This series of postings will describe my journey to the Democratic National Convention in Boston with media credentials and a seat in the press area of the Fleet Center. Past postings are here:
Day 0 Posting 1 - Blogging: Journalism or Activism or Both?
Day 1 Posting 1 - Arriving in Boston: Saturated Air & U.S. Topography
I don't know if it was President Clinton's fault or the fault of the organizers, but I'll tell you the story of what led to this great disappointment at 2:15 am in a large club in Boston completely packed with young Democrats.
Training Young Grassroots Activists
Dem Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe announced at last night's Rock the Vote concert that this year is the first time the Party has offered grassroots training for delegates at a convention. He also said that when he took over as Chairman three years ago he promised that the average age of Democratic Party members needed to drop about sixty years, and the large training of youth this past weekend was key to his strategy. I could note a variety of other factors that may have led the Party to recognize the importance of the grassroots in this year's election and the importance of youth, but I'm sharing what Terry said.
So, the way the training was offered was very clever. They held an intensive training from early morning through night on Saturday, and continued Sunday through mid-afternoon. There were 2000 young Democratic activists present. See a blogger's description of the training:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/7/24/233750/211
Many of the young trainees are delegates, but others traveled to Boston just for this training; the training was advertised at colleges across the country. These youth will head back to their homes around America or to swing states and work to get out the vote in November.
All the people I talked with who had attended the training said it was excellent. The instructors were star-quality political consultants and the youth learned a lot. They also said it was hard to be there so many hours, but they were offered a big incentive: Anyone who attended all the sessions got a ticket to the Rock The Vote concert at The Avalon on Sunday night. Top two names on the bill for the concert: President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton. Also listed: Jon Stewart, Natalie Portman, Jerry Springer, DJ Biz Markie, Al Sharpton, and Terry McAuliffe. Rumors had spread throughout Boston that Bill Clinton would be playing his saxophone at the club. It became the hottest ticket around.
Getting to the Concert
It took me about five leads to find a way to get inside the club. It was quite the urban treasure hunt, and I saw a lot of interesting things along the way. The group organizing the training and the concert is a new organization called GAIN (see http://www.democraticgain.org ). Apparently, they ran into a problem Sunday afternoon: The training was so successful and the incentive so powerful, that they only had enough tickets for half the people who had completed the full training. Trainees were upset. Also, members of the official Young Dems organization had also been promised tickets, but were unable to get them. Various people were told they were on VIP lists for the event, but their names weren't on the list at the door.
I arrived at The Avalon at 8 pm and saw an enormous line of young people down the sidewalk. Some people waited from 6 pm to 10:30 pm in line on the sidewalk. The highlight for them was listening to the loudspeaker at Fenway Park (the club is right across the street) and hearing the announcement of John Kerry throwing the first pitch of the game.
The five young people working for GAIN inside the rope line were dealing with all sorts of VIP claims. "I work for Terry McAuliffe," "I've raised a lot of money for this Party," "I'm with CNN." There was a very large gathering of media with cameras and notepads hoping to get in, and seeming quite disgruntled that the event organizers didn't recognize how important media is. The VIP hopefuls were moved to various spots: "Please stand over there while you wait," "Now, can you stand in this area." The McAuliffe staffer had brought three female friends with them. One of them complained, "Some party you brought us to..." as she got tired of standing outside in the chilly air. The inside-the-rope-people apologized that the Secret Service was doing a sweep of the club and no one was allowed inside except for celebrities. I guess celebrities aren't a security concern... One guy yelled, "I'm a friend of the band," and was let inside the rope line as the GAIN staffer said, "You're in a band--come this way," frisked him, and let him in. He was lucky she had misheard him.
Inside the Club
I happened to be back stage for a while at the concert. There were so many acts that each only had a few minutes on stage. A lead singer in a band who had traveled to Boston for this event told me that he was glad to be doing his part to help get Bush out, but was bummed that his band wasn't even listed on the event description; he noted that his band sells out clubs easily in whatever city they travel to.
Howard Dean was the first one on stage. It was a bit sad for me to see how someone who used to be the top billing for an event just 8 months ago now got the worst billing (the club was only 1/8 full) and only half the people inside paid attention to his speech. His speech, though, was good. I think the people who paid attention found it inspiring and cheered and shouted along with him.
I met another mother of two young preschoolers; she's a teacher who lives in the Midwest. She told me that she couldn't wait to see Bill Clinton. She described how young and attractive and powerful he is, and how much she would love to sleep with him (I found this a little bizarre, but nodded politely). She also told me that a rumor had circulated at the last session of the GAIN training that Bill Clinton on sax might be accompanied by John Kerry on guitar. No one else mentioned that one to me, and it seemed pretty far-fetched to me.
For the most part, the Rock the Vote event at The Avalon was highly energetic and I found it encouraging to see a lot of our "foot soldiers" having a great time and saying that their grassroots training was enjoyable and informative. When any speaker or celebrity encouraged the audience to ask friends to register to vote, to discuss politics with other young people, to travel to swing states, and to make sure Kerry is elected in November, the crowd erupted with enthusiasm.
For a great description of Jerry Springer's speech and Al Sharpton's dancing with DJ Biz Markie read this report
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/26/politics/main631707.shtml
and check out the accompanying photos in the AP slideshow. Biz Markie was definitely the highlight of the event. He had the crowd singing loudly to the "Cheers" soundtrack (a real Boston moment), "We will rock you," and more as he spun tunes and mixed old school rap, hip hop, reggae, TV theme songs, and his own political commentary. People were dancing heartily and the mood was infectious.
Kerry and Edwards Daughters
Young actress Amber Tamblyn told the crowd that this would be her first time voting and she was really excited to vote for Kerry. Around midnight the Kerry daughters arrived. They were dressed in jeans and spoke casually with the audience for ten minutes or more. They confided that they had been political rebels and it was also their first time voting. Then Cate Edwards arrived. She said something like, "Thanks for coming. We will move to the White House next year!" in a North Carolina accent and then left the stage. The Kerry daughters announced that Cate had recently graduated from college (Princeton, right?) and was now going to join the campaign trail. All three daughters received a lot of applause from the young Dem audience.
"We Want Bill"
Around midnight, people started to chant "We want Bill." They were probably tired from a long day, they had been standing (and sometimes dancing) for more than six hours, and Bill was all they were waiting for. Meanwhile, musical acts kept coming out. The Avalon was selling a lot of drinks as people were looking for something to do.
I couldn't imagine that Bill or Hillary were going to show up after midnight especially since he would do his first major speech since his Presidency to the entire country the following night, but then I remembered he was known for not sleeping. It still seemed unlikely. People around me were convinced he had to show; his appearance at the event had been the incentive behind the training session, even when the training was advertised at college campuses. People were looking for signs: the Secret Service members were still there, no one was leaving the club, etc. The chants of "We want Bill" only intensified.
At 1:50, a musician got a note, smiled, and announced "You're going to get a big surprise soon, and I promise you will be thrilled." Everyone cheered. Two people then did soundchecks on two mics at the front of the stage; one of them tested a guitar. Could the rumor about Clinton being joined by Kerry on guitar be true? What else would be a big surprise and thrill this group of young Dems? But, clubs in Boston close at 2 am and time was running out. People were exhausted and the suspense was killing them. I heard some people shout "Get Bill out of bed! We need him now."
At 2:05 Lauren Hill (winner of five Grammy Awards) took the mic and the guitar and sang two political songs. Had there been no expectations for Bill Clinton, people would have been excited to see her. But, unfortunately for Lauren, people were looking glum.
The lead GAIN organizer came on the stage at 2:15 as the club lights came up, and he said in dead-pan, "Mr. Clinton will not be here tonight due to a scheduling conflict," then ran off stage. The entire club erupted in deep-throated boos. Everyone left the club and I heard a lot of angry young Dems walking down the street to grab a taxicab who felt let down.
I think these young Dems will still have enthusiasm for getting out the vote and their earlier energy and inspiration won't be lost. But, it was sure a downer at the end of the weekend training for them. Given how disorganized the tickets were, I wouldn't be surprised if the GAIN organizers never had final confirmation that President Clinton would be appearing and advertised it nonetheless. But, the GAIN training was promoted by official Party leaders, and this "false advertising" reflected pretty poorly on the Party. It seemed strange that the organizers didn't announce that Clinton wouldn't be coming until the very end-- Were they more concerned about not upsetting the celebrities who had yet to perform (the place would have cleared out as soon as they announced no Clinton)? Did they have a deal with The Avalon through 2 am and were helping them sell drinks? Or, were they as surprised as the audience that Clinton stood them up?