Time Warp

The quest for ideas will have to be postponed for now.

There is a more pressing issue at hand.

When I entered the Pepsi Center there was a break in the space-time continuum. Since I got into my seat in the press gallery and begun to engage with the program that is underway, I appeared to have been transported to some point in the future.

The schedule I was given says that Hillary Rodham Clinton is speaking tonight and that her name will be entered into nomination for President at some point in the next 24 hours.

Yet all the speakers are praising Senator Obama as if he has won the nomination.

Patrick Leahy just now referred to him as the next President of the United States.

Is it Thursday? No, Thursday is at Mile High Stadium. I’m a mile up but …

Maybe it is late November and I missed the election and didn’t even get to vote.

Wow. I wonder what Hillary’s going to say.

I hope she’s not watching.

I’m not sure how many free exchanges of ideas I can handle in one day.

An Idea Came To Me

As I sat outside the Pepsi Center Media entrance this afternoon awaiting the arrival of my set of credentials, an idea came to me. It was in the form of 100 people marching to asking the US Government to tell the truth about 9/11. Those of us sitting there became a captured audience

With an evangelistic zeal they told those of us how the Bush Administration engineered the attacks on 9/11 so that they could “do what they wanted to do.” Apparently no planes ever hit the Twin Towers. It was, in their words a controlled explosion.

This wasn’t the idea for which I was searching, but it found me. Fortunately, I was not alone. One of the people sitting with me thought it was a good idea to let one member of the group know that he watched a plane hit the second tower.

What followed could be described as a free exchange of ideas. Since a number of people were speaking simultaneously it was hard to discern what, if anything was being exchanged.

Fortunately my Hall Pass appeared and I left them to sort it out.

But I’ve got a CD I can watch tonight that will show me how it was done.

When it comes to ideas, I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.

Time to continue the search inside.

I’m In

Just got credentials. The search for ideas inside Pepsi Center will soon commence.

A Good Idea is Hard to Find

Still looking for ideas, but in my search for ideas what I have uncovered is reasons why ideas are hard to find at political conventions.

Whereas the selection of presidential candidates used to take place in smoke filled rooms, the ideas that define parties and campaigns are determined behind closed doors in smoke-free rooms.

Political Parties increasingly reflect corporate America in terms of presenting a highly packaged product for purchase, with all if the difficulties and disclaimers in fine print. Sometime really fine print.

The election campaign is about rolling out this product line and selling it as is.

The convention is the ultimate pep rally and the first formal step of rolling out the ad campaign that brands the product.

The primary task of party leaders at this stage of the process is making sure everyone in the party will completely support the ad campaign.

Since we live in the real world and not everyone in the party supports this particular ad campaign, at a minimum the dissenters are asked to be silent.

When party officials are asked about bloggers who allege a rift within party ranks, the playbook says to blame other side for creating this impression.

Apparently the play book says it is too late in the campaign for a discussion of ideas, unless forces beyond control require it. We’re talking a really big force. A force than cannot be spun.

I guess the question is whether the target audience will buy this kind of politics.

Since my email inbox suggests otherwise, I’m going to spend the day looking for ideas.

Note to self: 4 years from now the school ought to consider sending political psychologists and marketing professors to blog.

Any Ideas?

Blogging has acquainted me in a new way with the power of the Internet. Having never blogged before, and not being much of a blog surfer, when I was asked to do this I said yes without having any idea of what I was getting into in either attending a convention or in blogging.

Not actually having got into the convention hall, I still don’t have much of an idea about what that will be like. I do, however, have some idea of the power of the Internet.

When I opened my email inbox I was greeted with more emails than I have ever received in one night. I spent a half hour just opening emails. I’ve got emails from people I haven’t heard from in years, I’ve got emails from people I’ve never met, I’ve got emails from people in Europe and Asia.

While there are lots of different thoughts and questions being conveyed to me, if there is one theme that ties them together it is the question of ‘ideas.’

It is clear that readers have taken my earlier proclamation that I am no prophet at face value. Readers are not interested in who I think will win and why, but they are are really curious about what ideas are being discussed at the convention, and the debate the Democratic party is having about ideas. The 2nd most asked topic is the question of what is really going on between the Obama camp and the Clinton camp, which if I continue to pursue that line of questioning will undoubtedly lead to People magazine asking me to blog for them.

Since I am by nature a people pleaser (though this may comes as news to many), what I wanted to do this morning was sit down and write an entry about ideas.

I thought the first place to start would be the ideas expressed in last night’s speeches at the Convention. Since I wasn’t in the hall, I had to catch the speeches on TV, just like everyone else. After watching the reruns, I gleaned a new sense of why so many people were asking about ideas. For the most part last night’s speeches were not about ideas. There were compelling stories, there was moving oratory, and a tribute to Ted Kennedy that made me wish I knew him better. There was reference to ideas with which we are all familiar: the war in Iraq, health care, and the economy, but only in the most general of terms.

I then reflected at some length about my time since I landed, and I realized that the only people who have wanted to discuss ideas with me are not attending the convention. I have heard endless discussion on various news outlets about who will win in November, some discussion about what American’s think, but not a discussion of ideas.

So today, my mission, in addition to getting into the convention hall so that I can speak with Obama and Hillary delegates to gain unfiltered perspectives for my People Magazine blog, is to search Denver for a discussion of ideas.

This presents a challenge. In looking over the printed schedule for the day, it seems that it is top heavy with meetings (to which I am not invited) concerning winning in November and framing the issues.

It’s not immediately apparent where I am going to find a discussion of ideas.

But hopefully tonight I can report back with all the ideas that are fit to print.

American Beauty

(Due to technical difficulties and unspeakable complications, this post written on Sunday is only now being posted. I will soon post several entries to get caught up for today and be ready for tomorrow.)

Today’s flights across America on a relatively cloudless day gave me time to reflect on our country as I rarely do. I made a point of looking out the window on the entire flight. I find beauty in the Great Lakes, the farms and prairie where I was reared, and the topography that gives rise to the Rocky Mountain whose majesty never ceases to move my soul. I let American beauty speak to me today.

Today as I looked at America, I was reminded of the profound beauty of Europe. I have often flown from London to Eastern Europe. When I look at Europe from the air I see its great beauty, but I am also drawn to consider the wars and bloodshed the land has witnessed over the last 500 years. Today as I looked at America I pondered the question, “Why have we, for the most part, been spared the fate of Europe?”

I don’t know the answer, but we Americans have been given a gift on incalculable value. On a day like today, I cannot help but ask the question: Will we be able to preserve and steward this gift and pass it along to our children?

I think the answer to the question is found in a phrase often attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville. “America is great, because she is good, if America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

As I looked from above at the major cities, numerous communities, and countless farms from the sky, I was struck by the fact that the future of America lies with the 300 million people that inhabit this land. What is about to unfold in Denver and St. Paul is significant. What is decided in the November election matters, but none of it would matter without good decisions being made by 300 million of us every day.

Democracy is only possible when enough people do the right thing when no one is watching. We are by no means a perfect nation, but have been given a great gift. My deepest concern as I watch what unfolds at the conventions is to the extent to which the Parties help us steward the great gift we have been given, and help us use it for the benefit of others.

What gives me hope is that I know many of the people assembling in Denver and St. Paul are precisely the kind of people who add this kind of value to our lives. One person I hope to meet in Denver is the Honorable James Rosapepe. As US Ambassador to Romania, he came to Saint Anselm and spent time with the Romanian community. Unlike me, he knew what kind of meeting it would be. But he went willingly. He listened patiently to the tragic stories of relational hardship these people and their loved ones face due to the difficulty of obtaining visas for their family members living in Romania. The Romanian Americans wanted his help, and they never really understood that in our system of separation of powers he simply did not have the power to resolve their problems. But rather than raise false hope and receive their praise, and rather than just saying no, he stood before them and wept openly as he told them the truth about the challenges and long road they faced in their quest for a visa. That day they Romanian community went away knowing that they had just encountered a person who not only would do everything he could to help them, but that he would sow tears with them.

If I find in Denver and St. Paul more James Rosapepe’s, I know that our future is bright no matter which party controls congress and the White House.

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