2016 Postmortem

EarlG

(21,945 posts) Tue Jul 26, 2016, 11:29 AM Jul 2016

185

DNC Day 1 Mega-Photo Recap!

Greetings from sunny Philadelphia! Skinner and I are here in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection observing the festivities so each day we'll be trying to grab as many photos as we can from in and around the convention. We're posting most of these live on Instagram and Twitter, but for those of you who like it old-school we'll be doing a daily recap here on DU with a bit commentary. So without further ado...

Ready to hit the road.

It's only a short drive for us to Philadelphia, about two hours.

Welcome to Pennsylvania...

...and the Democratic National Convention 2016!

Here's the Wells Fargo arena where the main events are taking place -- all the roads are closed off around here.

That's okay though because our first port of call was the Convention Center downtown to pick up our media credentials. Our brilliant plan was to simply drive straight into the city and park the car. Madness you say? Apparently not! We managed to find street parking a block from the Convention Center.

Right outside the Convention Center we found one of the 57 donkeys representing each delegation on display around the city (although this is actually the only one we've seen so far).

Also hanging around here were a various assortment of weirdos, which is absolutely typical for a political convention like this.

Inside the Convention Center the security line moved pretty quickly...

...and before long, we had our credentials.

Also inside the Convention Center -- the actual Liberty Bell, designated as a "selfie spot"! Surprised that they let people get this close to it, and also I never knew that it was made out of plastic.

Credentials in hand, it was time to grab some lunch at Reading Terminal Market, which is quite the scene.

Time to head back to the car and drive to our hotel, but first the biggest news of the day so far: Skinner caught a Zubat!

And leveled up.

We drove to our hotel which is way out of town (but that's what you get for booking late). The good news is that it's way nicer than the craphole we stayed at in Charlotte.

The other bit of good news is that there's a media shuttle which runs down to the Wells Fargo arena every afternoon -- very convenient.

The Philadelphia skyline on the way in to the city.

The Wells Fargo arena is right next door to Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles.

This is where the road closures began and security became pretty intense. Fortunately our media bus got to go in through a back route.

It really was hot here yesterday. These poor security guards are sweltering under a tent.

Lots and lots of buses. These are for transporting delegates and media back into the downtown area (and elsewhere) once the convention is over for the night.

One quick trip through the metal detectors and we were at the front door.

...after passing by the Fox News trailer.

Our first order of business was to get our bearings and check out the sights and sounds of the arena. We were here pretty early -- the convention was about to be gaveled in -- so a lot of people were milling about.

The first of many fabulous hats.

This guy had "Trumpbusters" buttons all over him.

Media spotting: within a few minutes of each other we saw:

Alan Colmes...

Cenk Ugyur...

And Dan Rather.

Inside the hall itself it was still pretty quiet, but it was a good time to take a look around.

Would the person sitting in seat 3 please return and collect their fern (wtf?)

Marcia Fudge.

Barney Frank.

The center of this section is where the disruptive delegates were sitting. On television it probably sounded like the entire hall was interspersed with "booers" but in reality they were mostly grouped into a couple of small sections, the largest being behind and to the left of the stage. From where I was sitting it seemed like there were about 100 people doing the booing, which really wasn't that big of a deal by the end of the night when the hall was filled with 16,000 perfectly happy Democrats. However, in the early stages of the proceedings when the hall wasn't full they were able to make quite a bit of noise, and I assume that the media focused in on them a lot.

Outside the hall for a break, we snagged our first signs of the day.

Back inside, Ben Jealous got a good reception from the crowd.

Demi Lovato spoke on the need for improved mental health treatment.

Karla and Francisca Ortiz spoke on immigration.

The media booths around the inside of the hall. It's always fascinating to watch these -- you can see the pundits inside gabbing into the cameras, all sitting with their backs to the proceedings on stage.

Al Franken.

Disability rights advocate Anastasia Somoza gave an amazing speech destroying Donald Trump.

Paul Simon sang "Bridge Over Trouble Water"

At this point Skinner's phone battery was way low and I needed to stretch my legs, so I took a walk around outside the hall and grabbed a few random shots. Unfortunately I missed Cory Booker...

But managed to get back in time for Michelle!

She really brought the house down. In fact, all the prime time speakers did, including Elizabeth Warren...

And, of course, Bernie.

Back to the bus, ready to do it all again tomorrow!

Monday's swag total: not bad.

You can follow our updates live on Instagram and Twitter, and I'll post another recap thread tomorrow. Thanks for reading!