Hi, the morning session was spirited. A few notes:
• Art Torres did an incredibly quick and brief motion to push the agenda of the convention forward, essentially affirming all of the work of the Resolutions Committee. It passed without incident. Now the hard work begind of collecting signatures from the delegates on all the motions that people want to force to the floor. I'm collecting for the Audit Committee, and I think that having the signatures presented is an end in itself. It mandates that the shareholders of this party want some financial accountability and transparency, that they don't want it shunted off to some task force where they can kick the idea down the road. I think it's crucial for structural party reform and ensuring that we reach all districts.
• Hillary's speech was going fine, IMO, until she got to Iraq. Then she lost the crowd (and she had them earlier). It was interesting to see Art Torres and Fabian Nunez shooting daggers with their eyes from the podium at those delegates hissing and shouting about Hillary's Iraq policy, particularly when Nunez motioned to have people ejected from the hall (nobody was AFAIK). Still, I do believe that Hillary was fairly wide support. I can't tell you how many delegates I saw yelling "Impeach Bush! Impeach Cheney!" and then holding up their Hillary signs. I don't think her support is as soft as the netroots think.
There's obviously been a lot of chatter about what resolutions to support at the CDP Convention this weekend (incidentally, the Resolutions Committee will only allow about 10 to get to the floor, and unless you get a buttload of signatures, that's all that will be voted upon, so choose wisely). I'm going to make a plea for one that would actually change the way that the Party conducts its business. I don't think there can be any more important a proposal, one that would demand accountability from the CDP and move us on a course to a 58-county strategy, than the resolution to form a standing Audit Committee as a change in CDP Bylaws.
