Above: Click play to watch the interview

As the Republican National Convention winds down, delegates and guests are taking in the last of the parties and arranging for transportation to the airport.  The estimated 15,000 journalists and media technicians are packing up their gear, preparing for the trip home.

Some can drive back to their stations in or near Minnesota.  Others fly as far as to coastal cities like San Diego and New York. Still others journey home to Pakistan or Kenya or Ireland.  Yes, there were large numbers of foreign print, web, and broadcast professionals at both conventions, including one team that shared our radio row spaces in Denver and St. Paul.  Generous and cooperative they were and I can't imagine better neighbors in tight quarters than the group from RTE (Radio Television Ireland).

So before we said goodbye, I couldn't resist doing my final interview with Fiona Hearst, the web writer for RTE, to find out why all this interest in U.S. presidential possibilities.

I think you'll find her responses candid, fascinating, and a charming window on the world outside of our borders.  Think "blood links" between candidates and the Irish, who has them and who doesn't, and why this is important to the Irish.  And when it comes to which issues interest an Irish audience, Fiona Hearst lists immigration, the economy, and, of course, the situation in the Middle East.  This definitely echoes some concerns right here at home.

Above: Click to watch the interview

I caught up this week with San Diegan GOP delegate Patrick Ord, a long-time Mitt Romney supporter.  Ord has been behind John McCain since the senator's presidential momentum crescendoed, but he fundraised for Romney and still had his fingers crossed he'd be chosen as VP on the ticket. This of course before Sarah Palin was unveiled as the choice and confirmed last Friday, the day after Barack Obama's DNC speech.

One unique aspect of Ord's story is his intimate connection to a such a visible political figure: he was college roommates at BYU for three years in the mid 1990s with Mitt Romney's son, Matt, with whom he still regularly corresponds.

As a friend of the family, Ord has personal experience with a politician who ordinary citizens can only judge based on articles, videos, basic resume and legislative history.  This and Ord's shared Mormon faith with the Romney family contributed to somewhat of an upside-down path to political support: endorsement of character before policy.

We had a interesting chat about political messaging (what themes resonate), executive skills as they relate to governance, his thoughts on Palin, and faith's role in politics.

Above: Click to view the full, 20-minute interview with Pete Wilson

Republicans made it easy for me to get to the floor of their national convention.  All I had to do was turn in my media pass to a special desk and there it was – complete access to the floor.  So different from the Democrats where I never was admitted to the space where delegates congregated.

After a fairly long search of delegate neighborhoods, I found the California group rather far back from the stage, certainly not in prime territory.  I wonder why.  Could it be because California has a blue state history, despite its Republican governor?  At any rate, I was delighted to mingle with folks from my state and found familiar faces from past interviews and earlier life experiences. 

In the crowd was former San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson, who catapulted his sleepy 1970’s city into a modern metropolis.  This accomplishment combined with his reputation as a moderate Republican set the stage for his successful bid for the U.S. Senate and then the California governor’s seat.  His terms as the state’s top official were politically turbulent, with much of the turmoil centered on his support of Proposition 209, which ended racial quotas and preferences.  He also was involved in the deregulation the state's energy market, and angered California’s Hispanic population by backing taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal immigrants.

However, my early memories of Pete include sharing social moments with our former spouses on Mission Beach, at the nascence of his political career and the threshold of my journalistic journey in San Diego. I remember him as a young man grounded in ideals and humor.  The years make changes in all of us.  But often, there are hints of the past in what we have become.

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.

This post is one in an ongoing series of audio postcards intended to document the characters we might consider minor in the larger picture of these conventions, but who I still find extremely interesting.

We were coming back from rushing around to get an interview with Bob Filner when we bumped into a t-shirt salesman and I thought I'd ask how his week was going.  We weren't able to stick around very long, but he seemed to be having a good time just hanging out talking to people and selling shirts.  Click play above to hear the quick chat.

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: 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!

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.

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.

It's been so long since I registered to vote that I don't remember what documentation I had to provide. But I do know that when I show up at the neighborhood garage, the poll workers just check out my name and address - and I'm cleared to exercise my privilege as a citizen of this democracy where the will of the people counts.

However, after Monday's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the nation's strictest voting identification law (to discourage voter fraud), that privilege may not be as easily accessible for some citizens. The disputed 2005 Indiana statute that the court reviewed requires that citizens must show federal or state-issued photo ID at polling places. The Democratic Party of Indiana objected, claiming that the legislators who passed the law were blocking elderly, disabled, poor, and minority voters (most of whom vote Democratic) from their rights as citizens, and this is unconstitutional.  But six of the nine justices didn't agree and their decision is expected to have national repercussions as more states adopt similar legislation, possibly before the 2008 general election.

Interestingly, last time the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on a state election matter was in 2000 (Bush v. Gore) when it overturned the Florida Supreme Court's decision to count thousands of under-votes (ballots not counted by machines). Three (Kennedy, Scalia and Thomas) of the five justices who voted for that overturn, which delivered Florida's electoral votes (and the election) to George W. Bush, are still serving and this time voted to uphold Indiana's photo ID law.