Recalling Obama's big night at Denver's Mile High Stadium in the summer of 2008

As I watched President Obama's speech Wednesday night, I thought back to that late-August night in 2008 when he made his acceptance speech at the DNCC in Denver's Mile High Stadium. 

I was part of a capacity crowd that celebrated Obama's first major step along the way to the presidency. I was the embedded blogger with the Wyoming delegation, We sat at the 30-yard-line on Invesco Field, a field where the Denver Broncos would host their home opener in just a few weeks. On Sept. 14, the Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers 39-38 with a two-point conversion at 29 seconds left. Quarterback Jay Cutler had what might have been his best game as a Bronco. After an 8-8 season, the Broncos fired the old coach, hired a new coach and traded Cutler to Chicago. The team was not in the playoffs on the week of Jan. 20 when Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president. In the ensuing 11 years, the Broncos would get a new quarterback, lose one Super Bowl and win another. Obama won reelection in 2012 and experienced much drama in his eight years courtesy of the Know Nothing Republicans and Fox News.

But that Aug. 28 night at Mile High was glorious. More than 75,000 packed the stadium. That may be more than attended Trump's inauguration but that number could vary on whether you're listening to Trump's fever dreams or to reality.

I have never returned to that field of play, now named after Empower Retirement which was called Sports Authority Field before that. Naming rights are tricky things. Companies come and go, fortunes rise and fall. Empower was created with a merger between Great West Life and another insurance company. Great West insured my family during my career with the State of Wyoming. Great West was OK but battled us on payments related to drug and alcohol treatment and mental health care. Its replacement, Cigna, is much more accommodating. In the U.S. version of free-market capitalism, you never know upon what field you stand. The groomed turf can be pulled out from under you at any time. There's a metaphor in there somewhere. 

That Aug. 28 night 12 years ago is forever embedded in Mile High Stadium. The team brags about the fact that it's the only NFL football stadiums in which a presidential candidate made his acceptance speech and later went to to two terms as president. 

This year, the Dems' presidential candidate made his acceptance speech in an empty convention room. The Year of Coronavirus. The Broncos will play in an empty stadium. That will be eerie. Mile High has a reputation as one of the loudest and rowdiest in the NFL. Not sure if the Broncos will follow baseball with cardboard cutout fans and, in some cases, projections of fans filmed in earlier seasons. The team has quite an imagination so why not?

During the next sixty-some days in 2008, I worked hard to get Obama elected. I walked neighborhoods and called registered voters in Wyoming, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, I worked for Dems jockeying for Wyoming House and Senate candidates. I watched a lot of football too. Obama won, of course, over the late John McCain. Obama fielded a well-oiled machine that delivered votes from some unexpected places (not Wyoming, alas). Obama repeated in 2012 over Mitt Romney. A presidential two-peat is like back-to-back Super Bowl wins. The Broncos did that under John Elway who we don't talk about much because he is such a Trump ass-kisser. Looking back, McCain and Romney were moderates. Republicans grew sick of losing with qualified moderates so turned to a billionaire and white supremacist and reality show host, Donald Trump. They were helped by decades of GOP voter suppression and gerrymandering. And voter apathy, can't forget that. 

So, the democrats held their pep rally this past week and are fired up and ready to go. The GOP Hatefest will light up the airwaves next week. We can look forward to rousing speeches by The My Pillow Guy and Scott Baio. It will finish off with a stemwinder by Donald Trump which will be filled with the cruelty and hatred he has specialized in during the past four years.

Damn. You'd think that the more qualified and more talented team -- the Democrats -- could breeze over the crooks and liars of The Trump Team. A lopsided win, like the Team Formerly Known as the R*dskins over the Broncos in Super Bowl XXII or the Seattle Seahawks over the bumbling Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII. You'd think that unless you didn't know history and the vagaries of human nature. Demagogues have subverted democracies before. If Trump wins, we can forget about our democratic republic. It will be nostalgia, just like the rousing cheers for Obama in Mile High Stadium in the summer of 2008. 

Paging Dr. Gonzo

I shouldn't be reading Hunter Thompson this week.

I should be reading something hopeful. Last week, during the Republican National Convention, I read "The Soul of an Octopus" by Sy Montgomery. During a four-day stretch in Cleveland that cast doubt on the future of the human race, I felt lifted up by Montgomery's book. Not so much for humanity but for the Octopoda. Humans may not be smart enough to grok octopus intelligence. Octopus may be sending secret signals to each other, laughing at the coming destruction of the human species and rejoicing about the advent of WaterWorld, when octopus will rule and they will ponder humans on display in undersea terrariums. "I wonder what that human will do if we poke it with a stick?" And the human recoils in pain. "Ouch," says one of my descendants, living his life in a plastic bubble, ogled all day by members of the master race.

See what I mean? Off I go in a dark Thompson-like tangent. Can't seem to stay on task. Unlike Dr. Gonzo, I'm as sober as an American can be. My drug of choice is craft beer, made by Millennials in breweries that look like old Nazi ball-bearing factories. They gradually ratchet up the ABV in brews such as Wyoming's own Melvin 2x4 DIPA (9.9%) to render Baby Boomers docile as lambs and to take over the world or at least parts of the Rocky Mountain West.

If you add to my regimen a slew of heart medications and a few for depression and an ICD that beams my every move to Master Control, you can see that I am a fully compromised human being. A liberal automaton. A Hillbot.

Only writing allows me to occasionally come out of my crustacean-like shell.

Hunter Thompson caused me to look at the world differently. I cannot explain it.

I can duplicate Gonzo but it's not the same as Thompson's. He had a brand. I bet he would hate me saying that. Having a brand these days is all the rage. Hunter's was capital G Gonzo. His brand was so strong that he could become a character in the comics and everybody knew who it was. You can try to duplicate one of the author's famous rants but it wouldn't be the same.

But I do want to point out that Thompson had a gift. I can't explain it. You have to read it. And it was best to read it "as it happened" on the pages of Rolling Stone. You had to be there, as the saying goes. Thompson could put you on the scene. Hell's Angels. Vegas. Caribbean shark hunt, Kentucky Derby, Aspen politics. The spectacle -- marked by wretched excess at every turn -- of American life. As the sixties unfolded, so did a new writing style. He was in the middle of it.

You can detect some of Thompson's dark humor in the writing of Matt Taibbi in RS. Bloggers get into the act but snarky isn't gonzo.

On that note, check out some of my columns from the 2008 DNC by going here and here and even here. It was a grand experiment, embedding bloggers with their DNC delegations in Denver. Not certain how many of my fellow bloggers are still at it. I am haphazard at best, spending as much blogging time with personal issues as I do on politics. I covered politics consistently in '08, including time at the DNC, and won a scholarship to Netroots Nation in Minneapolis in 2011. I was a sporadic contributor to Daily Kos. At the same time, I had a full-time writing/editing job and another passion writing short fiction. And a family. To do it correctly, you need to devote time and energy to the pursuit. Might have been my heart attack of 2012/2013, a jolt to the widowmaker so severe that it spanned two calendar years. Changed my brain-paths and priorities.

And I'm still here.

Flashbacks: Denver 2008 and Fear & Loathing 1972

It's not Flashback Friday or Throwback Thursday, but we are venturing back eight years to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. What was happening eight years ago? Well, the convention hadn't started yet as it was late in August, bumping up against football season, which is feverish in the Mile High City during any year but high expectations should be keen this year for the Super Bowl champs as they decide who will fill Manning's XXXL shoes and ego.

To read about first-day happenings at Denver DNC, go here. Other posts are in the archives for August 2008.

Strange as it seems, Hillary Clinton figured prominently in Denver. She relinquished the stage to Barack Obama in '08 but has no intention of giving up the prime spot in Philly. Tim Kaine as Veep? Not my first choice. Elizabeth Warren would have been a dazzling pick. Even craft brewer and Colorado governor John Hickenlooper held more appeal, although he did oppose marijuana legalization. If he had prevailed on this issue, Denver's hipster invasion may have been avoided. I liked the idea of Newark's Cory Booker on the ticket, or Julian or Joaquin Castro of San Antonio. It may be too soon to have Clinton/Castro on lawn signs in Miami or even in Cheyenne. Wait a few decades, when a dead-and-buried Fidel is as ubiquitous on T-shirts as Che, and Havana is a hotspot for Sandalistas in search of quaint bistros, brewpubs and boutique hotels.

Speaking of flashbacks... I'm reading "Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writings of Hunter S. Thompson." I was searching the library for "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72," but found this newer volume instead. I skipped through Thompson's report of running for Aspen sheriff on the Freak Power ticket and his run-in with the Hell's Angels. This may be hard to believe, children of the West, but in the early 1970s, the Roaring Fork Valley was much more like present-day Wyoming than the Colorado of today. Longhairs were not welcome in Aspen or Denver ("get out of Denver, baby, go!) or even Boulder. Hitchhikers were more likely to get a finger-o-gram than a ride. The stoned, half-naked hippies of the Rainbow Tribe were not welcomed to Colorado in the summer of '72. And wild-man Hunter Thompson was not elected sheriff of Aspen in 1970 with his promise of free drugs for all.

Here's Thompson's description of Aspen in 1969, when registered GOPers outnumbered Dems 2-1 -- and both were outnumbered by independents:

"They are a jangled mix of Left/Crazies and Birchers: cheap bigots, dope dealers, Nazi ski instructors, and spaced-out "psychedelic farmers" with no politics at all beyond self-preservation."=

DNC 1968 host Mayor Richard Daley unleashed the city's cops on hippies and Yippies on the streets of Chicago. In 1972 in Miami, activists remembered and were having nothing of Hubert Humphrey. Youngsters and disillusioned older Dems selected South Dakota anti-war war hero George McGovern as their standard-bearer against Nixon. It was a "doomed campaign" from the start, says Thompson. He preferred McGovern over "party hacks" Humphrey and Muskie and "Scoop" Jackson. But he knew that McGovern didn't have a chance against Tricky Dick's tactics. That included the now-infamous Southern Strategy which transformed the Dems of the South into fire-breathing Republicans who were deathly afraid (and resentful) of hippies, women's libbers, school integration, the threat of Ho's legions invading Memphis and Atlanta, and modern life in general. Sound familiar? Trump's people are stoking similar sentiments, especially angst about present and future America.

Here's a strange little quote from Thompson about his experiences in Aspen's 1969 mayoral race and his own race for sheriff in '70. See if it has any bearing on Trump's run this year:

"This is what some people call 'the Aspen technique' in politics: neither opting out of the system, nor working within it... but calling its bluff, by using its strength to turn it back on itself... and by always assuming that the people in power are not smart."

I have noticed everyone from former hippies to right-wing doomsdayers coming out for Trump. They all want to say "fuck you" to the establishment, as Michael Moore pointed out so well in his recent "Five Reasons Why Trump Will Win" article. Maybe Trump has resurrected the Aspen technique for the 21st century? Freak Power, Trump style. Unknown Colorado state rep (later Gov) Dick Lamm used a similar tactic when he urged Coloradans to say "fuck you" to the International Olympic Committee. And they did. The IOC told themselves that nobody ever votes against the Olympics. Lamm and his minions assumed that the IOC didn't know what the hell is what doing -- and they were correct. Behold the Brazil and Russia olympiads.

It is also possible that the people in power in the Democratic Party are not as smart as they think they are. Hunter Thompson and the ancient philosophers knew that hubris can be an Achilles' Heel. Cliches, too -- they knew all about those.

Flashback: Blogging the 2008 DNC

Eight years after...

In August 2008, I spent a week as an embedded blogger at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.  We we all so much older then, I'm younger than that now. I am retired, treating life like a kid who's just discovered summer vacation.

I was one of 55 progressive bloggers embedded with state and territorial delegations. We all received press credentials and a seat with our delegation at the Pepsi Center. Expenses were tight, as my wife worked for a non-profit and I worked for the State of Wyoming. Our daughter was still in high school, so we had the usual teen expenses: cellphone, computer, Internet access, food, fashion, car repairs, bail money. etc. I stayed in my Republican uncle's basement and avoided downtown parking by taking the light rail. We bloggers were selected and sponsored by Howard Dean's Democracy for America organization. I was one of Wyoming's few prog-bloggers at the time, so I was chosen to represent The Equality State at the DNC. I could blog from the bloggers' aerie located above the floor. I could circulate anywhere that Bill O'Reilly could, if I really wanted to.

I blogged with a 2006 laptop and a digital camera. I had a flip phone that took so-so photos. I had ethernet access on the floor but the Pepsi Center had no wireless access due to "security concerns." Not sure what that meant. We now live in an era when smartphones are much smarter than their operators and wireless is available at your neighborhood McDonald's (as is "breakfast all day!").

If I didn't blog from the floor of the convention or the pressroom, I had to find a public computer at the local library or a joint that offered free wireless. Starbuck's was not one of those, BTW. It's hard to believe that we survived such trying times.

So I convened and blogged Aug. 24-28. Leading up to the convention, I did my best to profile all of the state's 18 delegates. Some I interviewed and wrote about at the convention. I wandered downtown on Sunday to cover competing demonstrations. Ron Kovic and Cindy Sheehan spoke on the Capitol steps for the antiwar crowd and the pro-war folks stood across the street from Civic Center Park, glowering at the old hippies and young hipsters. Massed squads of police were there to ensure that tensions did not progress past the glowering stage.

I kick myself for missing the big ani-war march later in the week. Rage Against the Machine performed at the Stockyards Arena and then led a march to the Pepsi Center. According to news reports, tensions flared briefly when the police notified Tom Morello and company that they didn't have a parade permit. Police must have sensed something in the air (not pot -- this was pre-legalization). They decided to escort the peaceniks downtown. Peace and love prevailed. No alleged RATM-inspired riot ensued, as happened in Los Angeles eight years earlier. You can see video of the ruckus on YouTube. It may have fed off some of the anarchist-caused violence during the Battle in Seattle the previous winter. Rage on Stage did not lead to tear gas a rubber bullets in Denver. Interesting to note that the new RATM -- Prophets of Rage -- performed in Cleveland at the RNC. And they headline the Rock Against the TPP concert tonight at Denver's Summit Music Hall. While peace reigned in Cleveland, will it be the same in Philly for the DNC? You might find out more by reading your favorite prog-blogger than the MSM.

I will revisit some of my posts from 2008 in the coming week. Look up August 2008 in the Hummingbirdminds archives (scroll down the right sidebar). It's been instructive to see where I was, both in thoughts and deeds, eight years ago. I've always liked this Flannery O'Connor quote: “I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say.”

Flashback: Will 2016 Wyoming Democratic Party caucus crowds be as large as they were in 2008?

I have a decade-long history on Blogger. This can be a bad thing, as I can still see some of my more embarrassing writing and photographic moments. It's also a good thing, as I can trace my political happenings going all the way back to 2006.

The Wyoming Democratic Party held its 2008 caucus on March 8. Sen. Obama and Sen. and former Pres. Clinton both visited the state in the days before the caucus. People were excited. People were motivated. More than 1,500 Laramie County Democrats came out to caucus at the Civic Center in Cheyenne. That's approximately 1,300 more than came out to caucus in 2004. It was a banner year for Democrats, and it got attention outside the state. I'm a party member and I was on-hand to cast my vote, lobby for a spot at the state convention and volunteer to assist the madding crowds. Youi can read my report on the day at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2008/03/historic-day-for-wyoming-democrats.html.

Turnout for the 2012 caucuses was anemic. This year, Dems again expect big crowds, one of the reasons that the caucus venue has been changed from downtown's Historic Plains Hotel to the gym at Central High School. Local Bernie Sanders supporters have been very active for about six months thanks to efforts by my neighbor Ed Waddell and his fellow Berniecrats. I expect many Sanders supporters will turn up to vote. Hillary Clinton supporters are equally active, canvassing and calling and talking up the former Secretary of State and First Lady.

Here are the details for the upcoming April 9 caucus:

The caucus and presidential preference vote will be held at the Cheyenne Central High School Field House Gymnasium, 5500 Education Drive on April 9, 11 a.m. Immediately following the morning’s caucus, convention activities will resume at the Plains Hotel, 1600 Central Avenue. We will be discussing the changes and volunteer opportunities for the convention. Check out the Laramie County Democratic Party’s frequently asked caucus questions at http://www.wyodems.org/frequently-asked-questions  

Get more info by attending the LCD’s monthly meeting on Monday, March 21, 6:30 p.m., at the IBEW Hall, 810 Fremont Ave., Cheyenne.

If 2008 provides any lessons for 2016, I urge you to arrive early. In 2008, I arrived at 7:30 a.m. and 100 voters already were in line. Some 1,400 folks lined up behind me, with the line snaking around the Civic Center. Great to see so many Wyoming Democrats all in one place. Let's do it again!

The Great 2016 American Political Spectacle is running at full throttle

Some of you may be wondering what hummingbirdminds thinks of the current election cycle.

OK, maybe you don't, but hummingbirdminds is going to tell you anyway.

I'm here in Wyoming watching the primary season and wondering how Hillary Clinton won all five states on the most recent Super Tuesday. Bernie Sanders came close in Missouri but, still, Clinton edged him out. Clinton claimed a wipe-out in Florida. Trump too. I ask my family and friends in Florida: Wazzup with that?

On Tuesday in Florida, GOP voter turnout was up but Democratic Party turnout was down. Sanders knew he would have to get lots of voters out to even get close to Clinton. In Missouri, voter turnout out paced 2008 turnout 39 to 36 percent. Less than 1,600 votes separated Sanders and Clinton. If several thousand of those college-age Sanders' supporters ("Feel the Bern!") had voted, well, the results would be different.

Whom do I support? My politics are more aligned with Democratic Socialist Sanders than with Democratic Moderate Clinton. But in November I just want to win, baby. Trump is dangerous, Cruz is creepy, and Kasich is a moderate but he keeps saying crazy stuff to get attention amongst all the Trump hoopla. What about the new effort to draft Paul Ryan should the Repub convention deadlock in Cleveland? Sounds far-fetched to me. Trump contends that there will be riots in Cleveland if that happens. Local police are stockpiling riot gear just in case. Interesting that the Repubs are going to the hometown of Democrat Dennis Kucinich, the anti-war liberal I supported in 2004 and 2008. He's the reason I got involved in local Democratic Party politics in 2004. The Iraq War was the issue then. And the Bush/Cheney axis of evil. Wonder what Mr. Kucinich thinks of all of this? I went to my first state party convention in 2004. Kucinich called in to our gathering although John Kerry was already the candidate-in-waiting. I didn't realize then that most of the decisions happen well before the ballots are cast. I think that we came out of that convention with one delegate pledged to Kucinich when the national convention got underway in Boston. I have some empathy for those Sanders supporters who haven't been involved in party politics. They have to be prepped for the April 9 caucus and for the state convention on May 28. Do your homework, Berniecrats! I stand ready to answer your questions.

So I'm an old hand. I've been to local caucuses and state and national conventions. I'm not jaded -- I still go to meetings and raise funds for Democratic candidates. I always vote, as do all the codgers in my district. But I no longer wonder why people are disappointed in the two political parties. If I had a chance to join and vote for the Democratic Socialists, I would do so. My neighbor Tea Party Slim would gather with the Tea Party Party or the Libertarians or the Guns for Everyone Party. My wife might be part of the Feminist Party. I could see my daughter Annie in the Green Party. My son? He's a candidate for the Transcendentalists or possibly the Gamer Party.

But now, two sizes fit all, which is ridiculous. Our choices are limited now by choices made when most of us were not paying attention. Will people start paying attention now that we're in the Age of Trump?

I have no answers. But, to us writers and bloggers, the Great 2016 American Political Spectacle is amazing.

Remembering candidate Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Denver four years ago

It was too bad that many thousands of Democratic Party volunteers and supporters didn't get to hear President Obama's acceptance speech Thursday night at the Charlotte Panthers football stadium. Threats of thunderstorms forced the speech indoors. I was able to see and hear candidate Obama's first acceptance speech in 2008 at Denver's Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium on a warm August night. Wyoming Dem delegate Lori Millin took this photo that night. It makes me look like the party standard bearer when in reality I was merely an embedded blogger. Still, it was a heady night for this lifelong Dem who had never been to a convention and may never get there again. Read a nifty article by Patty Calhoun about the lingering effects that the convention had on Denver and its image in last week's Westword. Especially illuminating in the interview with then-Mayor John Hickenlooper and now Colorado Governor Hickenlooper who delivered a memorable speech in Charlotte. He remembers being very nervous about security and traffic and all of the thousand-and-one details that make up a national gathering of this magnitude. He was nervous right up to the closing-night party at his Wynkoop Brewpub in Lodo. Especially illuminating are the details of his decision to let a Rage Against the Machine-led peace march go from the Denver Coliseum to the convention at the Pepsi Center. Instead of having the police stop the march, he ordered the DPD to escort the marchers through town, a decision that probably meant the difference between a peaceful protest to one of mass arrests and violence. That Hick is one smart cookie. He's going places...

Four years after: March 2008 caucuses bring out endangered toads and grizzled old coots

In my attempt to return to the heady month of March 2008, in which hope was in the air and the Wyoming Democratic Party caucuses were mobbed, I'm reprinting some blog posts. Here's one from four years ago today:

Julianne Couch is a writer in Laramie. Her column about the caucuses appeared in this morning's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. The Obama-Clinton surge meant a lot to Wyoming "Non-Republicans," whom Julianne likened to "a rare species to toad -- a curiousity that is easily squashed by the heel of a heavy boot when it gets in the way of progress." 

She was happy that the caucuses "took the Wyoming Democrats off the endangered species list, at least temporarily."

Julianne now lives and works in Ames, Iowa. Her move contributed to the thinning of the WY Dem ranks. And the "endangered species" remark seems especially poignant four years later.

The WY Dem caucuses also received national attention from "The Daily Show."

Monday night on "The Daily Show," Jon Stewart had a great time picking on Wyoming. He noted that there were 59,000 registered Dems in the state. "I have more Democrats in my building," he quipped. If he's in New York, I'm sure he does. Later, Samantha Bee broke down the caucus numbers for us. Supporting Obama were the rugged outdoorsmen, grizzled old coots, ornery drifters and mustache guys. Hillary won over the hearty prospectors and cowardly saloon owners. Jon Stewart asked about gay cowboys, and Samantha Bee said that hadn't been in issue for about a year (remember the hubbub over "Brokeback Mountain?") and that those numbers were no longer tabulated.

And I thought that all of those grizzled old coots supported another grizzled old coot -- John McCain?

Four years after: In the afterglow of the 2008 Wyoming caucuses, all things seemed possible

On this day four years ago, I mused about the possibilities that presented themselves to Wyoming Democrats. We were all aglow following record turnouts at county caucuses. None of us expected the eventual presidential candidate to win Wyoming, but we were hopeful that Jackson’s Gary Trauner could clinch the state’s lone U.S. House seat. He had come within 1,000 votes of unseating wildly unpopular Republican Barbara Cubin in 2006. As it turned out, John McCain enjoyed his second-largest vote margin in Wyoming, coming in right behind Oklahoma and just ahead of Idaho and Utah. Trauner was trounced by newcomer Cynthia Lummis, who continues to be a party-line Republican. 

On March 9, 2008, we were slightly optimistic that red Wyoming would morph into a shade of purple.

The message is clear. It takes a well-organized and well-funded campaign to win an election. Democrats in Wyoming have been down so long it looks like up to us. Many had just given up. It took a lot of effort to get them out of their lethargy – but they did come out. Almost 8,700 votes were cast statewide. In the 2004 county conventions, less that 700 votes were cast. The 2008 numbers are 12 times those of 2004. Some of those reflect people who switched parties, a Republican or Independent registering as a Dem and who will probably switch back before November. But most of those voters were either new registrants or newly-motivated Dems or people so fed up with the Republican Party that they switched and won’t go back. I know several of those in Cheyenne.

Read the rest of my March 9, 2008, post at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2008/03/dems-been-down-so-long-it-looks-like-up.html

Four years after: Dems emerge from hiding for historic 2008 caucus in Cheyenne

Big crowd of Laramie County Democrats cheer their faves during the 2008 caucus in Cheyenne.

Four years ago today, lines were around the block at the Cheyenne Civic Center for the 2008 Democratic Party caucuses in Laramie County. There were Dems in line I've never seen, and I thought I'd seen them all. The party had to rent the concert hall to accommodate caucus-goers who, four years earlier, had plenty of elbow room in the drafty basement of the American Legion hall.

Even a Denver-based Fox News reporter and cameraman were there to record the event for the nation. When their presence was announced, a chorus of boos rang out in the hall.

Those were the days, my friends.

Read my posts from that day here and here.

Four years after: Barack Obama's 2008 Laramie rally was one for the record books

From my blog post four years ago tonight:

Some 10,000 people packed into the Arena-Auditorium tonight at the University of Wyoming in Laramie to greet Sen. Barack Obama. The crowd was jazzed to be at what might be the largest political rally ever held in the state. College and high school students were huddled near the stage. Their elders were huddled in their fold-out seats, most recently used by Pokes' b-ball fans.

To read the entire post, go to http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2008/03/barack-obama-stages-huge-laramie-rally.html

Four years after: Wyoming Democrats get cranked up for candidate rallies and a statewide caucus

Return with us to those halcyon days of yore (March 2008) as Wyoming Democrats prepare for their largest-ever caucuses on March 8.

On this day four years ago, I wrote about the upcoming Wyoming appearances of Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Former President Bill Clinton held a rally for his wife Hillary on March 6 in Riverton that was attended by an SRO crowd of 2,000. Big crowds were expected for a March 7 Clinton rally in Cheyenne and a March 7 rally by Barack Obama in Laramie.

My wife Chris attended the Cheyenne event and I joined thousands of my closest friends at a packed UW Arena-Auditorium Friday evening in Laramie.

Read more at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2008/03/stand-for-change-in-laramie-friday.html

Four years after: Word comes about Barack Obama speeches in Casper and Laramie

2008 button for Barack Obama's visit to Laramie

On this day in Wyoming four years ago...

Barack Obama's campaign announced that he would speak in Casper and Laramie on Friday, March 7. The basketball arena was reserved for the Friday evening speech at UW in Laramie. It ended up being a good choice -- the place was SRO that Friday. Read more at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2012/03/jim-coppoc-leads-poetry-workshop-at.html

Meanwhile, Democratic Party leaders were grousing about the continuing battles in the primaries and caucuses. I warned them to back off and let the process play out in those areas of the country (Wyoming, for instance) that the DNC doesn't seem to care about. Read it at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2008/03/back-off-man-im-political-scientist.html

Four years after: WY finds out that former President Bill Clinton will stump for Hillary in Wyoming

Wyoming was all atwitter four years ago this week when news came via MSNBC that former President Bill Clinton was coming to Wyoming to stump for Hillary Clinton in Riverton, Rock Springs and Laramie. Read all about it at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2008/03/bill-clinton-coming-to-wyoming.html

Four years after: Getting out the vote in Wyoming for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton

Four years ago, Obama supporters in Wyoming were brimming with hope. We also were making scads of phone calls to Democratic voters, urging them to get out to the March 8 county caucuses.

In my March 3, 2008, blog post, I regaled my readers with tales of our split household. My wife Chris, whose feminist roots go back to the Equal Rights Amendment and Patricia Schroeder's Colorado campaigns, was a Hillary Clinton supporter. I had migrated from Dennis Kucinich to John Edwards (remember him?) to Barack Obama. Obama operatives had parachuted into enemy territory on a dark January 2008 night. We now worked with them on an aggressive ground game.

Chris and I fought very little over the use of our home phone. We reached an agreement that divided time and space and responsibility, much like the agreement between Barack and Hillary that gave the former the White House and the latter the rest of the world.

Step back in time with me at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2008/03/phoning-cheyenne-for-barack-and-hillary.html

Four years after: Tracking Barack Obama's path through Wyoming in March 2008

Four years ago today, my fellow Dems and I were canvassing the county for Barack Obama, a relatively unknown politician from Chicago.

I'm reminded of this today as I watched Pres. Obama's speech today in NYC in front of some of his supporters. He sounded confident. He looked presidential. And not only in comparison to the clowns running on the Republican side.

In March 2012, I'm going to look back at what was happening in Wyoming four years ago. On March 1, me and my fellow canvassers were looking ahead to to the March 8 Dem caucuses which ended up having record turnouts. We also attended rallies by Hillary Clinton in Cheyenne and an SRO speech by Barack Obama at UW in Laramie on March 7.

So travel with me back to the days when an Obama candidacy was in its infancy. Go to http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2008/03/iowa-gov-rounds-up-wyo-support-for.html

I'm just a border guy in Wyoming

I live in Cheyenne, Wyoming, area code 82009. My house is located less than ten miles from the Colorado border. It might as well be a million miles.

In 2008, Wyoming voters went for John McCain over Barack Obama by a 65-33 percent margin. This was the lowest percentage of “blue” voters in any state, outdoing even neighboring Utah and Idaho (34 percent). In 2010, Republican Matt Mead was elected governor by a 3-to-1 margin. All five elected offices were swept by Republicans and the GOP-dominated Legislature upped its “R” margin to 76 out of 90 seats.

In Colorado in 2008, voters voted for Obama 53.5% to 45 percent for McCain. Five of Colorado's seven U.S. House seats went to Dems as did the open U.S. Senate seat. In the 2010 Tea Party tide, four of the seven House seats went to Repubs, including the seat in Larimer County that Betsy Markey won in 2008. Another Democratic Governor was elected in 2010.

Despite the set-backs in 2010, one never knows what will happen in Colorado, especially in the northern counties of Larimer and Weld. The state overall trends blue but really is closer to purple.

Wyoming, on the other hand, is reliably red.

So, in 2012, us Red-State Dems will be crossing the border to convince Coloradans to vote for Pres. Obama.

It irritates me. I want Wyoming to be more liberal in its outlook but that will never happen. It may happen, but I won't be around to see it. I'll be retired in Colorado. Or just retired, period.

Last night at the Laramie County Democrats meeting, we heard from the new director of Obama for America/Wyoming, Bob Vernon-Kubichek. Bob is a Casper native and UW grad. He worked on Democrat Gary Trauner's 2006 campaign which came within 1,012 votes of unseating wacko Repub Barbara Cubin in the U.S. House race.

"That still stings," said Bob.

That definitely still stings. I worked on that campaign. Trauner walked the state while Cubin didn't. Gary Trauner was ahead on early returns but then came the rural votes in northern Wyoming, always reliably ultra-conservative.

Sting, stang, stung.

Bob will be bringing some high-tech weaponry to our battle against the Republicans. OFA/WY will have new and improved databases, mailing lists, strategies, phone-banking, training techniques.

In the end, though, here's his mission:

"We're here to build volunteer structures to help northern Colorado," he said. "We're not going to win Wyoming."

Ouch!

I'll be down there in Colorado, working for Obama for America/Wyoming in northern Colorado. It will make a big difference. We need Colorado to put Obama over the top and keep us from the clutches of the eventual Republican candidate (probably Romney).

We will win. Obama will be re-elected.

And Wyoming stays red.

What happened to our agent of change, our Obama?

2008 seems so long ago...

The first post on this blog to carry the label "Obama" was on Feb. 6, 2008, "March 8 Dem Caucus Could Carry Clout." Read it at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2008/02/march-8-democratic-caucus-could-carry.html.

I was late to the Obama cause. In 2004, I was a Kucinich delegate to the Wyoming State Convention. We lost. In 2008, I still was rooting for antiwar champ Kucinich, but switched over to John Edwards and, as Mike-come-lately, joined the Obama ranks as he started picking up steam in the early primaries.

My wife Chris was none too pleased with this. She was a Hilary Clinton fan from the beginning and she never wavered. We had some words over this. She made her calls for Hilary in one room and I made my calls from Barack Obama in another. She went out to the local community college to hear Hilary speak and I traveled over the mountain to see Obama raise the roof at the UW basketball arena. I was an Obama delegate at the Wyoming State Convention in Jackson and she was a Clinton alternate. Obama carried the day. I blogged from the convention and you can read about it here and here. I was an embedded blogger at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. You can read about it here and here.

I can be naive in my beliefs. All of us can. I have been disappointed in times with Pres. Obama but he is the clear-cut rational choice when compared with the kooks on the other side.

But if he abandons Democratic Party principles now, that's it for me. I will not be in his corner in the 2012 elections if he caves to the Republicans on The Big Three: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. This is the so-called Social Safety Net that we all count on, Dems and Repubs and Indies and Greens and Tea Party and even the unaffiliated and noncommittal. This will spell the end of an America that makes sense.

Life will go on. I will continue my snarky posts and my ongoing feud with Tea Party Slim. But it won't be the same. The fire will have gone out. I will putter in the garden and write the occasional letter to the editor wondering what happened to our champ, our agent of change, our Obama.

Plea to DNC: Don't forget Wyoming as you plan for the 2012 50-state strategy

Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz at a 2009  town hall meeting in Florida 

Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.), new chair of the DNC, spoke at the noon keynote. She wanted to let us know that Howard Dean's 50-state strategy will return for the 2012 election. In fact, she will meet with Howard Dean next week to talk about that very thing. She also said this:

The Netroots brought the nation together for Pres. Obama in 2008. Our top priority for next year -- ramping up the participation of the Netroots. We can't do it without you.

It's great to be valued. The DNC dropped a field team into Wyoming prior to the 2008 Democratic caucuses. Every county reported record turnouts. Thousands of new voters registered in Laramie County. They voted that year but then quickly disappeared in 2010. Big question: how do we get back those voters and keep them engaged?

I'm here looking for some answers....

You can't stomp on 75,000 fired-up Democrats

Slightly-doctored photo of me at the 2008 Democratic National Convention wrap-up at Mile High Stadium/Invesco Field in Denver. We were unstompable on this night. And so we shall remain. Go to http://www.moveon.org/ to add your "Don't Stomp on Me (Us)" photo to the mix. And while you're at it -- VOTE!