The Texas Observer

It’s entirely possible that news might happen today, but it’s less clear who’ll be around to report it, since the order of the day is BarackObama’s much-anticipated speech tonight at Invesco Field. Party people are estimating a 4-hour process — doubtless riddled with snafus — for getting into the stadium, and that’s if James Dobson’s peevish prayer for rain goes unanswered.

Given the tightness of security and the unthinkable prospect of being left out in the parking lot, we’re not even going to try to bring our laptops along.

Then again, being left out might not be the worst think that could happen. A timing miscalculation last night at the Pepsi Center left one Observer reporter stuck so high in the Pepsi Center’s nosebleed seats — directly behind the stage, no less — that it was simply impossible to hear, never mind see, the evening’s speeches. So we abandoned the interior and went out into the hall and found a big flat-screen TV, maxed out its volume, and settled in on the carpet to watch the feed.

We weren’t the only ones, and we suspect we had a better view than most. From inside the hall, for instance, we never would have seen Texas Congressman Chet Edwards’ unfortunately canned smile, which, we suspect, had more than a little to do with the fact that he didn’t make it past Obama’s VP short-list.

Joe Biden, of course, did, and the sense around the big screen was that he knocked his acceptance speech out of the park. And when Obama unexpectedly joined him, well, the Hall and the hallway both went wild.

Plus, there was one undeniable advantage to our position. Once the speeches were over, as the Pepsi Center emptied to the soft sounds of the traditional closing invocation, we found ourselves almost directly in the flight path of the secret service crews hustling Hillary and Bill Clinton (who’d exceeded high expectations earlier in the evening) out of their box seats and into a waiting catering-staff elevator. Both of them walked within 10 feet of us, turning heads and setting off a flurry of hurried shutter-snapping. They’re shorter in real life than you might think, and have larger heads than you’d expect, as if they had been manufactured specifically to camera-ready specs.

It was as unexpectedly close to this convention’s real deals as we’ve been all week.

by Brad Tyer

Living up to her reputation as the biggest diva in the U.S. Congress, Houston congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee woke up the Texas delegation breakfast this morning with a bossy, fire-and-brimstone speech that also served as an apology for her early support of Hillary Clinton.

“Some of us started on a different path,” acknowledged Lee, who was booed earlier this year at a speech at Texas Southern University for her support of Clinton. “But now we’ve got to get a compass, we’ve got to get a GPS, we got to get on the road because we’ve got work to do.”

While other speakers have struggled to maintain attention in the room of delegates milling around and visiting the breakfast buffet, Lee let the delegates know, as she took the microphone, she would have none of that. She ordered the room’s doors closed (the buffet is located outside) and demanded that people chatting in the back of the room sit down. Earlier, she had distributed campaign signs for the delegates to wave, prompting a lot of eye-rolling among the delegates. But by the end of the passionate speech — in which she invoked Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Moses — the audience was on its feet, waving the signs enthusiastically. Her message: Republicans will try to win through voter suppression, and Democrats should be prepared to fight back on election day.

by Patricia Kilday Hart

To her surprise, Arlington delegate Shandra Jackson was one of four women chosen to participate in an economic round table Tuesday morning with Michelle Obama.

Also on the panel were four female governors: Ruth Ann Minner (Delaware), Kathleen Sebelius (Kansas), Janet Napolitano (Arizona), Christine Gregoire (Washington), and surprise guest Joe Biden.

“I have no idea how they made the selection,” the 34-year old paralegal said. “They called Friday and asked if I was interested, and I was told I couldn’t say anything until Sunday.” She kept the news a secret from even her parents, Cecil and Carolyn Jackson, as well as her hairdresser, who jokingly told her to “give Michelle my business card” when Jackson had her hair cut before she left.

Jackson said she had to quell her excitement and was thinking to herself, “If you only knew!” On 8:30 on Sunday night, a few hours after landing in Denver, someone from Michelle Obama’s office called Jackson to let her know she would get to participate in the round table.

A single mother who had never had an interest in politics before, Jackson got involved with the campaign because Barack Obama gave her a “wake up call.” An arachnoid cyst and then an aneurysm in the left side of her brain also contributed to her awakening. She got involved for the first time in February, when she attended precinct captain training.

When asked whether she would remain in politics after the convention, Jackson smiled and said that she was unsure but that Obama had “truly inspired” her to get involved not just with politics but with other community services. Perhaps the greatest testament to the “change we can believe in” credo was Jackson’s newfound attitude about the impact the Obama campaign and the convention itself made on her outlook in life.

“I came here one woman,” Jackson said, “and I’m leaving a different one.”

by Rachel Farris

Speaking this afternoon to a small group of some of the country’s top journalists (okay…so I snuck in), Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said he doesn’t worry about the tightness of the Obama-McCain contest in national polls. Rather he’s focused on Obama’s ability to persuade increasingly cynical and disaffected swing voters in battleground states that an Obama presidency can reverse the country’s economic downturn.

Plouffe puts 18 states in the “battleground” category and says he likes what he’s learned about the views of their undecided voters. “We like who these people are and how they view” key issues like Iraq and the economy, he said. In particular, he believes that undecided women will break for Obama and give him the crucial edge in the Electoral College in what he acknowledges will remain a tight race.

While women find McCain appealing because of his record of independence, the recent pro-McCain television ads questioning Obama’s character will backfire, Plouffe predicted. Women who thought McCain was above slash-and-burn politics will be turned off, he said. (Plouffe specifically mentioned the ads funded by Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons.)

Plouffe acknowledged that “deep-rooted cynicism” about Washington may make his target audience difficult to motivate. While the energy question has been included in every presidential debate dating back to 1972, Plouffe blamed the country’s dependence on foreign oil on “the lack of will in Washington” to find authentic solutions. For this, Democrats share responsibility, he said, noting that congressional approval ratings are on par with those of “the Ebola virus.” On the other hand, he called Obama’s refusal on principle to endorse a gas tax cut ” best moment of the campaign.”

In other observations, Plouffe said: The choice of Invesco Field as the venue for Obama’s acceptance speech is a key part of Obama’s field operations. Twenty thousand Obama supporters from Colorado — a crucial swing state — will be present. “We’re thrilled about opening up the convention to 60,000 additional Americans” who would not have been accommodated at the convention hall.

Number one goal of the Obama campaign for the convention: fill in gaps of voter’s knowledge about Obama; Job Number Two is making the case that convince people that a McCain administration would continue George Bush’s policies. Plouffe acknowledged that Obama’s election is contingent upon the campaign’s ability to turn out new or sporadic voters. To that end, field organizations in every state will help prod the 600,000 African American registered voters who failed to participate in the last election. “One thing we never run into is a John McCain field operation,” Plouffe said.

After the discussion — which was sponsored by TIME Magazine and led by the magazine’s senior political correspondent and San Antonio native Karen Tumulty — Obama communications director Dan Pfeiffer said voters would be hearing a lot more about McCain’s affiliation with former Texas Senator Phil Gramm, who Pfeiffer said, continues to counsel McCain on economic policies. “It says so much about McCain that he is considering (for appointment to Treasury Secretary) a man who thinks we’re a nation of whiners and that we are in a “mental’ recession.”

by Patricia Kilday Hart

Clinton delegates from Texas were none too pleased this morning. They expressed frustration after they were informed at the delegation breakfast by state Chair Boyd Richie that they would have to cast their votes on paper ballots before tonight’s anticipated roll call.

Richie said he was notified at around 9 pm last night that the DNC was requesting delegates vote early so they would be ready when it came time to vote from the floor. A Clinton supporter, ever suspicious, stood up at the breakfast and demanded that an observer oversee the ballots. Richie retorted that every ballot would be signed by the delegates themselves and copies would be made for everyone to review, adding, “we’re not relying on electronic voting machines here, folks.”

Nevertheless, an agreement was reached so that the Clinton delegates would have an observer in an effort to stymie any sort of conspiracy theories or resentments. (Let’s hear it for party trust and unity.) Ron Kirk, the former Dallas mayor, declined the option to have a poll watcher on behalf of the Obama delegates.

The level of frustration within the Texas delegation may be partly due to the many first-time delegates who are unfamiliar with the process.

Adding to the Texas delegation’s troubles, state Sen. Mario Gallegos (D-Houston) had to be hospitalized Tuesday night in Denver for a bacterial skin infection. Gallegos, a Clinton delegate, underwent a liver transplant in 2007 that nearly prevented him from casting the key vote needed to stop a Voter ID bill.

Richie, after leaving the delegation breakfast, took a ballot to the hospital for Gallegos to sign. Gallegos is being treated with antibiotics and is expected to be released Thursday morning.

by Rachel Farris

Texas state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, one of three female co-chairs of Denver’s Democratic National Convention (a record, at this multiply historic gathering), gavelled the proceedings to order today at 3 p.m. After a few formalities, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi kicked off the Presidential Nominating Process — the actual bread and butter, business-wise, of the week’s proceedings. Clinton and Obama both were nominated and seconded, followed by the start of the roll call vote.

A note on the roll call vote. Some Texas delegates were apparently surprised by a campaign-brokered agreement to conduct the vote via paper ballot at the delegation’s hotel this morning, rather than conduct the actual balloting on the floor. What difference, if any, the location of the balloting makes appears to be moot, as the roll call is taking place on the floor as this is written, as usual. There’s plenty of opportunity to rhetorically recognize those now-familiar 18 million cracks Sen. Clinton’s historic campaign inscribed in this country’s ultimate glass ceiling.

by Brad Tyer

Texas state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte and members of the Texas delegation plant flowers in Cherry Creek State Park.

by Barbara Schlief