Above: Investco Field, Denver, 08/28/08. Click image to view slideshow | Pop-up slideshow

Forgive my quick entry but I want to get these photos up.  I promise to update this post sometime soon and my full run-down of Obama's speech and my experience at the final night of the DNC.  It was an historic event but we've been super busy and I'd like to do it right.

Above: Click to play the interview with Congresswoman Susan Davis

I met Susan Davis decades ago when she was the first KPBS Coordinator of Volunteers –- and she was hugely successful organizing the station’s very first group of San Diegans who wanted to help public broadcasting flourish.  She was a highly educated wife of a successful psychiatrist and the mother of two young boys.  We had a great deal in common.

But while I made my life’s work KPBS, Susan moved into elective office – as a school board trustee, a State Assemblywoman, and then into Congress.  I’ve watched her grow as a politician and become more involved, more focused, and much more articulate.  In her maturity, she’s attained a higher level of mastery in her selected profession.   On this second night of the Democratic National Convention, this interview effectively captured her reaction to what was happening as history was being made.

Above: Click to view the Bob Filner interview

Bob Filner is consistently proud of being a civil rights advocate.  He is always willing to reminisce about being thrown in jail in the deep South of the 1960’s.  As the story goes, he and a group of other young men from the New York area boarded a bus for Alabama to join a protest demonstration against Jim Crow laws. He was appalled by local regulations that segregated blacks in schools, housing, transportation, and even outlawing them from drinking from public water fountains where whites quenched their thirst.

Once there, he found a tough police environment not sympathetic to the protesters.  In short, some rough stuff resulted and Filner was taken into custody.  Now, almost half a century later, after years as a San Diego State University history professor, an elected school board member, a San Diego City Councilmember and a Congressman, Filner sees the ultimate satisfaction at hand.  His support of Barack Obama goes deep, as deep as that Southern town where he was arrested.

But what happens if Obama loses?  I didn’t ask that question during my sneak-away-to-an-empty room interview with Filner at the Democratic National Convention.  But KPBS Production Manager Kurt Kohnen who was holding the microphone did.  The question and the answer were the most telling part of our conversation.

Above: Click to view a slideshow of DNC Protest Art. | Pop-out the slideshow

As promised, yesterday I took some photos of some protest signage/art.

Above: 22-year-old San Diegan Delegate Dave Carlson. Interview by Joe Spurr.

This was our first live, UStreamed interview with a local delegate, and we very much had to set up the stream on the fly, running on batteries and using my computer's built-in camera. I was a little frazzled heading into it because of that, and I also hadn't yet met Dave, so I wasn't as familiar with his background as some other young delegates.

That said, I enjoyed the chat and was impressed with Dave's knowledge and on-the-spot speaking ability.  I'll let the video speak for itself, but your feedback is welcome and we can continue the conversation in the comments section below.

I've been tweeting more and more as our production processes have smoothed out, so feel free to interact with us there as well -- and in that respect please consider yourself in Denver with us!

Above: From the DNC in Denver -- KPBS correspondent Gloria Penner talks with Jess Durfee, Chair of San Diego County Democrats.

Note: We had some last-second technical difficulties and went without a tripod for this one.  All forthcoming videos will be steadier.

KPBS Web Developer and Producer Joe Spurr and I were sitting at our table on Radio Row at the DNC last night, working on our separate projects when a very dapper Dennis Kucinich walked past.

I was deeply engrossed in some writing, but Joe challenged me to interview the former contender for the Democratic nomination.  His campaign in the Democratic primary had failed, but apparently his spirit wasn't diminished. He looked triumphant, almost as though this convention would come to its senses and give him the nomination.  His very attractive wife was busily smoothing his hair and straightening his tie and collar.

I couldn't resist Joe's challenge so we grabbed an audio kit and a microphone, walked half the length of our table and there I was conducting this extremely impromptu interview.  He responded enthusiastically and gave us a clear and thoughtful discussion of his views on the economy and foreign policy.  I wonder if he'll run again.

Wow!  There goes Senator Biden -- maybe another unplanned interview is waiting.

Three weeks ago, Political Fix alerted you to the planned KPBS presence at the DNC and RNC with staffers Joe Spurr and Kurt Kohnen joining me in both Denver and the Twin Cities. 

The time has arrived.  On Sunday, we three fly to the mile-high city prepared to cover the Democrats' events from a San Diego perspective.  Six days later, it's on to the Twin Cities for the Republican activities.  We'll be using both KPBS Radio and the kpbs.org web site as our media outlets.

In just a bit more than three weeks, I'll be on a flight to Denver to cover the Democratic Convention where Senator Barack Obama is expected to be that party's nominee for president of the United States. This journalist is getting very excited. Then a week later, I'll fly from Denver to Minneapolis to report on the Republican Convention and Senator John McCain's official acknowledgment as the GOP contender for the highest office in the land. My excitement grows and here are the reasons:

Although no convention since 1952 has gone past the first ballot to agree on a nominee, I recall the excitement of the 1960 Democratic Convention at the Los Angeles Sports Arena when an opening day demonstration in favor of Adlai Stevenson was so wildly exuberant that my skirt was torn by an out-of-control Stevenson enthusiast. I was covering that convention (as a novice assistant producer) for NBC's Today Show and I still can call up memories of the event and the glamour provided by the Kennedy clan, Frank Sinatra and the rest of the rat pack. Eleanor Roosevelt had proposed a Stevenson-Kennedy ticket. But the Kennedy youth and charisma won the day. Might Obama face a challenge on that first ballot?

Another whirlwind weekend is coming up for presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama.  This time, all the excitement is right here in San Diego, with the National Council of La Raza’s 40^th anniversary conference at the San Diego Convention Center. The schedule calls for Obama to be the headliner at Sunday’s brunch and McCain to be the attraction at Monday’s luncheon.

With more than 20,000 community organization leaders, activists, politicians, business executives, educators and philanthropists expected to participate this year, the event is billed as the single largest gathering of its kind in the Latino community. Both presidential contenders acknowledge the importance the nation’s largest and fastest growing minority group.  At 46 million, Hispanics make up about 15 percent of the U.S. population and this year they will comprise about 9 percent of the eligible electorate nationwide, or about 18 million eligible voters -- an increase of 2 million from four years ago.