Saturday was the big day for me at the convention--Jeffrey Feldman's panel on Communicating the Progressive Vision. Essentially a panel on framing, it featured John Javna (author of 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Fight The Right), Justin Krebs (founder of Drinking Liberally, Laughing Liberally, Cosmopolity, and no doubt countless other valuable organizations), Jeffrey Feldman (founder of Frameshop), George Lakoff (some asshole. I don't even know how he got on the panel. !;) ), and me. I hardly got any sleep for a second straight night. My best guess is I was working on 9 hours of sleep out of the last 72. That's okay. I'll sleep when I'm dead...which could have been at any point on Saturday.
Before the panel we had the big keynote address from Howard Dean. If there's some reason why I shouldn't like Dean, I haven't found it yet. The right loves to portray him as a fringe liberal (imagine that), but there's nothing fringe about what he's doing. Basically the Republicans have had a 15 year head start. Prior to Dean's arrival the DLC strategy seemed to be sort of a rope-a-dope without the rope. Like maybe the Republicans would beat us up so much that they'd punch themselves out, but unfortunately Dems never got very good at the fighting back part. Instead they decided to focus on getting beaten up really well. No one takes a beating like the DLC.
I've been to three of Dean's speeches this year, and here's what I've noticed. Dean does not have a stump speech. Every time he speaks it sounds extemporaneous, which means he either writes his own material or Dean is our nations greatest living actor. As always Dean's speech was poignant, inspirational, and funny. Mainly he was addressing the 50-State Strategy haters. It just amazes me that there are Democrats in leadership positions who want to write off huge sections of the country. Great strategy. Like Bush spending 5 hours in Iraq. "I just wanted to let you know, we're here to support you. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm getting the fuck out of here!" You can not retreat your way to victory, and kudos to Dean for recognizing that!
After the morning keynote, Jeffrey's panel started (you can read a transcript here). I had heard that the panel was going to be broadcast on C-SPAN 2, and for some reason that made me extremely nervous. I don't know why. The number of people in the room probably outnumbered the people watching at home, but I was freaked out anyway. The discussion itself went great! Jeffrey's got the link up to the video over on Frameshop. Check it out if you missed it. I kinda flubbed my opening remarks (I had planned on saying something else entirely, but I got lost and went with what is basically my `stump speech'), but I think I made up for it with the Q & A. I had kind of a `fanboy' moment when George Lakoff said he wanted to build on a point that I had made. I turned to John and said "well, that was awesome!"
After my panel was through I went back up to my room for a quick `power nap.' Bush likes to take those, and he's so good and what he does that I just want to follow his example. The nap lasted about 30 minutes, and though that may seem short, it's still 30 minutes more than the administration spent planning for the repercussions of a quick overthrow of Saddam.
I kept the nap short because I wanted to be downstairs in time for the "War, Foreign Policy, and Activism" panel with Arianna Huffington. Since I blog over at the Huffington Post from time to time, I figured I should put in a little face time. Unfortunately I brought my laptop down with me, and I would up being totally consumed by work-related emails and correspondence. The panel began and ended, and I think I actually heard maybe two or three minutes of the discussion. So much for activism.
By 12:00 noon it was time for my `book signing.' When I got there I found two signing kiosks. One was large and spacious with room for two authors and a banner. The other was like Milton's cubicle in the movie Office Space--short, cramped, and full of boxes both full and empty. David Sirota was already seated in one kiosk. Guess which one I sat at. Actually, it didn't bother me in the least. Maybe someday I'll get to the "What!? That rabbit's name over mine! This is an outrage!" level of `Celebrity Author'-dom, but for now I'm still too grateful for anyone wanting my book in the first place to begrudge my surroundings. Still, I kept waiting for Gary Cole to show up to say "Yeah, I'm gonna have to ask you to go ahead and...just move your table as far into the corner as you can so we can get some more books in here...m'kay? Great." That never happened, but I did get buzzed by Mission Accomplished Man who turned in my direction and shouted `Vote for Fear!' before disappearing into the hallway.
I met a ton of great folks while doing my signing. The two ladies from Las Vegas, both of whom I hope to see again in San Diego for DemocracyFest in July. Joylette and Mozh (who you should NEVER bluff) hung out with me for a while. I got to meet Ilona, who affectionately referred to me as her "Ig brother." That's not a typo. Ig is the name of my publisher, and now it's the name of Ilona's publisher as well (Way to go! You guys plan on staying with me and my wife when you're in Memphis!). I also got to hang out with the real celebrity authors who were doing signings next to me. I got to chat with David Sirota, whose giant belt buckle I can only assume comes standard issue when you move to Montana. Then after he left I got to meet up with Sam Seder again while he was signing copies of F.U.B.A.R. Three hours later it was time to move on and regroup with the `crew.'
I ran into Joylette and Mozh in the hall, and we rallied with Jeffrey Feldman and John Javna and collectively we merged with another group of bloggers with whom we had not hung out previously. We went to that restaurant at the Riviera that overlooks the pool and hung out for a while. Our plan was to go out for dinner after Harry Reid's evening keynote, but some folks wanted to nosh, and I wanted a beer to celebrate the official end of `major combat operations' during my time at YearlyKos. My responsibilities were at an end, and from here all I had to do was enjoy myself.
And enjoy myself I did! Our group was spread out over two tables, divided rather unfortunately into the two groups that already knew one another. Probably would have been helpful to mix it up a bit. Anyway, I started doing my estate tax stump speech wherein I mention that I'm a Certified Financial Planner TM by trade and my job was to help people get around having to pay the estate tax. The old tax was avoidable, but the new Republican death tax will affect a lot of folks and there's no way around it. Someone at the next table (who I hadn't had a chance to talk with) says, "Sorry to interrupt, but did you say you're a financial planner?" That's right, I reply. He asks where I work, and I tell him about how I used to work with American Express Financial Advisors. Turns out he works for AEFA in their technology department. We swap war stories, and he asks where I work now. I tell him, and he says "Wow! You know who you should meet? That `former dittohead' guy! You guys both used to work at Amex, and now you both work for the same company!" Our table erupts in laughter. The folks at the other table look at each other and go `what?' Ah, the sweet anonymity of the blogosphere.
We wrap up at the restaurant and head off to Harry's keynote. The doors weren't open yet, so we all sort of smash together like cattle waiting to be loaded in the hallway outside. I see Maryscott O'conner and this guy who (I thought) really wanted to meet Maryscott within spitting distance of each other. So I elbow my way across the room to finally introduce the two. Turns out the guy really wanted to meet Gina, not Maryscott. He had, in fact, already met both. Oh...well, that shows what 9 hours of sleep gets ya.
We all file in for Harry's closing keynote. Harry was entertaining, charming, and sincere (if a bit quiet and reserved). His speech wasn't one of those moments where you're ready to go screaming through a brick wall. It was more along the lines of making me feel like I'd made the right choice about which side I was on. Here's this well-spoken guy talking common sense at what the media considered a partisan political event (where you expect to see politicos figuratively bite the heads off of `issue' bats). It was a "proud to be a Democrat" moment. We need more of these.
After the `closing ceremonies' were through, I bid farewell to Jeffrey, John, Joylette, Mozh, and company. My flight was leaving at 6:00 a.m., and that meant I had to get up at around 4:00 a.m. to get to the airport on time. It was too much to ask. I had to get some sleep.
After bidding my fond farewells, I decided to stop by Justin Krebs' wrap up party. I intended to stay for about 5 minutes, thank Justin for all the help I've gotten from Drinking Liberally, and to get in a final (precious few) minutes of partying.
I should have gone out with Jeffrey & Co. I might have gotten to bed sooner.
What a riot this party turned out to be! Three rooms stuffed to the gills with folks. I wish I could tell you (or at the very lest remember) all the great conversations I had with folks from Andrea to Baratunde. In my exhaustion I only really remember talking with one person--Elana Levin from the Drum Major Institute. I generally like to keep my `wonktitude' dialed one notch below the "Reading Papers from Public Policy Institute" stage, but after talking with Elana I had no choice but to read their stuff. The next series of blogs I do will be to discuss their recent "Congress at the Midterm: Their 2005 Middle-Class Record" report.
But before I do that I have to put this YearlyKos retrospective to bed. Literally. At about 2:00 a.m. I crawled back into my Murphy bed for the last time. I would reemerge two hours later, cram all my laundry into the thoughtfully given "Mark Warner YearlyKos Laundry Bag", and caught a cab to the airport where I slept for about an hour on a lumpy row of seats before boarding my plane for home.
It's funny how when the media is presented with something new and unfamiliar, the first reaction is to try to equate it to something they're familiar with. YearlyKos showed everyone how the Democratic base is getting organized. We're getting energized. We're taking our party back. And the reaction for the media is "well, this must be just like Rush Limbaugh in the early 90s." So the look, as they have been doing for the better part of a decade, for the "Liberal Rush Limbaugh." They think they've found it in Markos. They are wrong.
The left has no Rush Limbaugh, because the left needs no Rush Limbaugh. The thing they can't get through their heads is that the Republican Revolution was top down. This Democratic revolution, this 'people powered politics' ideal is bottom up. It couldn't be any more unlike what's happened on the right, past or present. Ah, but that kind of story would take time, and effort. Best to just drag out an old Limbaugh piece, hit F5, type 'Rush' under find, 'Markos' under replace, file the story, and get back to writing that book.
So from one `mind-numbed Kos robot' to another, let us bid adieu to YearlyKos 2006. We laughed, we cried, we partied, we drank, but this much I can say with certainty--not one of us slept worth a shit. See you all next year!