Otsego11

Remember the big tent I described the other day?  Here we are.  Long line, big breakfast, Bruce Springsteen on the sound system.  There's a clear hierarchy in politics, of course, and New York State is no exception.  A first-term county rep from upstate does not even appear on the chart.  Last night's program ended with a polling of the delegations - the activity that actually declared Barack Obama the official nominee, the cameras zoomed in on each delegation as they voted, the leader speaking from a small podium with a microphone under the state sign.  When I got to the arena last night, the seats near the podium had signs on them, with the names of those who would be sitting in those seats - and therefore get camera time as the leader extolled the state of NY and reported the result of the delegation's vote.

This morning, with the governor scheduled to speak, all the tables near the podium have a "Reserved" sign on them.  I'm out in the cheap seats, but near a big screen.  It's noisy; I can barely distinguish which Springsteen song is playing.

While I'm waiting (unlike the Convention, which was on time and crisp, the NY show is late), some thoughts on the Charlotte/Convention experience.

There are thousands of staff and volunteers all over the place.  They've got navy blue polo shirts and big smiles.  Some have signs that say, "Ask me."  When you do ask them, they have the answer, or they get it.  I go past probably twenty of them each time I enter the Convention Center and the Arena, and every one of them cheerfully checks my credentials.  My Delegate credentials get me in everywhere and, except on the way to the evening Convention floor, I can bypass searches.  Everyone's searched on the way to the Arena - just like at the airport, or at the County Office Building, but with the addition of an obligatory arms-out wand search, front and back.

Back to the NYS tent:  I sat next to a Sally Minard, of Manhattan, who has spent the last few years spearheading an effort to create a memorial to FDR on the south end of Roosevelt Island, in the East River between Manhattan and Queens.  It'll be a private-Statge collaborative effort (eventually becoming a State Park), so of course I told her all about Hyde Hall.

Cuomo's speech to the NYS Delegation was, in Ms. Minard's word, a "stemwinder,"  and I agree.  His theme was everyone working together to get important things done - a clear response to the criticisms of the "you didn't build that" comment.  Of course "you" didn't build that.  Nothing happens in a vacuum of one.  And - to find out what President Obama really said - look here (WARNING - this is a Fox link, of all things!).  I think I've said it before:  the mantra in our house, till everyone was sick of it, is "working together for the common good."  That's what we should be looking to do every day.  That's why the campaign theme "Better Together" resounds so well with me.

Gotta go again, this time to the Rural Council.  See you tomorrow.