The Gala Banquet at the State Convention

Boy. That was one exhausting weekend. It started with the banquet on Friday featuring President-In-Exile Gore. I got there much too early, assuming "reception" meant there would be a room in which we were received, perhaps even chairs. Instead, what that meant was hundreds of people milling pointlessly around the Sheraton's courtyard and the entrance to the banquet hall, spilling wine on their shoes and idly chatting to people they didn't know very well.

The banquet itself was great. The President-In-Exile's speech was wonderful, fiery, passionate, and very funny. I only caught him glancing at his notes once during a 45-minute speech - hell of a change from the Dimwit-In-Chief squatting in the White House, who can't say much more than his name without a teleprompter and an earpiece, and still manages to horribly mangle anything he says. If only Gore had shown that kind of personality during the 2000 campaign - he wouldn't be President-In-Exile!

John joined me after the banquet and we cruised some of the hospitality suites. They were pretty boring, just an excuse to score more wine, but we did meet a few interesting people. I met two more of the National delegates, one of whom, Jessica Beckett, is a 19-year-old Kucinich delegate and bright as all get-out. The other is a 28-year-old Kerry alternate, Nicole Ricketts. It's inspiring to see so many younger folks getting this involved.

The Young Democrats party was kind of dull, so we left after about half an hour and headed home. I have to get an early start at the convention itself tomorrow.