The First Night

            The Pepsi Center in Denver last night was almost unrecognizable as the place the Denver Nuggets play basketball.  From the cheap seats, high up in the arena, the floor and the lower levels looked like a sea of closely packed delegates.

 

            While the evening’s activities were carefully scripted, the delegates’ enthusiasm was genuine.  When they waved placards or cheered they did so because they seemed genuinely excited to be part of the Democratic National Convention.

 

            That the evening was carefully planned was evident in the giant teleprompter, just behind the Virginia delegation.  Guests in the galleries on the podium side of the arena could read along as speeches were made.  A large red timer counted down the seconds of each speaker’s allotted time.  Michelle Obama got 21 minutes, and at times she seemed to be trying to make up the time lost to the delegates’ long, loud cheering that greeted her.  Her brother, Craig, had six minutes to introduce her.

 

            When Michelle Obama finished, not only the delegates, but the thousands of guests in the many galleries that rise to the eaves of the center, spontaneously stood to give her a standing ovation.

 

            At times earlier in the evening, a dull rumble of people talking seemed to indicate that few were paying attention to the many speakers.  This appeared particularly true of Candi Schmieder, a largely unknown precinct captain who had been chosen to speak.  However, when Schmieder said that she had decided to go to college, the applause was sudden and widespread.

 

            The tightly choreographed lighting made the convention floor look as dramatic in real life as it did on television.  One thing that may not have been evident to viewers at home was how much a physical presence the press was in the hall.  The skyboxes around the arena had been converted into open studios for Fox, CBS and other organizations.  The anchors all sat with their backs to the convention, facing their cameras, using the convention and the speakers’ podium as a backdrop for their programs.

 

Closer to the floor, less prestigious news outfits filled two tiers of open boxes.  The on-air talent stood almost shoulder to shoulder against the waist-high front walls, again with their backs to the hall doing stand-ups before their closely packed cameras.

 

Several news organizations even had mini-stages right on the convention floor.  Wolf Blitzer and four panelists were visible at the largest one on the arena’s right side must have blocked the view of several rows of the California delegation. 

 

At some point in Michelle Obama’s speech, a change was visible.  The anchors in the sky boxes – in an almost unbroken line around the arena – had turned around in their chairs.  Down below in the two tiers of open boxes, the reporters were leaning on the front walls, this time looking towards the podium.

 

Down in the floor stages the panelists continued facing the cameras.

 

-Professor Paul Bush