DNC ’08

FishbowlDC is twittering up a storm. He’s not the only one, a number of media folk here at the convention have told us they are covering it via twitter. Want to get a sense of what to world of twitter journalism might look like? Take a look at what Patrick Gavin‘s done.

* Nader speaker: “don’t hate the media, become the media” #dnc08 2 minutes ago
* Retweeting @jayrosennyu “How do you get your own show? View from nowhere & cult of toughness? (David)Gregory” #dnc08 3 minutes ago
* Ben smith on obama camp dissing national review writer http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/ #dnc08 12 minutes ago
* Sean penn disses “james carvilles of mainstream media” and their ” absece of thought” #dnc08 17 minutes ago
* Sean penn: I’m not pretty enough to be a msm journalist #dnc08 20 minutes ago
* Sean penn mocks “the best political team in television” #dnc08 21 minutes ago
* Calderone piece on the ongoing msnbc turmoil that I think is slowly moving from blind gossip items to news http://tinyurl.com/6z4hxy #dnc08 24 minutes ago
* @TheFix daschle this morning said 30 former staffers of his are now with obama #dnc08 about an hour ago

CNN may equal politics, but the CNN Grill equals heaven. FBNY is currently inside the Grill drinking a chocolate milkshake with no plans to move, maybe ever. CNN has done a very good job of branding the convention space and the Grill (in our opinion) is the crowning glory. It’s a sort of conventioners oasis set up in the perimeter zone. You have to have a CNN credential to enter (or know someone who does) but once inside there is free food, and drink, and a dessert menu that includes a “make your own cupcakes” option.

It’s also the place for hungry and thirsty heavy-hitters. Rahm Emanuel is sitting at the front table with his children, CNN head Jon Klein has a booth to our left, LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is getting interviewed in front of us, and Nancy Pelosi and her entourage just sailed by. Anderson Cooper is chatting it up with Walter Isaacson and we think we just spotted Jeffrey Wright. Did we mention the free milkshakes? It’s also a bit of a mediabistro alumni lovefest — we’re sitting here with former FishbowlNYer Rachel Sklar and the original FishbowlDCer Garrett Graff…word on the twitter is that Patrick Gavin is on the way.

23/6 the Huffington Post off-shoot that of late has been giving the Onion a run for its money, hosted a comedy hour upstairs at the Big Tent following Hillary Clinton‘s keynote address last night. Featured performers included Portfolio‘s Matt Cooper (who does a mean John McCain impression), the Barely Political folk, the tooth-hurtingly funny Fred Armisen, and FBNY’s current roommate and bringer of good things, HuffPo’s Rachel Sklar, whose rendition of American Pie is featured below.

FBNY is here in the Press Tent at the Pepsi Center in Denver. To the naked eye it’s a bit of a bare bones operation, but to the computer dependent it has all the amenities, meaning tables, chairs, Internet signals, and free soda (though rumor has it the diet coke truck didn’t make it through security).

Walking the rows past the banners of all the press organizations here could double as a visual accompaniment to many of the posts we’ve written her at FBNY about struggling papers and endless layoffs. Except everyone here is tremendously busy.

Per Hillary Clinton‘s speech last night:

By following the example of a brave New Yorker , a woman who risked her life to shepherd slaves along the Underground Railroad.

And on that path to freedom, Harriett Tubman had one piece of advice.

If you hear the dogs, keep going.

If you see the torches in the woods, keep going.

If they’re shouting after you, keep going.

Don’t ever stop. Keep going.

If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.

You know how at most DC parties when you’re not on the list you just keep on moving and walk through? Well you can’t do that here. They have weapons.

Stop reporting at me all at once! So, yeah, there are a lot of reporters here at an event where there is very little unscripted news.

“I feel like this is the dumb state of reporting in a presidential campaign,” said Michael Scherer, a writer for Time magazine. “Everyone is spending time and millions of dollars to break something six hours before it’s announced.”

There’s 10 million people watching TV, and if we can’t find something that’s not on the TV to be useful about, then what the hell is my paper paying me to be here? I feel morally obliged to be running around futilely trying to find something.

I’ve been carrying around the laptop for two hours today wandering through the city, the laptop is in there, and it’s not moving. It stays there for the rest of the convention. I’ll be moving, but not the laptop. After walking three miles in the sun — it’s a presence in your life you’d like to eliminate.

Arianna Huffington and panel host Charlie Rose.

WaPo‘s Katharine Weymouth and SNL‘s Fred Armisen.

Will.i.am

Arianna and our debate live-blogging hero, NYT‘s Kit Seelye

Ana Marie Cox has an interview with Obama’s right-hand man Reggie Love, up over at Swampland. The interview is of particular note to us since it happened to be conducted (due to faulty phone reception) in various locales in and around our our current digs in Denver. Feel the Love.

AMC: If the McCain campaign was a basketball team, what basketball team would they be? And I think maybe Pistons, you know, for the aggressive play and all the sharp elbows, but my husband has also suggested the Princeton defense – do you have an opinion?

RL: Well, I think you may be referring to the Pistons of the 80s and early 90s….

AMC: Yes, I am referring to the Pistons of the 80s and early 90s. The sort of classic Pistons, and he’s referring to the classic Princeton defensive game. Do you have an opinion about that?

RL: If you had to say that McCain was a basketball team, and which basketball team would he most be like?

AMC: Ya, sort of the attitude they bring or the style of play they, you know, have.

RL: Well, I don’t want to insult any of the teams…

AMC: By comparing them to McCain?

Reggie wrote later to clarify exactly why he was hesitant: “I don’t want to insult any of the NBA teams, I have a lot of teammates and friends who still play in the NBA.

The HuffPo brunch at the Brown Palace (real name) in downtown Denver is about to begin, that is, if they can solve the mic problems. Also, there is no stage making it hard to see the participants: someone just told George Stephanopoulos to stand up, “it won’t help that much,” he says. Other panelists include Katharine Weymouth, Wili.i.am, George, and Rahm Emmanuel (who just said this is like an old-school synagogue).

It’s a measure of Arianna’s meteoric online rise since the last election that there are currently so many heavy hitters in this room — one wonders who is left to cover the convention. TVNewser is twittering.

Slate threw a party last night in honor of Obamamania. The takeaway? Peggy Noonan is one of the most charming people we’ve met, Chris Cillizza is much taller in person, and Tammy Haddad owns a portable fan that lights up to say “Tam Cam.”