Barack Obama wins the nomination by acclamation.

Some pics from the Tennessee delegation...

Congratulations to Sen. Obama!

Get ready. The job has just begun.

How's the crowd, Randy?

"Who does the poll affects the results. Some. These are called "house effects" because they are systematic effects due to survey "house" or polling organization....

"The largest pro-Obama house effect is that of Harris Interactive, at just over 4 points. The poll most favorable to McCain is Rasmussen's Tracking poll at just less than -3 points. Everyone else falls between these extremes....

"The impact of house effects isn't always so small. Looking back along the trend we see that the red and blue lines diverged by as much as 1 point in late June, an effect due significantly to the large number of Rasmussen and Gallup tracking polls during that time and few polls with positive house effects in that period."

Link...

I'm here at the Pepsi Center, getting set up for the 3:00 nominations. All (or most) of the Tennessee delegation votes have been cast. The votes will be entered into the computer at 3PM, and the roll call is scheduled to commence at 4PM. Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Gray Sasser will cast Tennessee's votes.

We spoke briefly with delegates Brenda Ables from Fayett and Angelia Cannon of Nashville, both Clinton delegates. Brenda said that their instructions were to vote for whoever they wanted, and they had until 3PM to change their mind, or they could wait until 3PM to vote. There was no pressure for anyone to change their vote.

Brenda said that she voted for Clinton because that's what voters in her district sent her to do, but she will support Obama. She said there was "lively discussion" at this morning's Tennessee Clinton caucus meeting, and that Clinton whip Betsy Reid announced that she was voting for Obama.

Angelia Cannon noted that this is a historic nomination either way, with our first woman and our first serious African-American candidate, and that Democrats had good choices and either will make history. Angelia expressed frustration that when Hillary Clinton was First Lady the conservative media was all over her for being too strong and too tough, and when she ran for President they said she would be too weak and turn everything over to Bill.

Anyway, state delegations, or at least the Tennessee delegation, have not been advised on how the nominations and roll call will proceed, or even if every state will be called.

Stay tuned....

In totally unrelated news, we are told Doug Horne is here and may be running for Governor.

Tonight's program (Wednesday) features Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton being placed in nomination and the historic vote. Details are apparently still being negotiated about who will vote in what order.

There are lots of distinguished speakers, including Bill Clinton and John Kerry among others. Finally, Joe Biden will be nominated for VP and will close tonight's program with his remarks. Full schedule after the jump...

Unedited video clips taken by the Mrs. from the Convention Floor last night give you an idea of what it's like being there among all the chaos and excitement...

(Use the "watch in high quality" option if you see it.)

Attending the convention last night, the excitement was felt throughout the Pepsi Center. Anticipation grew as the great speakers fed the crowd's need for hope and change. In walking through the center, from the Tennessee delegation down to Florida, over to New Mexico and New York, everyone appeared to be ready to work together to win the presidency in 2008.

The Pepsi Center was packed. For most of the delegations, there were limited seats and the overflow sat in the nosebleed sections. The sound of 15,000-20,000 people with a common political interest was exhilarating. Notes to attendees, arrive early to avoid long lines for entry and don't leave the main arena area after 8 PM, you may not get back in.

As time got closer for Hillary Rodham Clinton to speak, the people on the convention floor were closer together than people on a New York subway at rush hour. I'm not sure those on the floor vying for a close spot cared, they just wanted to be near the action. I felt the same way until it got so close it felt like cattle going to slaughter. Time to head back to the Tennessee delegation.

Some of the Tennessee delegates were gracious enough to give me a few minutes. I just happened to find a group from East Tennessee. Dan Lawson, from Maryville, was there as a delegate from the 8th district. He had also attended the 2000 convention for Al Gore. Sylvia Woods and her husband, Harold, were there in their Hillary Clinton regalia. Both are hard working Democrats and members of the AFL-CIO. Sylvia is the recently elected Chair of the Knox County Democratic Party. Harold has been a leader in the AFL-CIO for 25 years. They have been married 47 years and still a very happy couple. Their advice, "A family that sticks together can get things done." Mrs. Woods also attended the last Democratic Convention in Chicago and Mr. Woods attended the last Democratic Convention in San Francisco. They worked and campaigned really hard to attend this convention together. I also spoke briefly with a delegate from Pulaski (Middle TN). He and his wife were both there as TN delegates. The Mrs. is a Super Delegate and a big HRC supporter. She traveled throughout the country with the HRC campaign. All of the delegates I spoke with said it was hard work campaigning for a delegate spot.

The Tennessee delegation seats aren't too bad. Only a couple of delegations back from the floor and there was a decent view of the box seats for Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, and other political dignitaries.

The speakers leading up to HRC were great. I especially enjoyed Mark Warner (Governor of Virginia) and Brian Schweitzer (Governor of Montana). Word is Lilly Ledbetter's address to the convention was great. I somehow missed it trying to break from the crowd.

What more can be said? Hillary Rodham Clinton was awesome. Standing between the Tennessee and Texas delegations, you could tell there were still a lot of people wishing she were the nominee. Ms. Clinton is willing to step aside for Unity. She obviously still has an agenda, as many of us expect. She wants to work together to achieve the goals to turn around our great country, to bring us back to prosperity, to make us all equal, to provide healthcare for all, and more. Many thanks to Hillary Rodham Clinton. She is a true inspiration. Now lets get our candidate, Barack Obama, elected President of these great United States.

More photos in this Tuesday slideshow

Speakers for the GOP convention have been announced. Interesting. Pawlenty, Crist, are announced for Thurs nite. VP nominee speaks Wed nite. Romney speaks before the VP slot. Who does that leave?

I think even Hillary's detractors would have to agree that her speech rocked the DNC tonight and was exactly what the Democrats needed: a great message and a masterful speech, delivered by a pro.

John Kerry sat the Repub convention out last time but I noticed McCain is not sitting ours out. I thought that was the tradition. I think W sat ours out last time too.

I'm seeing and hearing some chatter that last night's program was a snooze fest because Democrats didn't come out swinging against the GOP. My impression was that last night's program was not for that. It was to pay tribute to some great Democrats and to introduce the Obama family to America.

In that respect I thought it was a huge success.

Jimmy Carter was well received and got some long-overdue respect. And Ted Kennedy, well, it was quite a remarkable moment when he walked out on the stage, and his courageous speech was moving and inspiring.

Michelle Obama's speech was pitch perfect for what they wanted to accomplish. She is an excellent public speaker and will be a tremendous asset for the campaign. And their kids are as cute as they can be. If people were paying attention, they heard and saw that the Obamas aren't a couple of scary radical socialists with funny names or any of that other stuff. They are committed to public service and share the same concerns for their family and our country as other Americans. And judging from the overwhelming reaction, every Democrat in the hall was united and 100% on board.

In that light, going on the attack would not have been appropriate. I predict, though, that tonight will be different and the gloves will come off. That should make the pundits happy.

Speaking of pundits, it's been nice not watching this unfold through the media filter. I didn't miss all the jabbering and made up controversy. It was a warm, respectful, celebratory night in a place where it was safe to enjoy being a Democrat for a change.

My overall impression is, in a word, overwhelming. Not just the speakers and the programs, but the frantic schedules (which two people can't possibly cover), trying to get around with all the security and closed streets, the huge crowds, too much to see and do, and on and on.

Walking around inside the Pepsi Center is pretty amazing, too. You never know who you are going to see next. I saw lots of media personalities (including Dan Rather), the Daily Show crew, Mark Warner, Dennis Kucinich and his wife (they said hi), and lots of others I can't even remember. And when I say "saw," I mean just walking around, sometimes right next to you. The first lesson I learned is always have a camera.

Getting around is complicated. The security perimeter extends way out around the Pepsi center. There are lots of closed streets, and it's about a one mile walk (or more) from any open streets. Even without all that, there are a lot of one-way streets, and a lot of the street design seems random. A GPS is an indispensable time/sanity saver.

Security getting in is also complicated as you can imagine, but despite that it flowed smoothly yesterday. They have Secret Service, local Law Enforcement, and the TSA searching and/or x-raying everything going in. But they kept the lines going and it wasn't too bad. Not nearly as bad as the hike in. The Mrs. is going tonight, and I advised to pack light. I probably won't take the big camera and lenses any more, and will scale back my notebook kit if I even take one.

The DNC provided a power outlet and Ethernet internet hookup right there at the Tennessee seating area. Unfortunately, it's under a kiosk type deal where they have the delegation voting PC, a video monitor, and phones for mission control to communicate with the delegation. So of course, party officials need to be in that space, not bloggers. Most of the time I sat directly in front of the kiosk one row down in the Kansas section. I lost my seat for a while when I went out for a break. Then I got yelled at by a Kansas official when they were passing around a petition to sign and I said I wasn't with Kansas.

Speaking of the phones, the whole program is carefully choreographed. Before each speaker, they bring out signs for that speaker with strict instructions on when to wave them. If a delegation isn't waving properly, the phone lights up. The party officials have to act as part stage director and part cheerleader. It's a lot of fun for everyone though, and the Tennessee delegation did their part to raise the roof.

Between speakers the house band plays (which is a killer band by the way, which you can't really appreciate watching on TV). People go wild dancing, and roaming camera crews single out entertaining delegates and put them up on the big screen. Gray Sasser told me these were "spontaneous" demonstrations, with emphasis on the quotes around spontaneous.

Getting in was relatively painless compared to leaving. They funneled most of the 20,000+ crowd down four escalators through one entrance and out off the grounds through one twenty foot fence opening, causing massive congestion. It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen, and scary at times. Everybody was complaining, some forcefully. Not sure what the security concept was, but they certainly had everyone all bunched up into an easy mass target. Plus, any kind of incident could have set off a disastrous stampede. Then, after all that you still had to walk about a mile or more to catch a ride. I was not a happy camper.

Anyway, it's been an awesome, overwhelming, sometimes stressful, but totally amazing experience so far. My heartfelt thanks to the DNC for the opportunity and my sincere appreciation to the TNDP for their gracious hospitality.

Who does Mr Owens think he is ? He can just pick a law firm to handle the legal needs of county commission? Could it be Mr Owens is getting a little kick back from this law firm ? I thought that any purchases made by the county be it products or services went out to bid .

Sounds like Mr Owens thinks hes above the normal process and he can just do as he wants. And to think certain county commissioners want him to be a session court judge. Doesnt this sound like MORE back room deals are being made ? Shame on those county commissioners that are involved in this, maybe they need to look up the word ETHICS and think about BLACK WED.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Memphis delegate Henry Hooper this morning. Mr. Hooper is a former Green Beret and Vietnam veteran and a retired Secret Service agent. He started his Secret Service career in the Nixon administration, and worked for the Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations, with White House assignments during the Ford and Carter administrations. He retired from the Secret Service after 24 years, although he said a Secret Service agent is never really "finished" and that he's active in a national organization of former Secret Service agents.

I asked what he thought about security for the convention, and he said they are doing an outstanding job. He said that given the current climate, and the depth of threats of terrorism and disruption, the Secret Service and local law enforcement and emergency responders have teamed up to do a fantastic job. He said he is impressed with the manpower on the streets, at hotels, the convention centers, and other venues.

Mr. Hooper also commended the City of Denver for the outstanding job they have done with their support effort. He said he was also pleased that the Mayor was there welcoming people at the airport. He noted that this isn't something you see every day and that it goes beyond expectations.

Regarding the convention, Mr. Hooper was happy to see his former boss at the convention last night, and really enjoyed the well-deserved tribute to President Carter.

Mr. Hooper noted that he is a Clinton delegate, and he is not sure what he will do if her name is put in nomination, even if Clinton releases the delegates. He said the Clintons are important assets to the party, saying "How can you argue with eight years of success? The Clintons led us through the most prosperous time we've had, and we're not going to honor that?" He said that Hillary Clinton needs to play a part in the convention.

Regarding the Vice Presidential choice, Mr. Hooper believes there may be a faction in the party that is concerned about having women in two of the most powerful jobs -- Speaker of the House and Vice President.

As Sr. Vice Commander of the Tennessee Veterans of Foreign Wars (and Commander next year), Mr. Hooper has a keen interest in veteran issues and support for the military. He noted that McCain did not support the recent G.I. bill, and instead promoted a watered-down Bush version. McCain only got on board with the full bill "once he saw the votes coming down," according to Mr. Hooper.

He also noted that active duty military personnel have donated six times as much money to the Obama campaign as they have the McCain campaign. "Why do you think Iraq veterans are demonstrating at the convention?" he asked. "It's not against Obama, it's against the war. This is just a platform to get their message out."

Mr. Hooper wanted folks to know that this is the most critical time and most critical election in a decade and that we need to make a change. He notes that with few exceptions, McCain's voting record for the past eight years proves that he is a strong advocate for Bush's policies.

Mr. Hooper's involvement in politics began after he retired from the Secret Service. "After leaving a government job standing by the door watching the process, I wanted to become more involved," he said. He is a former Memphis City Council member, and is now involved in mentoring and tutoring inner-city kids. He is a member of the Tennessee Democratic Party State Executive Committee. In his spare time, he owns a State Farm Insurance agency in Memphis.

My impression of Mr. Hooper is that he is a patriot, a successful businessman and an active, engaged political activist committed to public service. Above all, despite his calm and soft-spoken demeanor he is a Democrat not to be trifled with.

I arrived late and missed Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell’s talk, but to recap, he talked about unity and Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the context of today’s 88th anniversary of Women's Suffrage and the right to vote. He noted that McCain has voted twice against equal pay for women.

Gov. Rendell talked about the Democrat's platform on health care and energy policy. On health care, he noted the similarities between Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton's plans. He urged the Tennessee delegation to take the facts back home to their constituents.

He said Democrats are going to take the fight to Republicans, and that no matter what the polls say the Democratic Party is going to work equally hard in every state, including Tennessee.

Next up was Rep. Bart Gordon (TN-6). He said this is an important and historic presidential election, but said we shouldn't lose sight of how important the down-ticket races are. He noted the state House and Senate seats up for grabs, and without a Democratic majority we lose control of constitutional offices and we'll get slaughtered in redistricting.

He talked about the importance of health care, energy, and education in terms of U.S. global competitiveness. He noted that more than 60% of our math teachers don't have a major or minor in math, and more than 90% of science teachers don't have majors or minors in science.

On energy policy, he said Republicans in Congress have been blocking any meaningful progress. As an example, he noted a recently passed bill to implement high-risk, high-reward alternative energy research programs in the Department of Energy. He said the bill couldn't even get a hearing until Democrats gained a majority in the house, and then in passed in six months.

He said this is an example of why it's about more than winning and losing, it's about moving the country forward with good public policy. His final advice to the Tennessee delegation: "Early to bed, early to rise, work like heck, and organize!"

Following the program, I met up with Tennessee Democratic Party Communications Director Wade Munday. He's a sharp, super-nice young man and it was nice to finally meet him in person.

I also had the pleasure of speaking with Memphis delegate Henry Hooper, which I'll cover in a separate post.

Lot's of activity outside the DNC. Civic Center Park is about 1/2 to 1 mile from the Pepsi Center. The US Mint, the State Capitol building, the Denver Art Museum, and the Colorado History Museum all border the park area. Think World's Fair Park and KMA, oh the potential.

Finally, protesters. Oh, wait, you can't see the protesters. What you see are the press and/or lookie-loos.

More after the jump

More Monday photos here...

We had scheduled a server migration/upgrade for last night but I now see that it is still in progress and has not completed. Any comments or other content posted here will likely be lost when the IPs are switched over. I will let you know when we get the all clear. We apologize for the inconvenience.

UPDATE: The migration to the the new server was not completed, so we will limp along and try again tonight. Carry on.

Scariest thing is it was almost an accident they were caught.

Link...

The below is from NORML News about how up to one ounce of pot is legal for adults in Denver.

The view from Tennessee

Chairman Howard Dean gaveled the convention into session just a little after three. There are lots of empty seats, but people are trickling in. There are a dozen or so delegates from Tennessee. Next door, Texas has a full house.

This part of the session is mostly introduction of convention officials and presentation of official reports. The main event starts a 7PM MT.

Was talking to a Clinton delegate who said she would cast her vote for Clinton on the first roll call because that’s who the people in her district voted for. She hopes other pledged Clinton delegates will do the same. She said there has been no pressure from the Obama campaign and the TNDP has not provided any guidance or instructions one way or another and delegates are free to vote for whoever they want.

In unrelated news, Rep. Lincoln Davis held a luncheon for delegates today. We are told that Davis will announce for Governor in January.

UPDATE: The tribute to Sen. Kennedy was moving and the reaction when he took the stage was overwhelming. Even more moving was his speech, in which he promised to be there in January when Obama is sworn in as president. It was the best moment of the night so far.

Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Gray Sasser said that he has spoken with every Tennessee delegate and they are all unified behind Sen. Obama, regardless of whether they vote for Clinton on a first ballot as a show of support. Delegates Tammy Bradford of Jackson and Anthony Lamb of Ripley noted that Clinton said today she will release her delegates, and if so they will vote for Obama as instructed because "she’s in charge."

Delegate Jack Cunningham of Milan is looking forward to hearing Obama talk about the economy and getting us out of the war. When asked how rural voters feel about Obama, Cunningham said "they don’t know him yet."

If their enthusiasm is any indication, we’re sure that after the convention the Tennessee delegates will be "fired up and ready to go" talk to voters in their communities, rural and otherwise, about Sen. Obama.

UPDATE: Michelle Obama hit it out of the park and the crowd went wild.

The State of Tennessee Democratic Party DNC delegates met for a breakfast meeting (sponsored by AT&T) this morning at their hotel. Gray Sasser opened the meeting and introduced the featured speaker, Fabian Bedne. Mr. Bedne is the President of the Middle TN Hispanic Democrats and an Obama Alternate Delegate for TN to the convention. He discussed the traditional Hispanic community's distrust of the media, the importance of word-of-mouth sharing of information, as well as too much government power disrespects the constitution. Video of excerpts of his speech are at the end of this post.

Members of the Tennessee Federation of College Democrats are attending the Democratic National Convention. The two young ladies drove straight through from Tennessee, no overnight stops. Such dedication! The group is very excited about the election and will do everything they can to get out the college student vote, including annoying students so much they'll vote just to get them to shut up.

Tonight's featured speaker is Michele Obama, along with a number of other dignitaries. For those of you watching from home or on the DNC's gavel to gavel online streaming video, the full lineup of speakers and events is after the jump...

The newly formed Democratic Resource Center will host a Democrat
Candidate Forum September 1st, 2008, 7:00 PM at the Gibbs Ruritan
Building located at 7827 Tazewell Pike.

County Commission Seat 8A will become vacant on September 2, 2008 and the Democratic Party of Knox County will hold a convention on September 4th, 2008 to nominate a candidate who will run for election in November to fill this vacancy.

All 8th district Democrats are invited to attend this forum prior to the convention. If you are interested in being nominated or just want to get involved this will be an excellent opportunity to discuss issues important to the 8th District.

Haven't seen this many cops on the streets since Operation Aquarius. Check the guy there on the left. I saw some others with rappelling gear. Not sure what kind of trouble they are expecting. Did they get some kind of intelligence that Osama bin Laden is in town?

Even the horses wear riot gear:

There are also lots of black helicopters. And some green military helicopters, too, with troops hanging out the open side doors.

I wasn't too worried before. Maybe I should be. The Mrs. has been going on about emergency plans and escape routes and coordinating communications and rendezvous points. Maybe I should be paying more attention.

On the other hand, this may be one of the safest cities in America right now. Either way, I bet local law enforcement is racking up some serious overtime.

(Photos courtesy of the Mrs.)

Bloggers converge on Denver, and here's what some of them are talking about:

• Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis (Alaska) on the Media Welcome Party

• Everyday Citizen (Kansas) asks about the youth vote at this morning's press conference

• Square State Net (Colorado) has more on this morning's press briefing

• DCIst (DC): Inside the DNC swag bag

• Turn Maine Blue (Maine, of course) has some interesting and entertaining first impressions

Progressive Illinois Politics (Illinois, of course) has an interesting answer to the question "what's the point of a political convention?" (hint: it's not to nominate a candidate)

• Jeralyn at Talk Left (general pool blogger) reports on the Cool Kids party

• Finally Square State Net (Colorado) has another report on the media welcome party

(Note: some of that last post squares (pun intended) with our experience so far in re. blogger credentials, i.e. some officials and event personnel are aware of "blogger credentials" and others aren't, and it creates some confusion from time to time. I'm sure it will all get sorted out, and everyone has been most helpful and welcoming so far.)

For the latest from all 50 State bloggers and the general pool bloggers, be sure to check the TennViews Convention Central.

Remarks from two of several committee members who spoke in support of the resolution, and the vote.

PREVIOUS: Live blog of the committee meeting.

Convention Co-Chairs Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Texas State Senator Leticia Van de Putte, and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin officially kick off Convention week.

I barely made it over for the end. Here's a YouTube video of Speaker Pelosi wrapping up the press conference with remarks about the upcoming election. (Apologies for the poor quality.)

I see on the WATE site that Rocky Top Mountain in the 15th District of Cocke County is burning.

My favorite uncle used to log those woods in the '40s and '50s.

The DNC has released the Pepsi Center delegate seating chart. Tennessee could have done worse, but I might need a longer lens to get any photos. Illinois, Michigan, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Colorado are center court.

Apparently the forefathers could stay awake.

Lumpy's complaint on the County Commission forum about how long the meetings go on brought a response from Commissioner DeFreese. (after the jump)

As Bubba would say, ok then.