DNC Day 2

First, some general comments on how the convention was run.

In contrast to the Republicans, the Democrats did not accept any corporate donations to fund the convention.  Instead, they relied heavily on volunteers to run their show.  These volunteers probably did not get a lot of training and the organization of the convention reflected that.  The usual description used in the media was that the convention was a barely controlled chaos.  Norris would agree with that description, although the televised view of the convention gave it the appearance of a mostly well-oiled broadway production.  The chaos was more apparent behind the scenes where security reigned supreme, and everything else seemed to suffer.  Schedules, plans, and rules were changed on a daily, if not hourly, basis.

Norris has one leftover security story from Day 1.  While patrolling the loading dock area in the bowels of the arena, he spotted the room where the signs for the delegates to wave around were made.  Much has been made in the media about how efficiently the signs were distributed to the convention floor and changed out every half hour or so and the sign room was where it all started.  Since the door to the sign room was open, Norris snapped a picture.

If you look closely, you can see they were making up the "We Love Michelle" signs in advance of Mrs. Obama's speech.  As Norris walked on down the hallway after taking the picture, a security person came running after him, wanted to know who he was and why he had taken that picture.  He was especially upset that Norris was wearing a media pass.  It turns out he was concerned that a picture of the "We Love Michelle" signs could leak out to the press and the public before they were revealed on the convention floor.  After Norris convinced him that he didn't really work for the media and after he promised not to post any pictures of the sign anywhere on the internet until after the speech, the guard relaxed and let him go.  Typical of the security nonsense that was prevalent all week.

On to Day 2.  The routine was about the same as the previous day.  On the walk to the arena, Norris spotted the VIP entrance where motorcades dropped off their passengers.  They were about the only ones that didn't have to walk at least a half mile to get to the arena.

Also seen outside the arena was one of the portable cell towers that had been erected to provide extra cell phone coverage for the convention.  Several times during the convention, cell service in the arena was taken down by illegal use of transmitters on the convention floor.  The white hat team successfully found the offenders, usually within about 10 minutes of receiving the trouble call.

Once lunch had been taken care of, Norris again reported early for the start of his shift since he had nothing else to do, and the happy delegates usually provided a constant source of entertainment for the casual observer.

The CNN platform booth was at the rear of the convention floor and just off the main flow of traffic, so the team saw a lot of Wolf Blitzer who was more or less permanently attached to his chair there.  When he wasn't on the air, he just sat there staring off into space waiting for his next big guest.  Here he is chatting with CNN's Cathy Crowley as some poor speaker not deemed worthy of prime time coverage carries on at the podium.

After the lesser speakers had come and gone, the night's main attraction began around 10:30pm.  Bill Clinton got the crowd excited and achieved a nearly painful noise level inside the arena when the delegates cheered.  Norris watched the speech from the press box area.

So ended Day 2.  Fortunately Norris did not have to stick around for the delegate roll call, which went on until 12:30 in the morning.