Last night I actually had to work at the Pepsi Center – my job being handing out floor passes to the press. Working usually means I get a few minutes to sneak on to the floor and hear some of the keynote speeches of the night. Last night, there was chaos of course and not only did I not make it on to the floor, few journalists did.
When Hillary Clinton came out to speak on Tuesday night, the fire marshal shut down access but I didn’t experience it, I was already on the floor. Last night, trying to sneak in for a few minutes of Bill Clinton or Joe Biden was damn near impossible. Journalists crowded monitors on the concourses and people reluctantly admitted, “Well, I can just watch it on YouTube. It’s important to just be here.”
Journalist pile at monitor to watch Bill Clinton from outside the arena
While I was stuck outside the hall, I could definitely hear the 3:30 minutes of cheering before Clinton could begin to speak. The crowd went wild for him, which reassured me and him that any ill will toward Bill that came as a result of the Obama-Clinton heated battle is all just history now. The Democratic Party still loves him, he is still one of their leaders.
The speech was phenomenal. There was no glimpse of any animosity that has rumored to be haunting Bill Clinton, who in many ways wagered his legacy on the success of his wife’s campaign. He made it clear he supports Obama (whether that will translate into campaigning, we have yet to see) and Bill put policy substance into an inspiring speech (something that maybe Obama should take note of). Bill Clinton has a clear understanding of the issues facing America and a lot of policy solutions that he has no authority to implement. It must be hard to be term-limited out of the presidency when you’re too young to retire and too determined to give up. That is why Hillary losing the race is probably more troubling and upsetting to Bill than it is to anyone else.
Bill Clinton is always a tough act to follow, so I’ll admit that I’m a bit nervous about whether Obama can pull it off this evening.
After Bill Clinton exited the stage I got a text from a close friend saying that Obama was rumored to be backstage. That meant I couldn’t miss Biden, I had to watch. I ran up to the radio booths where I knew I could get in and see as much as possible. Up there looking down I heard an inspiring heartfelt speech from his son, Beau Biden. I cried. I really did.
Biden came out and gave a good, not too long speech (which is a miracle for him). I’ll admit, while I listened to it, the really memorable part was when he introduced his mother who was in the audience, and then when Barack Obama made his debut to the convention.
When Obama came out the room went wild and everyone was shocked. It was my first time seeing Biden and Obama embracing and I’ll admit, they good together. They compliment each other and really do make a great pair. 
Unfortunately, I have to run without time to really finish this post. But don’t worry, I’ll be back.
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August 29, 2008 at 6:55 am
[...] function submitform() { document.bcsearchform.submit(); } Julia Moss Night Three at the DNC: Fire Marshalled 08.28.08 Print This | Email This Last night I actually had to work at the Pepsi Center – my job [...]