Cue the Lights; Cue the Music

As a gay man, I love event planning. Choosing fabrics, colors, table settings, and music. I wonder who lucked out as the contractor for the 2008 DNC? It had to have been someone with a degree in psychology. The video and still backgrounds, color, and music all change based on the theme and speaker. During a speech about the military, the lights turn red and blue. During President Bill Clinton's speech yesterday evening, the lights would go bright during applause then slowly dissolve back to a dim. The music is performed by a live band that sits at stage left. The entire event was planned with incredible detail.

During the roll call vote the stage lights were red, white, and blue. The secretary of the convention along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were at center stage. The video background flashed from one state to another as the results of the roll call vote were announced by each state's delegation.

Every state delegation is different. Some states like Texas, allow their delegates to vote at the convention however they wish. Other states have a history of strong-arming their delegates to vote together. Why do you think some states were so drastically different? That's their tradition of supporting the "presumptive nominee".

As if on cue from a script, during the New York delegation's results, the entire convention went into what can only be described as pandemonium. (That's the first time I've been able to use that word for real.) Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton walked into the convention hall surrounded by Secret Service agents. After having been released as a delegate by Hillary earlier, I knew what was coming. She walked right to the New York delegation then took the microphone to request a vote by acclamation.

Speaker Pelosi asked the convention delegation to accept the motion by a voice vote. "Aye", echoed through the Pepsi Center. The lights turned blue and white as the house band began to play "Love Train." I smiled but had tears in my eyes. The script was playing out like well-produced Broadway play.

For the rest of the day, all the music was stuff that people knew the words to and could sing in unison. I guess the DNC figures if we aren't all on the same page, we could at least all sing the same song.