News Note to readers: As promised in this week's WW, Nigel Jaquiss is live-blogging for WWire this week as Democrats gather behind Barack Obama in Denver. Keep up with all the Denver Notebook entries here. Over the next couple of days, I will try to relay to WW's readers some of what's happening in Denver at the Democratic National Convention. I just arrived in town and have not yet discovered where ...   More

News There's value in being a blue state—in delivering the greatest single outpouring of support during the campaign of an eventual winner. But, in terms of the payback, the value is not much. At political party conventions, the national party assigns each state's delegation. And although the Democratic National Convention is in downtown Denver—which may not have captured the imagination ...   More

News The Democratic national convention officially kicked off this afternoon, and anybody who doesn't have an official credential can forget about getting within a mile of the Pepsi Center, Denver's equivalent of the Rose Garden arena. The arena and its perimeter are enclosed in an extraordinary security cordon: Streets all around the arena are closed; the light rail service is truncated, and to ...   More

News There are a few types of Democratic National Convention attendees wandering around the Pepsi Center I feel as if I ought to recognize: attractive and well-dressed (probably a TV person); rumpled and contemplating imminent unemployment (newspaper reporter); fiercely determined (Obama supporter); or really pissed (Hillary backer). But being culturally clueless, I seem to recognize only semi-famous ...   More

News The massive police presence for the Democratic National Convention in Denver has so far been unnecessary. Major, disruptive protests remain only a rumor, leaving the cops bored and willing to step into even the most minor verbal conflict. Today, while wandering down 16th Avenue, Denver's equivalent to Portland's downtown transit mall, I saw a handful of people purporting to be Sen. Hillary Clinton ...   More

News In perhaps the second most anticipated speech of the Democratic Convention, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton took the Pepsi Center stage Tuesday night at 8:44 Mountain Time. The first line of Clinton's speech—"I am honored to be here tonight. A proud mother. A proud Democrat. A proud American. And a pround supporter of Barack Obama"—said virtually everything she needed to say. It ...   More

News The scripting of events in Denver makes the Beijing Olympics look like a meeting of the notoriously fractious Multnomah County Democratic Party. (Just ask the Oregon delegates who got chastised last night by "floor whips" for holding up anti-John McCain signs about three minutes before they were supposed to.) Shortly before 5 pm Mountain Time tonight, House Speaker and U.S. Senate candidate ...   More

News Okay, it didn't happen here in Denver, but one of the most interesting pieces of chatter here at the Democratic National Convention is that after nearly 30 years as a Republican, Julia Brim-Edwards has switched her voter registration and become a Democrat. The defection comes at a time when the Oregon GOP has struggled with money woes and to field credible statewide candidates. Brim-Edwards, ...   More

News Although the Oregon delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Denver includes party insiders, elected officials and big donors, many of whom have attended previous conventions, some of the 59 delegates are new to the process. One of them, Karen Lonon-Jones of Reedsport, says she's completely consumed by the non-stop stream of Dem gatherings, special interest caucuses and floor ...   More

News He was nervous but he pulled it off. A little after 5 p.m. Mountain Time, House Speaker and U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley loped out to the podium amid raucous cheers and frenetic banner-waving from the Oregon delegation. "My opponent talks like Barack Obama but he votes like George Bush," Merkley said. Here's a full text of what Merkley (shown above in an appearance earlier in ...   More