Below is this week's citydesk column that runs in the actual Boise Weekly... Last night I saw the woman who wrote, or helped write, Michelle Obama's speech (can't these people write their own speeches anymore?) at a post-Hillary speech party. After writing this I thought it unseemly to ask her about the speech... this morning I regret not asking her why all the cliches....

Pomp and cowboy hats
This week, citydesk is brought to you from a Denver coffee shop, as the pomp and circumstance of the Democratic National Convention swirls about the not-so-gritty downtown streets.
With Barack Obama at the top of the ticket and with the convention in a decent Western city, we didn't expect so much pomp and cliche. But they planned this thing before Obama emerged as the leader, before he'd even developed his change thing, so who knew a year ago that Americans didn't really want more of the same old same old.

There is a major disconnect between the thoughtful way that Obama speaks about American politics and the shallow, partisan spin that has exhibited itself at the beginning of the convention in Denver.

Of course, he's not here yet, but some 24 hours into this Denver racket, we do not get the feeling that this is Obama's convention. At least not yet.

On the campaign trail, Obama has increasingly dipped into cliches and bald political rhetoric of his own. He uses some tired techniques like watching the convention on some average American's sofa and then introducing them to the entire country in a video chat.

But then he talks about himself and his experience and the American experience and it sounds pretty authentic.

The convention's first night, on the other hand, was all about political cliche, from the actors—Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, maybe Joe Biden who showed up but did not speak—to the bad music, transparent attacks on John McCain and identity politics.

Not to mention the extravagance of the venue and the excesses of the security apparatus.

Even Michelle Obama fell into the cliche trap in her kicker speech on opening night, trying too hard to make herself into some pollster's demographic. The Obamas do not have to keep saying they are just a working class girl from the South Side and a skinny Hawaiian kid with a funny name raised by a single mom. They are running for president of the United States now, which puts them in a demographic of their own.

Though her speech bored us with its sentimentality, Michelle did look and sound sincere about how much she loves Barack and all the personal stuff. If she did not have anything new or earth-shattering to say, she could have just waved to the crowd, like Jimmy Carter did, and it would have been enough.

But we ain't gonna lie. When Michelle walked out on stage in that mint dress and smiled at America, we got a little teary eyed. We couldn't see if Wolf Blitzer was having the same private moment we were, but Michelle did not even have to open her mouth to make a huge statement.

Making statements

Earlier that day, two white boys tried to make a statement at the Democratic National Committee’s Black Caucus meeting. About 15 minutes into the discussion, one of them stood up and started shouting something about a black holocaust. It took us a minute to realize he was talking about abortion.

The room full of former civil rights workers, black members of Congress and black Democratic activists from all 50 states, happily shouted him down with an Obama chant as cops escorted the man from the room.
Some 20 minutes later, another white guy stood up and did the same thing, only to be hauled off by the same bored police.

We mention their race because after these two incidents, this citydesk writer was the only white boy left in that part of the room and were getting some interesting looks.

A man in front with whom we’d held hands during the invocation, turned and asked what was going on, and a big woman right behind us actually took off her high heal shoe and waved it, anticipating another white boy rant.
Wellington Webb, a black man and former Denver mayor, remarked that in 2008, when black people have a meeting the cops are there to make sure it does not get interrupted, not to break it up.

A palpable feeling is among the delegations—including the Idaho delegation—that this is the change Obama is talking about. A change in the power structure in America that the Obama family embodies and that many, many Americans relate to.

That’s why we shed a tear when Michelle Obama appeared on stage Monday night.

But the convention funders and many of the political hacks who marched up on stage that first night do not necessarily get this. Hillary Clinton never got it and Nancy Pelosi did not give any indication that she gets it in her opening speech. But the millions of otherwise-uninterested voters Obama has politicized get it. That’s why nearly a quarter of the delegates are black and this is the most diverse political convention ever.

Too much Jesus
Another indication that Obama’s change thing is being co-opted is the amount of Jesus talk in Denver. Perhaps Obama is bringing more religious people into the Democratic tent or making it more kosher for Democrats to talk about religion, but since when do Democrats pray in Jesus’ name on national television?

There are big interfaith services, which are fine, but every meeting we attended Monday started with prayer, half the speeches end with the old God bless America thing and some delegates openly talk about making the Democratic Party more overtly religious.

While Republicans don’t own religious voters, there must be one party in this big country that does not try to push the notion of America as a Christian nation. If not, it puts our entire democratic system at risk. You’d think you were back in the Idaho Legislature.

Former Denver Mayor Wellington put it well, if a bit out of context: in Denver you are a mile closer to heaven than you are ever going to be.

Back on the ranch

Now for a few updates on the home front. Army deserter Robin Long, a Boise native, was sentenced to 15 months in jail, after being kicked out of Canada and returned to his unit at Fort Carson, Colo. He will also get a dishonorable discharge.

Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter is back to parking on the street like us normal people after the City of Boise agreed to provide two spots on Eighth Street for the black Suburban the Idaho State Police uses to transport him. Otter’s security vehicle had been parked on the sidewalk since his office was moved across the street to the Borah Building last year.

And an accountant’s review of the state tax commission cleared tax commissioners of any wrongdoing, but called for more scrutiny of their work in settling tax disputes with large out-of-state corporations. Whistle-blowing auditors within the tax office are still crying foul and it remains to be seen if the Legislature will take any action.

More news from Denver at citydesk.boiseweekly.com, and news from Iraq below:
U.S. CASUALTIES: As of Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 4,149 U.S. service members (including 31 Idahoans) have died since the war in Iraq began in March 2003: 3,371 in combat and 778 from non-combat-related incidents and accidents. Injured service members total 30,561. In the last week, two U.S. soldiers died.
Since President George W. Bush declared “mission accomplished” aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, 3,997 soldiers have died.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Defense
IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS: Estimated between 86,664 and 94,561.
Source: iraqbodycount.net
COST OF IRAQ WAR: $548,655,347,680
Source: costofwar.com

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(This report is coming out incrementally and may not be totally liveblogged although we are here in Denver, we are alive and, I suppose, we are blogging because it’s de rigueur for a newsman to blog here. We’re sorry if you are following BW’s every move in Denver in Twitter time, but we tend to write in spurts and need time to recover. We also need some time to think before spouting off. So here’s a reflection from Day 1 in Denver posted late on Day 3. Let's call it lateblogging.)

Say you are rolling into Denver to cover a big political event, like a convention of Democrats.

And say you’re from a town like Boise, which is basically off the Democratic Party map, though Barack Obama’s is trying to at least stick a few colorful pins in the urban Idaho landscape.

(A man. A plan. Boise.)

What’s the pre-game strategy. First you need shelter and provisions.

Luckily, our trusty fixer, a “local” with a fairly solid command of the English language whom we’ll call Wolf, was on hand with a clean Volvo to rescue us from a lecture by one of the airport baggage handlers.

Perhaps noting our large, white cowboy hat, this toothless, Gulf War Vet looked at us askance and asked, “Whatcha’ think of McCain?”

Getting into game form, we shot back, “Wadda’ YOU think of him?”

“McCain’s fucked up,” the guy responds. “Welcome to Denver.”

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Shelter is adequate, a short bike ride from the various convention venues on Denver’s version of the Boise River Greenbelt, which is quite functional and a bit more urban feeling.
Provisions were nominal.

Then it’s off to meet a contact at the big Sheraton downtown where the press credentialing was going on.

Did we mention we went down to Denver with zero credentials and little chance of actually getting in to the convention?

We had two rounds with retired New York Times photog Paul Hosefros, who’s working for us here in Denver, by the way. Hosefros made some inquiries for us. We went down to the basement to find a guy named Rob Z who works for the U.S. Senate and told us to come back at 1 p.m. the next day and he’d see what he could do.

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OK, sounds promising.

Then back to the Sheraton bar, which was crawling with operatives. We bought a beer for a former Al Gore press secretary who now runs a company that creates a wi-fi bubble around the press corps following Obama.

He didn’t drink it because he was too busy trying to get inside the Obama bubble in Denver. Poor guy.

Then we met Hosefros down at the Pepsi Center, which was in the process of being completely cordoned off, utilizing the latest in cordoning off technology learned in Baghdad.

How come none of these Democrats mention our greatly increased understanding of the use of condoning blast wall technology as one of the great successes of the War in Iraq? I mean, credit where credit is due…

Once inside Hosefros pointed out that Idaho’s section had been moved up into the bleachers so we set out to figure out why.

The Democratic National Committee press office is located in a white tent out side the Pepsi Center. As one receptionist Googled the Boise Weekly, another went to find a public affairs person.

She came back with a lovely response: “We don’t do drop-ins … call the office later.”
For the record, we called several times and never got an answer.

For the evening we had a few choices of places to go to get the pulse of the pre-convention. The 16th Street Mall is a long pedestrian strip full of Hard Rock Café-type places. It was busy, but not an appealing reporting backdrop.

A small mojito bar where our fixer drinks for free, provided some insights into Denverites expectations for the week. But it was pretty dead.

Perhaps we should have headed to some of the larger hotels, but that’s where all the journalists were hanging out. And what do they know?

So we went down to the Diamond Cabaret to see who might be ookin’ pa nub on the Sunday before the ball drops. Hoping to find a ruddy-faced Bill Clinton handing out dollar bills to dejected Hillary staffers, or at least some fresh faced Utah Dems livin’ it up, we were disappointed (as were the ladies that work there and could, potentially facilitate a juicy scandal this week) to find the place dead.

Again, for the record, citydesk has the utmost respect for the stripper’s trade and looked these girls in the eye while asking if any politicos had been by. It was strictly business. And besides, our corporate expense account didn’t kick in until the next day, so we could not even afford this joint.

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So, in summary, of the 14,000 odd first-hand accounts of the blogo-sphere’s first day in Denver, who nominates citydesk for the most detailed, entertaining and productive? We are not just bloggers here, ya know, we are seasoned journalists, representatives of the alternative press, Idahoans and we have a bike. And tomorrow some of these words will actually fill a printed page, there preserved for posterity.

The Idaho delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Denver may have been excited to see that they would be sitting on the floor of the Pepsi Center, close enough to the big stage to see Obama’s pimples. But that was Saturday.

Sometime on Sunda

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"Idaho delegates seemed not the least disturbed by this Sunday. Many were dancing the early night away at a splashy party thrown by the Louisiana Delegation at the Colorado Convention Center to highlight the transformation taking place in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina."