August 2008 Democratic National Convention and DNC Meeting Report

Greetings from the Georgia DNC Team. While a number of us were not officially sworn in to the DNC until Friday, below are some highlights from our experience at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. At the end, you will find a report of the first (and very short) DNC meeting of the new term.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at any time at alupkg@yahoo.com if you have any questions or would like additional information about the work of the DNC.

Women's Caucus Meetings
There were two meetings of the Women's Caucus during the convention. The program consisted of wonderful speakers who addressed just about every issue facing women, children and families. We honored Stephanie Tubbs Jones and her wonderful, direct, and steadfast service to women. All of the senior elected women were either speakers or attendees. The room was packed.

Interfaith Gathering
The Interfaith Gathering held on Sunday of the Democratic Convention brought together Muslims, Buddhists, Jews and Christians to celebrate the many things we have in common and to reaffirm our commitment to children, neighbors, our nation and the world. There was fantastic music and readings from the Qur'an, the Bible and the Torah. The anti-abortion disruptors were few and ended before the substance of the worship began.

Faith leaders spoke to our responsibility and the focus of our efforts in changing our communities and the world. Responsibility to children, Imam Mardini called us to lift up all children and end the cycle of poverty. It was delivered by a pro-life Democrat who has remained a strong Democrat because of our Party's strong Pro-Child record.
Responsibility to our Neighbor was delivered by Rabbi Schwartzman, defining our neighbor as every human regardless of geography, cultural, faith, dress or language. Our role as people of faith is no different than our role as Democrats – to serve our neighbor.

Responsibility to our Nation was given by the author of Dead Man Walking, Sister Helen Prejean. She spoke passionately about our nation in crisis, our readiness to use violence to solve problems, our continued inability to rise above racism and our war on the poor. We need to return to dialog and diplomacy. We need to focus on non-violent conflict resolution and it needs to start in the Congress of the United States.

Responsibility to the World, lead by Ingid Mattson focused on the humility that comes from knowing others in the world and letting them know us. We can not know about the “other” without knowing the “other”. We need to tell the truth, the whole truth, we need to bear witness to what is right and expose and address what is wrong in our world. America is the best place in the world to practice any faith. We must confront evil with humility and when we confront we do not do it in a way that destroys our planet and ruins the lives of countless innocent people.

The program ended with fantastic music and the crowd on its feet!

DNC Youth Council Meeting
The DNC Youth Council held an informative meeting for the press on the work that 17 different organizations are doing to inspire and engage young voters in the democratic process and involve them with the Democratic Party.

The percentage of delegates between the ages of 18 and 36 is approximately 16%, up from 11% four years ago.

We were reminded by more than one speaker that, while Barack Obama resonates with young voters and has done a great job in engaging the youth during his campaign, that the huge surge in interest in politics, and specifically Democratic politics, is a result of years of hard work by many organizations to target and engage this generation with the issues and vision of our Party. We also had a lengthy discussion about how to ensure that these young voters stay engaged with the Democratic Party after November. Many of the speakers believe that these young voters are deeply engaged with the issues that drove them to become involved and that they will see the positive results of their engagement and stay involved well after November.

It was a great event and was well attended by the press.

Convention Speeches
Michelle Obama. It is hard to tell when you are there if the appearance on TV is the same as in the Pepsi Center. She was poised, articulate, passionate, thoughtful. If the world listened to that speech they now know Michelle Obama. We were blown away by her grace and confidence. She will make a terrific First Lady.

Bill Clinton was his usual, a brilliant speaker, who can make the most complex issue clear. The crowd loved him and it was clear we have hungered for someone that smart for 8 years.

Joe Biden was all over the Pepsi Center, even with the Secret Service in tow. He spoke to many of the delegates, which is a great treat. He was much more guarded in his responses to the press, much more focused on the job at hand and delivered a terrific speech on Wednesday.

Our own John Lewis spoke with great passion about the Civil Rights movement and the future. We have the great honor of sitting with him in the delegation along with Congressman John Barrow and Congressman David Scott.

One surprise for all of us was the Governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer. He came to the stage, took in the crowd (larger than the population of his state) and had a wonderful time delivering one of the best speeches of the convention. He gave the line, "we can drill in every on of McCain's backyards and we still will not produce enough oil!" He brought the house down several times. It would be worth looking for his speach on the internet.

Invesco Field was electric. The crowd of 84,000 (we heard there were 30,000 in the parking lot turned away by the fire marshal). The Georgia delegation was seated directly in front of the podium about 25 yards back - we could not have gotten better seats! We were directly in front of the press box, which also had its advantages (we could stand on our chairs). We arrived early to hear from the people across America whose stories were highlighted by the Obama campaign. The were all moving, some funny. Barney Smith has suffered so in the past 8 years he wants a president who thinks more about Barney Smith than Smith Barney - that brought the house down.

About 15 Generals and Admirals were on the stage expressing their support for Obama and the reasons the war was put them in this position. We heard from veterans like Molly Duckworth who lost both legs when a missile took down her helicopter. She was saved by her fellow marines at risk to their own lives. She spoke of the war and her commitment to Obama.

We know everyone saw and heard Obama's speech. It was unbelievable. He has such a wonderful style and transcendence. The speech he gave was inspiring, visionary, and packed quite a punch. He will be a fantastic candidate. Let's all get to work!

First DNC Meeting of the New Term
The first official meeting of the new DNC term was held on Friday, August 29, the morning after the 2008 Democratic National Convention officially ended. This meeting was much more casual than standard DNC meetings since it followed all of the activites of the convention. The main purpose was to swear in the new DNC members from across the country. In addition to the swearing-in, we suspended the rules in order to adopt resolutions honoring the memories of Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones and Arkansas Democratic State Party Chairman Bill Gwatney, two great Democrats who were taken from us far too soon.

Stay tuned for information from the DNC and reports and announcements from future DNC meetings.

Respectfully Submitted,

The Georgia DNC Team
Jane Kidd, Chair, Democratic Party of Georgia
Michael Thurmond, First Vice Chair, Democratic Party of Georgia
Page Gleason, Democratic National Committee Member
Richard Ray, Democratic National Committee Member
Sally, Rosser, Democratic National Committee Member
David Worley, Democratic National Committee Member