yale made its big announcement about how it would spend more of its endowment. So, just because of my luck, I figure the new provost will be named this week, too.
The Rocky Mountain News is reporting that both Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi will perform at Invesco Field on Thursday night when Senator Obama accepts the nomination. I fly 1,200 miles across the country and I still can’t get away from New Jersey.