“¡Obámanos!”

Creativity was not lacking at the Democrats’ National Convention in Denver. The staging for Sen. Barack Obama’s acceptance speech on Thursday night was unbelievably bold and glitzy. In downtown Denver, Obama t-shirts and campaign buttons appeared everywhere, with messages as diverse as the images they displayed, from the face of Obama alongside that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to Snoopy on top of his dog house, daydreaming of an Obama victory.

But the t-shirt that caught my eye for its clever play on words was “¡Obámanos!” a creative way of signaling -- in Spanglish -- Hispanic support for Obama.

The Obama campaign knows that it needs to capture a substantial majority of the Hispanic vote to win in November. President George W. Bush won reelection in 2004 with about 40 percent support of the Hispanic electorate nationwide. And it is no secret that in the Democratic presidential primaries, Hispanics voted mostly for Sen. Hillary Clinton. Obama thus has some work to do to move and keep Hispanic voters firmly in his camp.

So featuring New Mexican Hispanics on Obama’s big night was a no-brainer. Governor Bill Richardson’s major convention address was moved from an earlier time to prime time, shortly before Obama’s acceptance speech at Invesco Field. Richardson warmed up the crowd with his policy address while leading chants of sí se puede towards an Obama election.

Ray Rivera, a graduate of Manzano High School and the University of New Mexico, and now the Colorado state chair of the Obama campaign, organized a text messaging campaign among convention delegates to display their words of support on stadium screens – a creative way to engage folks awaiting Obama’s appearance.

Appearing as one of five “regular folks” telling personal stories was Teresa Brito Asenap of Albuquerque and APS liaison to its charter schools. As a first-generation college graduate in her family, Dr. Asenap underscored the role of public education in her quest for a Ph.D. and as a great equalizer in American society. She urged adequate funding and support for public school teachers and students as they deal with the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Barack Obama rocked the house on his big night and sent a whole bunch of Democrats home from Denver all fired up to work for victory in November. As a battleground state, New Mexico promises to figure prominently in the two months remaining of the presidential campaign season. In the end, the voter preferences and turnout of New Mexico Hispanics will be key in swinging the state blue or red in ’08. “¡Obámanos!” may just stick as a new word in the New Mexican vocabulary during this historic political year.

Episode 209 - From Denver and the DNC / DTV Conversion

Live and direct from two eyewitnesses: David Alire Garcia and Gene Grant call in from Denver on the day after the close of the historic Democratic National Convention. Jim Scarantino fills in as host to get the scoop on what it was like to be there in the midst of the excitement.
_______________

New Mexico will definitely leave an indelible mark on the Democratic National Convention this week in Denver. From Governor Richardson, to Tom Udall and Patsy Madrid, New Mexico faces have been prominent at the event. Co-hosts Gene Grant and David Alire Garcia have also been in Denver this week, and guest host Jim Scarantino is ready to get their reflections on the Convention. Also this week, head back out on the campaign trail with another presidential hopeful. This time it is 3rd party staple Ralph Nader, who held a press conference and rally this week on the UNM campus. All this, plus KNME’s countdown to the Digital TV transition continues. Gene Grant talks to an industry expert about the big conversion.

...

NM inFOCUS: Ep 209 - DNC/Nader/DTV (Intro)



NM inFOCUS: Ep 209 - DNC/Nader/DTV (In Focus)



NM inFOCUS: Ep 209 - DNC/Nader/DTV (Nader)



NM inFOCUS: Ep 25 - Denish / DTV conversion (DTV Overview)



NM inFOCUS: Ep 209 - DNC/Nader/DTV (Outro)

The Morning After

And Denver, like a mirage, is free from all things DNC. All that's left is the cleaning, which will be a lot.

David Alire Garcia, UNM poli-sci professor Christine Sierra. and I all sat together at Invesco last night. If you haven't seen them, David has some shots posted right under here from our vantage point on the infamous south end of Invesco.

It was a glorious night for New Mexicans, with Governor Richardson rocking the house during the late afternoon. During his welcoming ovation, the stadium was practically rumbling like an earthquake as everyone was stomping their feet. It's a heck of a sensation. There's clearly big love out there from democrats for him. You had to be happy for him, as being bumped from Wednesday night turned out to be a good thing for him.

I had wrestled with the choice of Invesco for a once in a lifetime experience, or noodling around the city to watch the reaction. Turns out there were huge block parties all over town watching. The one I'd have love to make was a big tent in Five Points, the hub of African American life here in Denver. I talked to some folks who were there while we were all getting a late night meal at The Great Wall (Chinese) restaurant. It sounded like it was rocking.

The Denver Post this morning had a terrific recap of all the festivities around town.

Funny, but the McCain for VP has dominated the news cycle locally. Mission accomplished, if the idea was to wrestle the chatter from The Speech.

On the road south in about 30 minutes, right after I finish up here at the locally owned Dazbog Coffee. Buy local, as they say. More on the week when i get back to the ABQ and let it all settle in a bit more.

KNME slideshow: A historic night

KNME slideshow traces chronology of history-making night at Denver's Invesco Field

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

A crowd estimated at about 80,000 bore witness to the nation's first African American presidential nominee of a major political party. Plus, three New Mexican's addressed the huge crowd: Gov. Bill Richardson, Albuquerque Interfaith leader Teresa Brito-Asenap, as well as Obama campaign Colorado state director Ray Rivera.

From Hillary to Barack

Anticipation gave way to raw emotion when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton gave her speech before the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night. Tears streamed down the faces of a number of delegates as they heard Senator Clinton concede the nomination to Barack Obama and urge her supporters to transfer their energy, dedication, and hard work toward electing him president.

I asked three New Mexico delegates pledged to Clinton, all women, to describe – in one word – how they felt at the end of Clinton’s speech. At-large delegate “Kooch” Jacobus said “strength.” She pointed to how Clinton’s candidacy has opened the path for the further ascension of women in American politics. She said of women, “we’re strong and we count.” As she drew power from Clinton’s speech that night, Jacobus also sat and cried through part of it, thinking of what might have been. Would she now shift her support to an Obama candidacy? She gave a definite “yes.”

Priscilla Chavez from Doña Ana County underscored her feelings with the single word, “emotional.” She shed tears during Hillary Clinton’s speech because she was so moved. Disappointment with the end of Clinton’s campaign ran deep, as she wiped tears away even as we spoke the morning after. Though challenges remain ahead in getting voters on board for Obama in southern New Mexico, Chavez is ready to work toward that end. She sees young voters easier to mobilize than older ones. But she maintains that older voters will show up to vote for Obama “because so much is at stake.”

A committed Clinton supporter, state senator Mary Jane Garcia of Las Cruces had rather harsh words to say about Obama’s candidacy during the heat of the presidential primary. Her avid support for Hillary Clinton stretched back to 1992, when the Clintons were in Las Cruces. She connected with them many times thereafter.

Garcia also cried during Clinton’s speech. She marveled at how her candidate was both “gracious” and “strong” after a bruising primary. Garcia contended that after all the Republican attacks, media criticism, and tension with the Obama campaign, “to say what she said, and the way she said it” was impressive. But she chose the word “closure” to describe her personal feelings at the end of the day. She found closure in Clinton’s endorsement of Obama and is now prepared, as she put it, “to move on” and work for the Democratic presidential ticket.

During last night’s roll-call vote of the states, the New Mexico delegation cast a unanimous vote for Barack Obama. Earlier that day, in a paper ballot among New Mexico’s 38 delegates, 3 votes were marked for Hillary Rodham Clinton. But even those Clinton holdouts succumbed to the excitement and bandwagon effect that took over the convention. When Senator Clinton herself, speaking for the New York delegation, moved that the convention nominate Barack Obama for president by acclamation, all of those New Mexico delegates cheered wildly and, this time, shed tears of joy as they made history.

Richardson on his beard

One item of utmost importance from my interview with Gov. Bill Richardson that didn’t quite make it into the story published earlier today was the question about.. his beard.

 

In his answer, the governor even suggested that camp Obama might be anti-beard!

 

Me: Did you ever consider shaving the beard for your big speech?

 

Gov. Richardson: (smiling) You know, to be honest, if I had been selected vice president I would have shaved it. Or they would have had me shave it off! Now I'm not going to do it for a while.... You know, I kinda like the beard. But it’ll come off probably by the end of the year. But you know, people are comfortable with it. People are liking it a little more. It's not much of an issue. But I feel it's becoming more a part of me.

 

There you have it, the beard, says the guv, is no longer an issue.

Governor previews big speech

Gov. Bill Richardson got bumped from the Wednesday night lineup of speakers at the Democratic National Convention.

 

But a few hours before he was scheduled to speak to a national audience in prime time – just one speaker removed from the night’s final speaker, vice presidential nominee Joe Biden – the two-term New Mexico governor and 2008 presidential candidate spoke with me just off the very noisy floor of Denver’s Pepsi Center.

 

The roll call vote to formally nominate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama to be the party’s presidential nominee was just about to begin and Richardson, looking awfully calm and collected, was at the center of a media storm. Standing just off CNN’s convention floor set as dozens of people mobbed the set snapping pictures of Wolf Blitzer and Campbell Brown as if they were rock stars, Richardson stood quietly with his hands in his pockets. He was finishing up with a TV interview with a perky but very short journalist standing on a box.

 

Minutes later, he made time for me despite apparent efforts by an aide to whisk him away. Earlier in the day, Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley told me that this would be the governor’s final interview of the day before he would go into “seclusion” prior to his big speech later in the evening.

 

It was just before 4 p.m. and Richardson was, at the time, scheduled to speak sometime after 7 p.m. MST.

 

“Well, it's a big night. It's a big night for me. It's a big night for New Mexico. And it's thrilling,” Richardson began as speakers from the podium continued nonstop. “Even though we didn't make it as president, even though we didn't make it as vice president, the country will be listening to my national security message and why I'm so supportive of Sen. Obama.”

 

The text of Richardson’s speech had been made available to journalists in the Pepsi Center’s practice basketball court turned press gallery about an hour earlier, but it has been embargoed until delivery.  Politico posted the text last night. Nevertheless, Richardson was perfectly willing to give me a preview.

 

“The goal of the speech is to say Obama is ready to be commander-in-chief,” he said simply.

 

“And what I'm trying to do is reinforce the view that to be a good president, you have to have more than long experience, you have to have values, good judgment. And Obama, in opposing the war early showed he had that early, early vision.”

 

Asked if there were any convention speakers from years past that Richardson admires, he first offered a blunt assessment of convention oratory.

 

“Mostly, these conventions are very boring,” he said, before going on to cite Sen. Edward Kennedy’s 1980 convention speech and former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo’s 1984 convention speech as particularly memorable and effective.

 

Asked why they were memorable and effective, the governor teased out what they had in common.

 

“They were broad themes. The speeches were about values. They were about what America stands for rather than ten point plans,” he explained. “I think those are the speeches that you remember and are important.”

 

Turning back to the speech he was to have delivered on Wednesday night, Richardson emphasized that his would be a serious speech – even predicting it will not be well-received.

 

“I'm not going have any laughs or jokes because (the subject is) national security. It's foreign policy. It's values. It's too important a speech to bring the crowd to its feet,” he said. “So I'm sure it will get panned…but that's fine. I think we have to establish Obama as the candidate that can be an effective commander-in- chief.”

 

Richardson did confirm in the interview that his speech had undergone significant revisions from the initial draft that he submitted to the Obama campaign. But he emphasized that the changes were his idea.

 

“I wanted to rewrite it to talk about values,” he said. “It was an Iraq speech and I wanted to add what I believe is important also, like that we follow the constitution, human rights, Darfur, doing something about poverty,” he explained. “So I just added and made it a broader speech than just focused on ending the war."

 

Asked to reminisce about his own pioneering presidential race this year as the nation’s first, serious Latino contender, Richardson was reflective. He said he was honored to run, he said, treated well and fairly. And he offered a surprisingly self-critical assessment of why he didn’t prevail.

 

“You know, it wasn't my year. This was the year that the public wanted change, they wanted soaring rhetoric and they wanted people coming together,” Richardson said.

 

He added that he believes the issues his unsuccessful campaign highlighted – “on global warming, on renewable energy, on ending the war” -- remain front-and-center.

 

“I feel vindicated that at least I brought some ideas. Being the first Latino was an honor, but you know, I realize it just wasn't my time,” Richardson said.

 

Then, as convention floor attendees roared their approval of something someone at the podium had just said, he added this: “But hopefully, there will be other times."