Conventions are more than just the floor speeches and the silly hats.  The parties sometimes overshadow the explicit politics, as people relax and enjoy themselves and make it more difficult to get up in the morning.  Fortunately, mornings don’t usually have many events, except for … more parties.

Last night, I attended a world-class bash at Jasperwood, the ancestral home of the Lileks family.  I’ve been to James’ parties before, and they’re always great fun, but this one topped them all.  Pajamas Media TV co-sponsored the event with the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, and my first indication that the bar had been raised was a team of valets that leapt out of the darkness to park my car.  As it turns out, that was a good thing … because it looked like everyone in Minneapolis had parked in James’ neighborhood.

(Actually, I went to the wrong house first.  In the darkness, I thought I saw James’ house and was puzzled by the fact that we appeared to be the first ones to arrive — at about 8:30.  It wasn’t until I saw the Obama lawn sign that I realized I was in the wrong place, and drove the extra block to Jasperwood.)

It seemed that the high-profile guests just kept on arriving.  When I arrived, Dick Armey was at the party, and later radio hosts Michael Medved and Hugh Hewitt joined the fun.  Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds, Mary Katherine Ham, Roger Simon, Jim Geraghty, and other great bloggers here in the Twin Cities came at different times.  John Ondrasik from Five for Fighting performed live, coming out as a conservative, and played “100 Years” and “Freedom Never Cries” while talking about his support for John McCain.  The acoustic folk/rock singer Jude preceded him with a couple of songs that I’d not yet heard — but he was excellent.

As with most parties at conventions, we stayed too late, ate too much, and to the extent that one can drink too much in diet soft drinks and water, we did that too.  As a result, we’re slowly rising this morning and making preparations to return to the convention.  This afternoon, I’ll be hosting a luncheon for bloggers myself — and then I think I’ll be focusing on the speeches from that point forward.

Addendum: I added the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers as a co-sponsor; I couldn’t recall their correct name when I first posted.  They have a new Ecodriving project out, if readers have an interest in alternative technologies.