Because I have Connections, passes to the DNC fell from the sky this afternoon. I also got my new camera today, so I took some pictures. Was sort of fun- I have to think Jimmy Carter could win a second term right now if he wanted to. We jokingly started cheering ‘four more years’ after his speech. It was sort of weird- Gore (not typically a very optimistic speaker) was very focused on light humor about the worst parts of the last four years, and on constructive, positive talk about the possibilities of the next four years. Carter was also out of character- the great peacemaker talked mostly about his understanding (from his navy years) about the need for deterrence and strength (though obviously with a focus on the need for allies in order to have real security.) And Clinton, almost always the optimistic and positive type, was really the only speaker on the evening who was really openly negative, and he was quite negative, turning positive only in pieces. He remains a brilliant speaker who captures the rhythm of a religious orator better than anyone. Will be interesting in the morning to see how the speeches were interpreted by the press and public- I thought they mostly struck a very positive, well-coordinated tone that if continued could make Kerry quite electable. But Clinton, oddly, was off tone, and while good, didn’t really seem to match the rest of the evening. Weird.
Anyway, was great fun, despite the bus driver who got lost on the way back to the hotel, turning what would have been a 20 minute walk into a one hour drive. On the plus side, I did see parts of Boston I’d never seen before.
[Later] Forgot the best part of the evening. I saw some of the Daily Show guys. In person. Actually reporting from an actual news scene. Or at least preparing to. Or something. Go them. ;) (If I didn’t find Michael Moore an arrogant egocentric prick, the sighting of him would probably have trumped Daily Show, but… whatever :)
On the software side of things, read a ton of bugs Sunday night, which got me more in touch with the product than I’ve felt in a while. Not perfect, but I don’t feel like I’ve got this vast mountain out there to climb. Also, I got nautilus running at home to play with the new mime stuff- pretty nice.