I went to the meeting this morning, and missed getting on CNN with DC for Democracy by five minutes (argh!), but had a great time at the meeting. It was thoroughly fascinating. I did decide to leave before the second half because I've got other stuff I need to do before my boyfriend gets to DC and my phone's battery was dying.
My reaction and photos over the fold.
[update: wow, the rec list in under five minutes!! Thanks folks!]
I think the DNC folks were just dumbstruck by the size of the crowd - one staffer said they usually have it in the conference room at the DNC and they're lucky if all the committee members show up.
The biggest thing that immediately jumped out at me was the fairly surreal nature of the audience response. The things that constituted applause lines would only have elicited yawns in any other circumstance. Especially during the Florida discussion, there were some pretty arcane points about the rules that drew significant audience responses.
Also interesting was the differing attitudes of the two sides. The Obama folks often applauded comments that were favorable to them, but never once booed or heckled pro-Hillary comments. Hillary's supporters, however, booed and heckled pro-Obama comments frequently and had to be gaveled down repeatedly. I sincerely hope the press reports on that, because the Hillary supporters all came off looking like whiny little brats.
One cool thin was I got to meet Wexler as he was on his way out. Didn't have time to thank him for his impeachment work, but I did mention that I had designed his campaign site and was glad he was there for Obama. ;-) John Conyers (who's site I also designed) was also in the room, but sadly I never got to talk to him. :-(
Here are a few photos I took with my iPhone before my battery gave out:
Here's my favorite photo of the day:
Now we know why the media never gets their stories right - they aren't paying attention!