Later that same day....

Two PM

Bad news: In order to keep any problems from appearing on national television, the balloting doesn’t start until the eleven at night. Not good at all, as the balloting won’t end until something like two. What’s the fun in that?

I had breakfast courtesy of Colorado, lunch courtesy of the Housing lobby, and a couple of snacks courtesy of I dunno. I wasn’t too thrilled with the speeches down at the Sheritan, where the official news conference told us that the actual balloting would take place very close to midnight, the balloting not being ratings worthy for some reason. Lots of people were selling stuff, I started thinking that I may not last the week…

Six PM

Okay, here I am at the press lounge and I discover that the stuff they’re serving is something I’m allergic too. SHIT! But this isn’t all bad, as I was able to get a floor pass and actually got within a few feet of the podium while our own Senator Shumer gave a speech about how wonderful John Kerry was and all that other rot. I discovered that, yes indeed all the Kucinich delegates were going to vote for their man and that a couple of the states had forbidden them to record their vote for anything but Kerry or "Present." So we could be pretty sure that he’s going to get at least fifty votes with a couple of votes here or there for somebody else.

That’s if. Nobody’s going to watch except those few hardened political junkies.

The view from the floor is a sight to behold. There’s very little room to manouver as the space between the rows of folding chairs is only about a foot or two. The podium is about a half a dozen feet off the ground and everyone gets a decent view of the proceedings, even those up in the back in the spectators section. Our own New York delegation is up there. The midwest seems to have the best seats for some reason. Getting an hour’s worth of floortime was actually easier than I expected. That’s because this is the first time in five of these things after a quarter century of trying I didn’t have to crash.

The lounge is serving hot dogs. So much for dinner…..

Seven PM

Not much has happened since dinner. The head of College Democrats spoke and a singer with no talent was singing something called "If I was President." I was totally horrid. It's no wonder that the three broadcast networks won't cover this yet. Jesse Jackson is speaking. He's old and tired now, with dyed hair. He still has some of the old fire within him,who gave what seemed to be a recitation of patriotic songs and nursery rhymes. Why he’s losing it. In this way I’ve no real idea. Then someone else speaks and spews out mush and people in the press area inside the arena begin to wonder why these things still go on, what with the balloting taking place around midnight and all.

So here we think of Jerry Springer giving his comedy routine near my hotel tonight.

They could have done things the congressional way and started in the early afternoon and gotten the speeches and balloting done by the end of prime time, but nooooooooooo….no wonder Bush is still even with Kerry in the polls!

Dennis Kucinich, of whom much has been written here, takes the podium and shows why he's never going to get anywhere beyond the fifty or so votes he's going to get tonight. He's well and truly awful. Yeech!!!! I'm glad I voted for Edwards.