2008 Democratic Convention: August 2008 Archives

Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton mentioned gays in their respective electrifying speeches at the Democratic National Convention last week in Denver. But only fleetingly.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, one of the most important figures in the gay marriage movement in California, is a completely different story. He is that rare politician who made equal rights for gays one of his biggest priorities and on Thursday, his address to the California Democratic delegation ended with strong and passionate words against Proposition 8 which seeks to, once again, ban same-sex marriage in the state.

Here is part of what he said:
"I believe in equal rights....Civil unions is not marriage...I believe in real equality, full equality. That's what's at stake with Proposition 8. I plead for your support, for your activism and your passion and most importantly, your action in the next few months."

Also last week, Newsom was asked by Ray Suarez on the PBS program "The Newshour Insider Forum" if his deep involvement with gay rights hold him back as a state-wide candidate?

Replied Newsom: "This [campaigning against Prop 8] is not going to help me politically; I'm not naïve to that. I'm hardly front and center at this convention and I certainly wasn't in the last convention, but it's about my convictions; it's about my ability to sleep at night and reconcile the fact that we're running the 90 yard dash on gay and lesbian rights," Newsom responded. "And if you believe fundamentally that people should have rights that are of the same sex, but you're not willing to extend them equal rights, then what is it about that point of view that distinguishes it from your point of view about civil rights for people based on race or ethnicity? What is inherently more significant about someone and their rights that happens to be of a different race that should not be extended equally to someone who may have a different sexual orientation?"

Ok, I know that it is not practical for our presidential candidate to speak this way, but wouldn't it be wonderful if he did? In reality, it;s hold yiour tongue and get elected first then - maybe - support gay marriage and not just the lesser, and safer, civil unions stance..

Bravo Gavin!

I was walking down the 16th Street Mall Thursday after lunch when I came upon this massive crowd outside Hard Rock Cafe. The rumor was that Oprah Winfrey was inside. It turns out she was not. But other stars were since there was a Creative Coalition event on health care going on. Handsome Josh Lucas came out twice to wave to the crowd and to give autographs, Angela Bassett came out once and gave a shy wave, Alan Cumming popped out to give a few autographs and finally, Spike Lee did some hellos.

As I was on Oprah-watch, I chatted up two hot guys who made the time go far faster...They are a couple and their names areTed and Travis. I'm not sure which one is Ted and which one is Travis now that I'm home. I don't even know my OWN name at this point!

Anderson Cooper may be the "it" guy of TV news but Tom Brokaw still has plenty of star power. I was standing near the makeshift CNN studio when Tom, wearing tennis shoes and carrying a red backpack, tried to casually walk to the NBC studio. No dice. People were hollering to him from the stands and a stream of folks down on the field asked him to stop for a picture. "I've got to keep moving," Tom said at one point, smiling.

Attending Cyndi Lauper's concert at Fillmore Auditorium was just terrific. I loved when she said, "Listen to mama, vote for Obama." I love, love, love Cyndi Lauper.
Thank God for my friend Hope Hamashige who moved to Denver about 3-4 years ago. On Tuesday night, I had to wait more than two hours to interview the Black Eyed Peas because Bill Clinton's convention speech ran late. I called Hope to gab and she said, "I'm downtown too, I'll ride my bike over." We got to hang out and tell some of our war stories with a young reporter from People mag, just out i\of college. Made us feel a liittle old.

I tell ya, it was one hell of a week. I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

On my last night in Denver, I got through the tight security of Invesco Field to watch Barack Obama's speech at field level just fine. But getting past the security guard at Woody Paige's house later that night? A nightmare.

With hotel rooms in short supply, I had already been staying at Woody's country club house on a golf course for five nights without incident. For some reason, the woman at the guard house says I'm not on the list, have never been on the list, and she's not letting me through the gate. I had worked 16 hours and it was about 1:15 a.m. I tried to reason with her but she dug her heels in. I wasn't on the list.

Things got ugly. I don't want to get into more details but let's just say, many things happened. I was eventually let in. I'm not sure if that woman still has a job today. If not, I won't lose a wink of sleep over it.

But that was the only glitch in what was a wonderful stay. Woody is a well-known Denver Post columnist and ESPN personality who has been in the business long enough to talk about covering the Martin Luther King assassination in 1968 and still ambitious enough that he wrote a column from the Democratic National Convention every day I was there in addition to his regular sports column.

Here are links to my favorites from the week:
-- Been there, done that, do it again
-- Gripe time but wrong causes
-- Stadium has risen along with candidate's star
-- A special boy called Barry

We were a busy household for the week. Along with Woody's charming and lovely girlfriend Geri who was there some days, LA Daily News photographer Mike Baker stayed there and so did a bright young reporter from Boston, Matt Murphy (pictured with me Thursday night at Invesco),

Someone in The Denver Post newsroom, where we were headquarted all week, remarked that it sounded like something out of "The Real World" or "The Surreal Life." Well, notsomuch. We all put in long hours and worked our tails off so no time for any drama!

But almost every morning, we all managed to have breakfast on Woody's patio, reading the papers and sharing adventures from the night before. This morning (Friday), we had a little extra time with the convention over with and Woody had us in stitches as he talked about the days of hot type and stories being typed in triplicate. Once, the "e" on his typewriter stopped working, the equipment guy blew off fixing it so Woody wrote a column entirely without a single "e" and explained to readers why. This ticked off the equipment guy who then refused to fix the broken key. So Woody walked over to a window (I think it was a paper in Memphis), dropped the typewriter out the window and simply requested a new one.

I can't imagine that a hotel could have topped this set-up and boy, the company was terrific.

It was an awesome experience, awesome. It's right up there with the really big events in my career and in my life. On the final night of the Democratic National Convention, I unexpectedly got a floor pass for Barack Obama's speech. I jammed over to Invesco Field at Mile High where the excitement was off-the-charts. .Having a floor pass means you get to wander all around the place, including near the stage, near all the action and near the CNN booth and Anderson Cooper!

Here is Anderson and me. I handed my camera to a guy Anderson was talking to and he gladly snapped the photo then Anderson says to me: "You just asked the president of CBS News to take our picture!" Then the guy - I didn;t get his name - said, "I'm not the president." Anderson said, "You will be."

Here is Sheryl Crow just after leaving the stage. At this point, I was trapped in an area that suddenly went into lock-down because some VIP was coming in. Thinking it was Obama, I stuck around awhile but no dice. Got tired of waiting and found another way out but not before snapping a photo (below) of NBC's Luke Russert (Tim's son) interviewing Martin Luther King III who was one of the night's speakers on the 40th anniversary of his fahter's "I Have a Dream" speech.


Four years ago, John Kerry was the Democratic nominee. I snapped him getting interviewed by a Polish TV network.

I gotta jam over to Invesco Field. Just unexpectedly got a fricken floor pass for the Obama speech! What a day. Will write about it all later. This morning I met San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom who is not only movie star handsome, but whose politics I really like. Will post some of his pro gay-marriage speech tomorrow or later today.

I don't even know my name right now. After a late night, I'm here at a California Democratic Party breakfast at the Sheraton in downtown Denver where Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villariagosa and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom are two of the featured speakers. I'll hear what they have to say, try and get a word with them too. Right now the Denver mayor is up there and I don't know much about him except that I watched him on Chalrie Rose last week. He just gave a shout out for gay marriage so dig him.
Anyway, last night was kinda cool. I went to the Creative Coaltion's gala at the Fillmore Auditorium and got to chat up Black Eyed Peas bandmates Fergie and Will i. am.

It was a natural that they would be performing a high-profile gig during the convention since it was Will's "Yes We Can" song and Internet sensation video gave Barack Obama one of the coolest celebrity endorsements ever.

"Will.i.am inspired me," Fergie said. "When Will made that song, I think it was touching to every person in America because it really said something."

The video features an eclectic mix of celebs: John Legend, Scarlett Johansson, Kate Walsh, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who sing a Bob Marley-style melody alongside footage of an Obama speech during the New Hampshire primaries.

"I did it because I was inspired by Barack Obama's speech in New Hampshire and that wasn't even his victory speech, that was a speech where he lost," Will said. "If he could inspire me when he lost, just think what he's gonna do when he wins. I don't know know how I'm going to contain myself. I'm just gonna keep writing and writing and writing. And not for fee, for free. For freedom."

Here is the video:

The HRC concert last night was so tightly-controlled and press access to the stars limited to a ridiculous five minutes or so. I was annoyed basically every minute I was there until the concert actually began.

We were led into the VIP tent pre-concert and some little blonde woman with a headset and a pinched face says, "Here is your tip sheet. If you don't follow it, you will be asked to leave the concert." Then some dude says, "You are sharing the tent with VIPs so if you could just stay in this area near the platform (a not so big area for a kinda big press corps). Gee, we wouldn't actually want to force the VIPS to breathe the same air as us!

Then the photographer from the Denver Post made the huge mistake of standing about an 2-3 inches past the big X on the ground made with tape. The HRC press dude leaps over and demands that he take what amounted to about a three inch step back.

These people were obnoxious and not treating the press like the grown-ups that most of us are. HRC Pres. Joe Solmonese was a gentleman though and I am sure this was no fault of his. He even gave me a hug hello inside the concert (we had coffee together a few years back). But those headset people, give 'em a little power and they run with it not even thinking that people like me are going to write about their every obnoxious, controlling and over-the-top move.

\Okay, this post was supposed to be about Melissa Etheridge and here I am on an absolute tangent. But y'know, i do feel much better now. In the VIP tent, during the five minutes and five seconds we had with the talent, I asked Miss Etheridge about her comment when she was one of the questioners during the HRC Democratic Candidates debate. She told Hillary Clinton that some of the LGBT community felt "thrown uder the bus" by her husband's adminsitration. Here's what she said in response:

"Ah no! I was gonna bring a little bus tonight (laughter). I think it is a dangerous thing that the media has been focusing on the divided Democratic party - Hillary and Obama. I think that is not true. I've been out there talking to everyone and we, for once, had the most awesome choice in the Democratic party. We had an awesome woman, and an awesome man to pick from. And we looked at them both and you know what? We came up with Barack Obama and we are all united behind him. It's a fallacy, its a lie to put out that we are not."

Okay, nice quote but she didn't really answer my question. I would have followed up but the controlling HRC folks yanked them off the stage practically before Melissa could finish her sentence.

Overall score: The HRC concert: a 10! The HRC press "event" : a minus 10.

That;'s all, thankyouverymuch.

Last night I went to the Human Rights Campaign's "Rock to Win" concert headlined by Cyndi Lauper, Melissa Etheridge, Rufus Wainwright, Margaret Cho and Thelma Houston.

The concert was stopped when Hillary Clinton made her fantastic speech at the convention and I'm so damned glad because watching it with thousands of people like that was almost as good as being inside the Pepsi Center itself. I had supported Hillary and felt lukewarm about Barack Obama but her speech really did rally the troops behind the nominee. It was such a triumphant night for this amazing woman and for the Democrats.

But, I digress.

The HRC concert was at Denver's Fillmore Auditorium and after I filed my story to The Denver Post, I settled in and danced around during Cyndi's awesome set. Had not seen her in concert since she toured with Cher eight years ago or so. She is a treasure, a wonderful soul and a brilliant talent.

She opened with her newest hit, then did a haunting "What's Going On," as well as that great song "I Drove All Night." Her voice was soaring and after a few songs, she kicked off her boots and danced around that stage like there was no tomorrow. The highlight, as I knew it would be, was when she got out the dulcimer and sang "True Colors," the most meaningful of songs about being who you really authentically are. Cyndi ended things on a fun note with "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and brought out her son Declan (he must be around 11?) and he danced onstage with the same free spirit as his mama and it was a joy to watch.

Before the show, we had a little bit of time in the VIP tent with the performers and I asked Cyndi if she has seen any changes among LGBT voters since she began her True Colors Tour with the HRC last summer. Here's what she said:

"When I first put the ("True Colors") tour together, I saw a lot of apathy in the community and I know that apathy comes from feeling hopeless and hopelessness comes out of helplessness. We put this tour together to give information to the people because information is power and I strongly believe that this nation was built on the power of the people. ... I saw more hopeful people because there was information there for them to help themselves. Voting is one of the ways to help yourself. If you don't vote, you continue not to help yourself, you continue that feeling of hopelessness against a world that may be aggressively diminishing your civil liberties."

Cyndi had a pretty funny answer when someone asked her what she thought of people who were so disappointed that Barack Obama edged Hillary Clinton for the nomination that they were considering voting for John McCain: "I would say, don't vote insane."

"I would say, if you want to vote for your pocket, think of if it's been picked already and how much your dollar is worth today after this adminsitration."

.

What can I say? I'm having an absolute blast this week in Denver. So invigorating, so much going on, so many people. My first priority is doing interviews but I'm trying to get some pictures too when I remember to. When I made my way to the convention hall yesterday, I made sure to get some snaps!
After I filed a piece from inside our press tent which is just outside Pepsi Center, I spotted ABC News "Nightline" anchor Terry Moran. I'm a big fan of the show which I think a lot of people figured would bomb out after the departure of Ted Koppel. But thanks in part to Terry, who is one of the three hosts, the show has thrived. It would be a shame if ABC yanked "Nightline" to make room for Jay Leno next year but it seems to be a real possibility.

Anyway, Terry had just finished listening to Ted Kennedy's electric speech and was on his way back to his press area when we met and had this picture taken. While it's not as good as bumping into Anderson Cooper would be (EVERYONE seems to be spotting Anderson except for me), Terry is pretty darmed hot.

This is the parade/demonstration that kept me stuck on Colfax Ave. about a block away from The Denver Post building for a good 15 minutes. I decided not to be pissed and just watch the damned thing.

Here is one of my best pals Ted Johnson who is covering the convention for Variety (he was filing a story from the CNN Grill and I snuck this picture of him before calling him over). It's been great having him in Denver because we've been able to see each other here and there and are always calling each other on the cell: "Are you going to this event?" "I haven't eaten all day either!" "Which shuttle stop is the Pepsi Center on?" "Does (deleted) keep calling and pitching stupid stories to you too?" "How mucn sleep did you get last night?"

I'm sitting here on a platform in the back of the ballroom at the Sheraton staring at some woman's dessert at the LGBT caucus luncheon. I haven't eaten lunch and watching these folks chow down is enough to make a hungry grown man cry. Barney Frank is up front speaking right now (not the easiest man to understand with that accent). The rumor is that Michelle Obama might show up so I'm gonna stick it out rather than run out of here and to the nearest hot dog stand.

I chatted up Barney when I got here as well as the tall, handsome and smart Chip Arndt. Will share those when I get a chance. Barney just said that a vote for John McCain is a disaster because "he has never voted for anything that would advance our equality...electing Barack Obama is essential."

More in a bit...

Rep. Tammy Baldwiin, another openly gay member of congress just said: "Elections have consequences. ... I truly view this election as the opportunity to transform hope into action...we come here filled with hope....The stakes have never been higher for our community."

Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese is now speaking. He said the first political campaign he ever worked on was Barney Frank's and he is honored to be sharing the stage with him. I'm bored now. Let's hope it gets better.

Okay, is Michelle Obama gonna show up or not? I'm gonna snag a dinner roll or something off a table in a minute. These are desperate times.

Joe, still talking. I'm nearly comatose.

OK, Barney just said Michelle Obama is gonna be here and no matter what they are doing, when she arrives, they are gonna put her right up there on stage. I'm gonna listen to her remarks then bolt straight to Subway for a footlong.

Some other dude is up there yammering. I didn't get his name. So, as I wait, I'm gonna post video of Michelle Obama's speech at the convention last night to get us in the mood.

1:55 p.m.: Still waiting for Michelle Obama to arrive at the Sheraton. I'm feeling more patient because some cute guy at a table near my platform took pity on me and gave me a roll from his bread basket. It. Is. Delicious.

***********************************
2 p.m. Michelle Obama is here! Barney Frank introduced her to a raucous reception, a prolonged standing ovation. Just wild.

"I am honored and thrilled. what a welcome. I should stay here all afternoon."

A man interrupts when he yells out: "Great speech!" (last night). People started applauding all over again.

NOTE: This is not a complete transcript of her remarks. It's bits and pieces...

"I'm pleased to be here today with another public servant i admire Tammy Baldwin." She also thanked: Joe Solmonese and Chuck Wolfe from the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund."

"Thanks you for your vision, thank you for your leadership..it means so much to me and to Barack."

We'e here celebrating this wonderful party , Our country and the better future we can build together....and to restore a sense of fairness and opportunity for every single American."

"Although we have a lot of work to do, this week we are going to celebrate how far we've come. Hasn't this just been an amazing year or 19 months or however long it's been? Thiis campaign 2008 has just been amazing. We have seen people who have never talked about politics before -ever. ...They're writing checks and knocking on doors."

She then paid tribute to the woman who had been her husband's rival for the Democratic nomination: "Hillary Clinton's historic candidacy banished forever the notion that a woman could not be president (huge applause). "I got those two lijttle girls, you saw them, they're cute. Because of the work this year that Sen. Clinton has done....little girls like mine and other little girls around the country can dream a little bigger."

"In just two days, we are going to make history again by nominating this guy that I'm married to. In the words of my husband, we are fired up and ready to go. I know that Barack is going to be an extraordinary president. I know that with every fiber of my body."

"Most of all, I'm here as a mother, no matter how many titles or caractures that they make, iI'm a mom first. It's the first thing I think about every day....these arent politicial issues for me, these are all personal."

More on Barack: "I've lived with this man for 20 years and i've said this many times, he has not let me down once.... Wherever he has the chance, he's used his God given talents to move that bar."

She called for the repeal of Don't Ask, Dont tell: and said the real money quote: "Discrimination has no place for a nation founded on the promise of equality."

Mrs. Obama also called for protection against hate crimes and workplace discrimination. I didn't hear anything about gay marriage.

"We all know our country's journey toward equality is not finished yet," she said. "We've got work to do."

I was walking out of the revolving door of The Samba Room in downtown Denver last night really pissed that I stood in a crowded Planned Parenthood party for an hour waiting for Ashley Judd to show up and she had not. I woulda had a hissy if it were not for the delish coconut shrimp and the cute guy I was talking to.

Deadline was 20 minutes away and I still had no star interview from this damned sioree. But as I exited the revolving door, just about to enter it was Cyndi Lauper! I was so shocked I just blurted out: "Cyndi Lauper!" She smiled and I said, "Greg Hernandez, Denver Post. Two quick questions?" She nodded, I put the recorder near her gorgeous mouth (she is a beautiful woman) and was able to get an item for today's paper. Here it is:

Cyndi Lauper performs tonight at a Hujman Rights Campaign concert but made time Tuesday night to drop by the jam-packed Planned Parenthood party at The Samba Room.

"They helped me when I was a young girl," the singer said of Planned Parenthood as she made her way into the bash. "It's a wondderful organization, teaches women about their bodies and supports us in our choices and our right to choose."

Lauper said she is looking forward to the HRC concert at the Fillmore Auditorium where she'll be joined by Melissa Etheridge, among others.

"Come on down," she said. "We're celebrating humanity. End discrimination. We're gonna have some fun."

I'll be there and post about it tomorrow! Can't wait!