Yesterday, something amazing happened. Barack Obama came to speak at the convention, and I was able to see him up close. And as he actually spoke downstairs, I had a chance to see him speak from the base of the stage… And I saw the magic of Obama right there, as all of us were mesmerized and blown away.

I’d love to share more about my experience with Team Obama in San Diego yesterday, so why not follow me after the flip for more (including more photos)?

(Cross-posted at the Obama OC blog)

Yesterday, something amazing happened. Barack Obama came to speak at the convention, and I was able to see him up close. And as he actually spoke downstairs, I had a chance to see him speak from the base of the stage… And I saw the magic of Obama right there, as all of us were mesmerized and blown away.

I’d love to share more about my experience with Team Obama in San Diego yesterday, so why not follow me after the flip for more (including more photos)?

All the fun began outside, as Obama supporters braved the morning marine layer and not so warm weather to start building some excitement and give Obama a warm welcome to San Diego. There were convention delegates outside, and there were regular locals. There were always-active progressive Democrats outside, and there were people out there who had never been interested in politics before. No matter where they came from, or what their history of political involvement had been, they were all inspired by that “skinny guy with the funny name”, and they were compelled by his message of hope, action, and change to actually get up and take action.

The mood outside was upbeat and lively, and I had such a difficult time NOT getting caught up in the good feeling.

Unfortunately, I could not stay outside for very long. I needed to return inside, and rejoin my fellow delegates inside the convention center. However as soon as I went inside, I found a couple of old friends from around here. They worked with me on Francine Busby’s campaign for Congress last year, and I was delighted to find out that these rockstar activists are now part of Obama’s grassroots campaign in San Diego.

But anyways, I met my friends, and we were soon swept into a meeting of Obama campaign operatives preparing for the Illinois Senator’s arrival. We were given directions on what to do upstairs to prepare for Obama’s entry in the convention center, and we soon got to work in ensuring that Obama’s time spent here was time well spent. However, our “jobs” did not stop us from snapping photos whenever we had the chance. ; )

After Senator Obama was finished upstairs, it was time for us to go downstairs and prepare for Obama’s grand entry onto the floor. We waited outside, awaiting instructions on where to go on the floor and where to run when we get out and welcome Obama to the stage. At first, we were a little frustrated with the wait…
But in the end, the waiting was all worth it.

After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finished speaking, we awaited our final move. And when we got the signal to go, we rushed toward the stage, flashing our signs and cheering from the top of our lungs. The exuberance was just palpable from all corners of the floor as all of us were sppeding toward the stage. We were about to finally meet the man of our dreams and our hopes.

Soon, Obama arrived… And we all went wild. And then, he spoke. And once he spoke, the magic truly began.

For good reason, the rest of us have become cynical about what politics can achieve in this country, and as we’ve turned away in frustration, we know what’s filled the void. The lobbyists and influence-peddlers with the cash and the connections – the ones who’ve turned government into a game only they can afford to play. They write the checks and you get stuck with the bills, they get the access while you get to write a letter, they think they own this government, but we’re here to tell them it’s not for sale.

People tell me I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I promise you this – I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.

I’m running for President because the time for the can’t-do, won’t-do, won’t-even-try style of politics is over. It’s time to turn the page.

And so if we do not change our politics – if we do not fundamentally change the way Washington works – then the problems we’ve been talking about for the last generation will be the same ones that haunt us for generations to come.

We must find a way to come together in this country – to realize that the responsibility we have to one another as Americans is greater than the pursuit of any ideological agenda or corporate bottom line.

Democrats of California, it’s time to turn the page.

We are one signature away from ending this war [in Iraq]. If the President refuses to sign it, we will go back and find the sixteen votes we need to end this war without him. We will turn up the pressure on all those Republican Congressmen and Senators who refuse to acknowledge the reality that the American people know so well, and we will get this done. We will bring our troops home. It’s time to turn the page.

It’s time to show the world that America is still the last, best hope of Earth. This President may occupy the White House, but for the last six years the position of leader of the free world has remained open.

It’s time to fill that role once more. Whether it’s terrorism or climate change, global AIDS or the spread of weapons of mass destruction, America cannot meet the threats of this new century alone, but the world cannot meet them without America. It’s time for us to lead.

It’s time for us to show the world that we are not a country that ships prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in far off countries. That we are not a country that runs prisons which lock people away without ever telling them why they are there or what they are charged with. We are not a country which preaches compassion to others while we allow bodies to float down the streets of a major American city.

That is not who we are.

We are America. We are the nation that liberated a continent from a madman, that lifted ourselves from the depths of Depression, that won Civil Rights, and Women’s Rights, and Voting Rights for all our people. We are the beacon that has led generations of weary travelers to find opportunity, and liberty, and hope on our doorstep. That’s who we are.

I was crushed. I was grumbled at. I was uncomfortable contorting my tiny body on the cold, hard ground. However, I did not care. I was having the time of my life as I was watching perhaps the greatest speech ever spoken unfold in front of me. We all cheered, and we all knew that we made the right choice in going with Obama. And once Obama finished speaking, more people rushed to the floor to catch a glimpse of him, touch him, speak with him, just see someone who is actually inviting us to join in this campaign. Obama may be the big celebrity here, but he also empowered us by reaffirming that this campaign really is about us, and about our hopes to end the war, and protect our climate and our planet, and clean up the slimy ways of Washington. We were all empowered, and we all wanted to thank Obama for giving us this opportunity for hope, action, and change.

My world had turned on its head, and I was loving it. I may have already decided to support this person for President, but this completely sealed the deal for me. Whether it was all the people outside, or seeing the actual candidate inside, I got the feeling that I had made the right choice. I think I have become a part of something special, and I can hardly wait to see where all these hopes and dreams go from here. : )

(P.S.: If you want to see the full text of Obama’s speech yesterday, go to Lynn Sweet’s blog on The Chicago Sun-Times web site.)

Yesterday the Calitics staff sat down with Sen. Christopher Dodd, Senate Banking Committee chair and candidate for President in 2008, for about a 30-minute interview.  Dodd impressed me as someone who thinks clearly about issues and the implications of them, who carefully ponders all of his decisions, and who always strives to do the right thing.  In other words, a Democrat.

He’s also embraced new media, hiring Tim Tagaris, who should be familiar to the netroots as having worked on Ned Lamont’s campaign (here’s a bio).  Dodd talked about the new media era and how it can impact a campaign like his that is looking to get their views out in the face of the media-hyped monster that his Hillack Clintobama.

The full interview (not transcribed, but paraphrased) on the flip:

We asked Dodd about the role that blogs and the Internet are playing in his campaign.  During last week’s debate, they set up a live streaming “war room” where people could watch his staff react to portions of the debate (Dodd actually criticized the debate format in his convention speech, which I thought was accurate).  He said that his campaign cannot “rely on what’s filtered through the traditional media.”  He talked about how he can read articles on the Presidential race, and see where his portion of the story “died on the editor’s desk,” because you only have so many column inches and you have to talk about Hillary and you have to talk about Obama.  The Tom Friedman quote that Brian Williams brought up in the debate (“nobody has come up with a specific energy and environmental policy”) really stung him, because Dodd HAS done just that, and he said that he sent it to Friedman to boot.  We talk about the proposal later.

Now I’ll segue into a Q-and-A shorthand format.

Next question: When the media does stop at the Hillary-Obama phenomenon, how do you react to that?

A: “We’re building an operation solidly.”  Dodd believes in an almost architectural way to build an organization, by making the underlying structure solid.  Iowa and Nevada, he said, are all about organization; getting people to stay in caucuses for two hours and horse trade with their neighbors requires it.  And in New Hampshire, he’s a fellow New Englander.  His crowds are “decent-sized”.  And people seem to have an “amnesia about the last election,” where Kerry’s organization in Iowa was solid enough to help him win that race.

Q: Talk about the corporate carbon tax.

A: Dodd believes he can generate 50-100 billion dollars annually through this tax, which can be put into alternative energy programs.  This will have the effect of equalizing price for peopple.  People want to go green, but if it’s cost-prohibitive and they’re struggling to get by, they may not make the sacrifice.  It makes it easier to purchase things like wind and solar and ethanol, etc.  Dodd said that he got a great response on the proposal, particularly from Al Gore.  He also wants to mandate a 50mpg fuel economy standard by 2017.  I’ll quote his Boston Globe op-ed for a more detailed description:

That’s why, in addition to whatever else we do, America must enact a corporate carbon tax. Used in conjunction with cap and trade systems that allow clean corporations to sell pollution credits to dirtier companies, a corporate carbon tax can be implemented quickly, affect every energy sector, and above all provide the strongest disincentive possible to polluting.

Some argue that corporations would simply pass on costs of a corporate carbon tax to consumers. But in an era where the price of gasoline already jumps 30 to 40 cents in only a few weeks’ time, such arguments ring decidedly hollow. You cannot be serious about acting on the urgent threat of global warming, about making us less captive to Middle East oil, or investing in renewable energy, unless you have a corporate carbon tax that eliminates the last incentive to pollute: that it’s cheaper. With all we are facing — from health and environmental concerns to war abroad — making dirty energy a less attractive option to consumers and business is nothing to be afraid of.

But it’s particularly attractive because the revenues of a corporate carbon tax can be used to bring the cost of clean energy down. Used to fast-track renewable energy research and development and deployment of clean energy and energy efficient technologies, a corporate carbon tax would generate more than $50 billion annually, helping us get technologies out of the laboratories and onto our roads and into our homes and businesses, jumpstarting America’s global competitiveness in the process.

Dodd also described it as a jobs program, and that the jobs of the 21st century can be alternative energy jobs.

Q: On Iraq, what are your thoughts on what to do after the expected veto of the funding bill with a withdrawal date?

A: “Any bill you send without definition is wrong.”  Bush obviously wants to play out the string and hand this problem to the next President.  This is the first Administration in his history in the Congress that treats diplomacy as a threat or a weakness.  Dodd would ramp up diplomacy and political solutions to the problem of Iraq.  He says that he gets people coming up to him all the time, Democrats and Republicans, who say “Don’t quit on this.”  Dodd is also a co-sponsor of Feingold-Reid.  I’m happy with his stance on Iraq.

Q: What is the status of your legislation restoring habeas corpus?

A: Not moving.  But he’s committed to the issue.  “When I first introduced it, I thought it would go over people’s heads,” would be too obscure.  He didn’t realize how widely held this opinion was that we need to restore habeas corpus, that it speaks to who we are as Americans.

Dodd talked about how the best advocates of his bill were the senior officers of JAG.  They understand that you cannot torture people or detain them indefinitely without telling them why they were charged.  He talked about all the reasons why you have to change the law.  And he said that if he were President, “I don’t know what I could fix by executive order.”  I said, “If you’re like this President, everything.”  Big laugh.  I killed with Chris Dodd.

Q: Talk about Webb and Tester.

A: He has a lot of respect for them.  Called Tester “a keeper” and great with his constituents.

Q: Talk about jobs and why so many people think they’re falling behind.

A: We need more union households.  Ben Bernanke made a speech in Omaha where he admitted that less union households have increased inequality.  Dodd has offered legislation to overturn the Kentucky River case, where people listed as supervisors cannot organize.  He talked about rising costs in energy, education, health care.  And he said that the GI bill was so successful in getting so many to college and into a good job.

He also mentioned that real unemployment is probably twice as much as reported, because it doesn’t count those who haven’t looked for work or have stopped looking.  And he said that 10 million households in this country haven’t been to a bank.  We need to get people out of the shadows and into that system.

Dodd finished by talking about trust.  Elections are rarely about the candidate; people want to know if you’re listening to them (a primal reaction).  He thinks America is not that divded and is just looking for leadership to get them from A to D and not A to Z.

Q: Talk about how you are interacting with Joe Lieberman now.

A: This was a great answer, and I encouraged Dodd to keep talking about it.  He had a 40-year relationship with Lieberman.  It was a tough choice for him to back Ned Lamont.  And ultimately, he said, “I did the right thing” because he respected the wishes of the voters.  He said Ned was a great candidate and would have made a great Senator.

OK, that was it.