Radical Georgia Moderate

I’m in, sitting in the back with TV and radio folks. They have power strips, you understand.

I just interviewed Senate candidates Vernon Jones, Dale Cardwell and Josh Lanier. Time was short, so I had to stay on topic about the effect of Edwards leaving the presidential race (i.e. - no threesome or tower questions).

I tried to interview John Barrow, but he referred me to his publicist after I told him I was a blogger. It sounded a little less like “talk to my publicist” and a little more like “fuck off.”

My camera is not doing well tonight. I snapped a few photos, but many of them are coming out blurry. I’m afraid something might be wrong.

I’m on AOL Instant Messenger as evilwilly1 and on Yahoo Messenger as rustytanton if you want to chat. Also, on Twitter as rustytanton.

Update 7:10 p.m. Therbert Baker is the first speaker. Thanks constitutional officers, esp. Tommy Irvin.

Update 7:16 p.m. TB says 2008 is “our year.” Here because they want to win, etc.

The sound is shitty in here and it’s hard to follow. I hope they fix the mics by the time Hillary comes on. Things are running well over an hour late. To be fair, I don’t think anybody expects to come to a Democratic event and have things run on time.

Just ran into Andre. He’s doing triple duty tonight, working for Hillary and Vernon and gathering material for blog posts. He said Hillary is in the building, and they may have to alter the program to get her on.

Update 7:18 p.m. Dubose Porter speaking now. They’ve been going through belabored introductions of the statewide officers for the whole time. The guy next to me groaned “Jesus.”

Update 7:26 p.m. Sounds like the journalist next to me is going to complain about missed deadlines all night. Shirley Franklin got up, said “let’s hear it for local officials,” then stepped down. Now Jane Kidd. Please give me something to write about.

Update 7:30 p.m. Calvin Smyre (I think) talking about Tom Murphy’s legacy as a yellow dog democrat.

Here are the photos I’ve managed to take:

Update 7:35 p.m. They just gave out Tom Murphy Lifetime Achievement awards, but I couldn’t hear the names to write them down. Boooooo.

Update 7:38 p.m. Showing a film about Max Cleland. Guessing he’ll be speaking next.

Update 7:41 p.m. Film from John Kerry, says he can’t tell you how sorry he is for not being here tonight. Reminiscing on John Lewis telling stories. Now a tribute to Max Cleland, talking about Vietnam.

Update 7:45 p.m. Kerry talking about Richard Russell. Blake Aued says the professionals are in the green room and there’s pasta there. Roy Barnes to speak now.

Update 7:50 p.m. Max Cleland speaking now. Bottom 8 percent of America is being denied opportunity to pursue the American dream, he says. (note: I was told after the fact he might have said 80 percent here, not 8. The sound sucked.)

Update 8:09 p.m. John Lewis is speaking. Time for an unsubstantiated rumor!

Update 8:24 p.m. Sorry for the lack of updates. I was caught up in a conversation with a very nice GPB reporter who brought dinner to a few of us dummies who forgot to get some. Hillary is here to speak.

Update 8:30 p.m. Thanks the young people, wants young people to run for office. Brought out the fake Southern accent again: “Glad to be around some jorrrrrrrjan Democrats.”

Update 8:32 p.m. “I feel very at home in Georgia.” Fake accent again.

Update 8:34 p.m. Standard stump speech. Global warming, etc. “Who will be best president on day 1?”

Update 8:36 p.m. Talking about poverty. Thanks John Edwards for his efforts against poverty.

Differences between Dems pale between the differences between us and the Republicans. Appealing to populist themes. Long past time to close every loophole and giveaway that permits jobs to be moved to every country.

Update 8:42 p.m. Concept: green collar jobs. We can put hundreds of thousands of people to work. Germany has made a big bet on solar power.

Update 8:43 p.m. Same healthcare option that members of Congress have.

Update 8:45 p.m. Talked about healthcare tax credits. Now on to education. Universal kindergarten program. End NCLB.

Build partnership between state, fed and local govts. Make college affordable for working families.

Max Cleland sitting in front of me, snapped a couple of photos.

$3,500 tax credit for each child for each. Raise pell grants. Offering two years of national service to earn money for college. Offer public service jobs, let people pay debt by serving public.

Sounds like she wants the govt to get into the student loan business. Says they’ve been charging high interest rates. My student loan had a pretty damn low interest rate.

Update 8:48 p.m. End cronyism and no-bid contracts. Transparency. (just not when it’s your own records, right?)

Says she wants to end war in Iraq and bring troops home. “Now look, we have to do this responsibly and carefully.” Says she wants to Congress to give her a pullout plan within 60 days of her taking office.

Update 8:53 p.m. Telling story about captain at Walter Reed. Very graphic. Ring melted on his finger. Asked Sen Clinton “how do I get my brain back?” (note: I was told after the fact she said “ring” here, not “brain.” Again, the sound sucked.)

21st Century G.I. Bill.

Doesn’t want Democrat or Republican foreign policy. Wants American foreign policy. I bet the one world government conspiracy theorists shit their pants when they heard that.

Update 8:56 p.m. Talked about the snow of New Hampshire, peaches of Florida. She’s in Georgia. Even though peaches aren’t as big a deal as they’re made out to be, I think she could have picked a better example.

Update 8:58 p.m. Mentioned Peachkids. Now talking about taking Republican abuse for years and years, and that she’s still standing. Now she’s firing up the troops. Sounds like the speech is about to end.

“If you are ready for change, I am ready to deliver results for America”

Playing BTO “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” on the PA.

Update 9:02 p.m. Think that’s it for me folks. Going to try to GTF out of here.

Update 9:14 p.m. Actually, I lied. Not leaving quite yet. Ran into Amani and SpaceyG, we’re going for a quick beer at Manuel’s. Here are the other photos I took:

Max Cleland watching Hillary Clinton:

Max Cleland:

Hillary Clinton speaking (yeah, kind of a shit photo, but I wasn’t going to leave my stuff unattended):

Update 9:48 a.m. Jan. 31 Here’s the list of Tom Murphy Lifetime Achievement award winners that I wasn’t able to hear last night:

Senator Tim Golden. 1st Congressional District
Carol R. King, 2nd Congressional District
Ernest Broadwell, 3rd Congressional District
Elliott H. Levitas, 4th Congressional District
Odessa P. Wheeler, 5th Congressional District
Bill Teasley, 6th Congressional District
Mike Berlon, 7th Congressional District
Joni Woolf, 8th Congressional District
Hoyt Robinson, 9th Congressional District
Herb West, 10th Congressional District
Gene Richardson, 11th Congressional District
Maxine Goldstein, 12th Congressional District
Sandra Hardy, 13th Congressional District