Near midnight on Tuesday, Bill Clinton’s secretary of transportation, Rodney Slater, was spotted walking alone and annoyed down a dark section of 15th street in Denver. You know town is a cluster when even the country’s former head of transportation can’t find transportation.
9:30 a.m. Rumors that the city of Denver was giving movie tickets to homeless people to keep them off the streets don’t seem to be holding true. There were 65 passes handed out by the Homeless Coalition, said Brad Melieu, head of the Denver Rescue Mission. An informal survey of homeless people downtown turned up none saying they had gotten a movie pass. Local shelters did add extra beds, to accommodate more homeless if necessary, but Melieu said they were mostly unused.
2:30 p.m. Rev. Al Sharpton was spotted trying to cut to the front of the security line outside of the Pepsi Center. He was denied. Only convention speakers may cut the line.
9-ish “Where is he now? Wait, is that here? That’s here!” ~ delegate in convention concourse, seeing Barack Obama on the television screen. He took off running afterward, presumably back inside to witness Obama’s brief remarks and “We Are Family” dance-along.
10:30 p.m. Dr. Cornel West matters. The cerebral professor and author of "Race Matters" and "Democracy Matters" shakes hands with random folks from the moment he walks into the lobby of the Ritz to the elevator, where he ascends into the night with a small, well-dressed entourage.
10:50 p.m. Television journalist Andrea Mitchell (NBC) walks through the Ritz lobby, shakes no hands, and rushes to the elevator. She's all business.
11:15 p.m. Drunk lobbyist at the bar of the Ritz complains about federal ethics rules. "It's easier to sell a guy a widget if he has a ham sandwhich in his belly," he says. Lobbyist declares he should be able to spend $50 (or some modest amount) a day to help him do his job, i.e. influence politicians. Lobbyist proceeds to spill beans about miscellaneous political shenanigans; hypothesizes that Joe Biden was paid a couple Gs to mention "Amtrak" in his speech earlier that night; talks trash about lobbyists for the tobacco industry - "there's a reason there's the term 'empty suits,' he says; then lobbyist concludes he would leave his gig lobbying for community banks for the big money of tobacco.
