For those who have wondered whether much has happened today, the answer is twofold. First, there seems to be an unexpected level of activity in the convention today, but its significance has not been high. For the most part, the politics really has been muted, with most officials careful not to distract from the conscious decision of John McCain to put “country first”. Privately, this also seems to be the case. While campaigns have tried to schedule interviews with bloggers and media with surrogates when the convention returns to normal, which more and more looks likely tomorrow.
What stories buzzed through the halls today? The Palin pregnancy was the hot topic, and the reaction was … pretty much as I suggested: no one to whom I spoke thought it merited much consideration. Barack Obama’s wise and classy statement garnered good reviews on Blogger Row, but a few people thought that his statement of having “no evidence” of his campaign’s participation in the earlier “I’m My Own Grandma” rumor smacked of lawyerly finesse. For myself, it seemed like common sense; Obama could hardly give a categorical yes or no without having interrogated his entire campaign, and the answer seemed more than reasonable to me.
On the so-called “Troopergate” scandal (are we recycling Clinton-era scandal names now?), there seems to be plenty of willingness to give Palin the benefit of the doubt, but also people understand that this, at least, is a political issue. The news that she hired an attorney didn’t surprise the few people who noticed it, since it’s now a national topic and she needs to protect herself in the media blitz.
Bloggers, in fact, provided most of the fireworks. It turns out that they don’t really have facilities for all of the bloggers invited, at least not in the hall. Most bloggers got assigned to the seats in the spectator area, which do not have power for the laptops. They can have unlimited access to the Media Filing Center, which most of us didn’t quite realize, but only a few bloggers have actual blogging facilities in the hall. Expect lots of blowback as bloggers realize this; some of this will definitely find its way into the blogosphere. Keep an eye out for it.
Otherwise, this appears to be a day of shaking out the infrastructure and preparation for the days ahead. With Gustav weakening and the damage looking less than initially feared, we may return to normal operation soon — maybe tomorrow.
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