Above: Click play to watch the interview

Former California Secretary of State Bill Jones had been out of public life for three years, but returned this year as the leader of California's delegation to the RNC because Senator John McCain asked him to take on this role.  He sees the tragic circumstances of Hurricane Gustav and the truncated first convention day as a sign of McCain's commitment to service above self.  But he acknowledges that the convention parties will still go on with some fund-raising efforts for hurricane victims added to the festivities.

Jones talks about the choice of Sarah Palin, the party affiliation of California voters, McCain's chances to take California, the candidate's position on illegal immigration, and President Bush's absence from the convention.  Bill Jones's recent hiatus from politics clearly has not tarnished his Republican credentials.

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!

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.