Ralph Nader is back in the news, but probably not quite in the way he hoped. He hasn’t convinced millions of voters to support his independent campaign for president. His rhetoric against “McBama” hasn’t won him frequent press coverage. But attempting to break a Guinness record for the most speeches in a day will earn you an article or two, just like any other schmo.

Nader traveled across Massachusetts on Saturday, speaking in 21 different locations for more than 10 minutes to more than 10 people. He stopped in cafes and colleges and, of course, a Dunkin’ Donuts. His message? ”Barack Obama has raised more corporate money than any candidate ever before in the history of the Democratic Party,” Nader said. “He has told these business interests he’s their man.”

Obama may be raising more corporate money, but he’s also drawing larger crowds. The day after Nader’s traipse across the Bay State, more than 100,000 people assembled to hear Obama speak in Denver.

Nader believes we need a strong three-party system to have true representation of the electorate. But neither John McCain nor Barack Obama was the conventional-wisdom choice for his party. Obama defeated the Clinton machine during the primaries, and McCain’s campaign was left for dead in the summer of 2007. Voters had plenty of choices during the primaries, and Mitt Romney learned you can’t buy a nomination, no matter how much of your personal fortune you spend.

Yes, we all know our political system is flawed. But sometimes you’ve got to go along with the rules to make your point. Ron Paul, the libertarian congressman from Texas, ostensibly could have run as an independent and not competed in the primaries, but far fewer people would have heard his message. Paul participated in the primary debates and grew legions of fervent fans, despite opposing the two-party system. After bowing out of the Republican race, he had much more influence among independent-party circles.

Ralph Nader has always fought against the system. He got 2,882,955 votes in the 2000 election and, many argue, stuck the country with George W. Bush. In 2004 Nader’s fortunes had changed. He wasn’t even on the ballot in Ohio, the key swing state that year. He only received 463,653 total votes. Will he break 100,000 this year?

Nader is making campaign stops across the country in the final days of the campaign, with many visits at college campuses. Too bad the students will be waiting for Obama instead.

They say first impressions are everything, but my first impression of Barack Obama’s speech last night wasn’t much. I was slightly dismayed at how let down I was by “the once-in-a-generation experience.” Covering the convention should have given me the ultimate insight into Obamamania. For most of the time, I was convinced that, aside from a few moments (the Roll Call vote, Bill’s speech, and hearing Obama utter the words “I accept your nomination for president”), it would all be a waste.

But at an afterparty last night, something pulled my head out of the journalistic, observational fog. I had spent the week trapped in a political convention bubble, enveloped by a non-stop barrage of punditry. At the “Yes We Can” Celebration party thrown by Perennial, the same management company behind the epic Wyclef Jean event earlier in the week, I watched a set by the Black Eyed Peas, who managed to penetrate my persistent cynicism with their raw energy and gusto.

Toward the end of the evening, I had gotten separated from the rest of the group, and decided to walk outside to see if there were any interesting conversations to be had. I struck up one with two African-American men, who didn’t know each other, but both of whom, by coincidence, were from Los Angeles. As we chatted, a Kenyan man wearing a dapper suit approached looking for a light and joined in on our chat. He had flown all the way from Kenya just to see Obama’s acceptance speech. His tribe in Kenya neighbors that of Obama’s father.

“I am here, because this is our presidency,” he said. Looking all of us in the eye, he clarified that he meant not just black people, and not just Kenya, but the world. He went on an impassioned diatribe, imbued with gravitas by his continental African accent. He finished with a gracious, low-sweeping bow, shaking each of our hands, indebted to us simply by virtue of our nationality.

It hit me, then, as I watched the interplay between our Kenyan friend and the two Angelenos. Forget that Obama delivered a carefully crafted speech with emotional peaks and valleys that addressed all of the major Republican criticisms facing him heading into the general election. Forget that he attempted to lace his graceful oratory with more specific policy points—with varying degrees of success. Forget the rabidly cultish delegate fan-base, who you would inevitably hear reciting the talking points that were drilled into skulls incessantly throughout the convention weekend, endlessly chattering, “We can’t afford four more years of the same failed Bush policy.”

And forget the claims that “hope” and “change” are hollow slogans concocted by the Obama campaign. Forget the claims that these words serve as intentionally ambiguous blank slates, allowing for Americans to project all of their own dreams of this country on to one man. And forget that that man cannot possibly be Santa Claus, dropping solutions down the chimneys of a disenfranchised, disaffected America on November 5th.

Standing there, as a white man among two African-Americans and one African, I finally understood how seeing someone with their skin color on the Presidential political stage means—how it outstrips all the historical baggage. I understood the hope that their world would forever be changed by seeing Barack Obama ascend to the Presidency of the United States. I have heard all of these arguments many times before. But to witness it firsthand, in the faces of three complete strangers brought together by happenstance on the final night of the convention week, brought a moment of clarity I will never forget.

The event instantly washed away the weeks and months of punditry poison that shackled my brain with unreasonable expectations and meaningless goals of political expediency for Obama’s speech. The poison had almost made it impossible to process Obama’s words, and to fully grasp the symbolic nature of his candidacy.

I had also my over-hyped expectations to blame: I found out months ago that I would be coming to the DNC. I had been thinking about witnessing this historical moment for so long, crafting the experience in my head. It’s like when you are so excited for a movie that you construct the most satisfactory version possible in your head that when it doesn’t play out, even a great movie can fall flat.

Barack Obama is just a man. It’s easy to forget this watching him on television or 80-foot tall screens. But when you see him in person, even from 40 feet away, you are reminded that he is not a deity. When someone is portrayed as so transcendent, as to be larger than life, he’s at an immediate disadvantage in person just by being human.

After I got home at about 2:30 a.m last night, I immediately watched the speech again, start to finish. The difference between frantically photographing the speech from the floor, trying to gauge 12 different aspects at once, while trying to pay attention to the speech itself, and watching the entire thing on a couch, as if you are three feet from the man, was astounding.

One would think it would be the opposite: the event would be more visceral on the floor, being in the middle of everything, as one of the 80,000 eyes (or 0.2% of the 38 million in total) watching it all unfold. But journalistic detachment became my metaphor for the entire week—the human element became lost.

It was a simple exchange between three people that convinced me, without question, that one singular experience in a parking lot at 1 a.m. conveys a greater understanding of what is going on in our country, than any blow-by-blow analysis of the speech could offer.

As a white person, I feel that no candidate could come through on every campaign promise, not even Obama, who eloquently promises lofty social change. This list of promises for change in legislation and societal norms isn’t realistically achievable in four years: Affordable health care and college education for everyone, tax cuts for 95% of the population, evaporated dependence on foreign oil within 10 years, and more involved—yet less bloated—government.

Usually it is enough for me if the ideals behind those promises are in line with my own. For other Obama supporters (many of them white), I learned this weekend that this was their core reason for supporting him as well.

For everyone else not in White America, however, change and hope take on meanings beyond moving past George W. Bush, and all that his name symbolizes policy-wise. It is not simply about black, white, and brown unity, either.

After I related my experience at the club to her, fellow P+P’er Sharifa Johka pointed out to me that any person of any color around the world sees Obama’s background, his looks, and his name, and in his ascent, feels that anything is now possible within their own lives.

One of my new friends from outside the party explained to me how Africans from Africa often look down on African-Americans as having eschewed their true heritage in favor of assimilation. He told me that beyond bridging the white and black cultural divide, to have a Kenyan express such solidarity was a transcontinental bridge that moved him deeply.

I was, in turn, compelled to tell him that I had just underwent one of the most profound experiences of my life, seeing the raw significance of Obama’s candidacy in their eyes, and being included in the circle. I told him that I understood one small piece of his culture  His struggle. I saw the difference between what President Obama would mean to me, and what it would mean to him.

I got it.

He looked at me without blinking. “Now, you’re on the inside,” he said.

The entire week, I thought I was finally covering politics from within. Little did I know I wouldn’t actually be there until the final hour of the final night.

Photographs by Chris Nelson

Click on photo gallery for larger images

On the eve of the democratic roll call event, I could feel the electricity and tension in the air as I walked down the streets of downtown Denver. Although Sen. Obama was expected to receive the majority vote and formal nomination for the Democratic presidential ticket, there existed the possibility that Hillary Clinton could somehow snatch the nomination from him.

And there were rumors of protests and riots by angry Hillary supporters, vets against the war and other groups outraged with the Bush Administration.

So I wasn’t surprised to find myself in the middle of a standoff between the Denver police and a group of bikers. Although I am not certain how the protest began, but when I arrived the police had already set-up a barricade to prevent at least 100 bikers from continuing their ride down Wazee Street near 16th street mall.

I stopped David, a biker in the protest, and asked him to explain the situation:

“We wanted to bike through. We are not bothering anybody. We just wanted to bike through the city. It’s our city. We pay taxes. We aren’t contributing to the air pollution. We are even increasing our fitness.”

The DNC in Denver has earned its reputation as the greenest and most environmentally friendly convention ever. So it was surprising that bikers weren’t allowed easy access to the city streets during the convention. The Freewheelin’ organization even provided free bike rentals to DNC attendees to reduce the amount of driving and air pollution during the convention. The event attracted a lot of resident bikers, many of whom had traded their cars for bikes for environmentally conscious reasons.

“I gave up a 2007 Dodge Magnum that got 12 miles to the gallon for this bike to be a conscious citizen of this planet,” said David. “It’s time for all of us to get the tenacity to do what is right. That is why I am voting for Obama.”

When the protest appeared to settle down, one angry participant walked up to the police and spit at them. He was then pushed to the ground, hit with batons, sprayed with mace, handcuffed and escorted off by the police. And the crowd and protesters chanted: “The world is watching.”

See the events unfold here.

Interview: Brooke-Sidney Gavins
Multimedia Producer: Sharifa Johka
Video editing & Photography: Brooke-Sidney Gavins

1. You can identify the Secret Service by the flak vests they wear that say “Secret Service”…hmmmmm
2. Denver is a small town.  Almost four days in and only half a tank down.  In a Durango.
3. Speaking of driving, I am confident I would make an excellent Editor/Chauffeur should the job-posting ever surface (read: logistics are a bitch)
4. Pick-up drivers like rolling down their windows and say ridiculous things while stopped at stoplights:
   • Man motions to roll down window. I acquiesce. “So.  John McCain.”  Me: What about him?  “Pretty awesome, huh?”  Me: Yep, the best.  [laughter]  Aaaand, scene.
   • Man motions to roll down window.  Max acquiesces. Man cocks his head towards an African-American woman with a sideways pony-tail died red at the tips walking along the sidewalk.  “Chicken-head Obama supporter!” he growls before driving away.  Max feels sick.  To be fair to the host city, he had Arizona plates.
5. One way streets, police barricades, miscellaneous protests, and Denverites with complete disregard for street-crossing signals will ruin your day quickly
6. “Change you can believe in” is the most co-opted phrase at the convention, appearing on signs, t-shirts, and billboards in various, reworked stages of irony (see below)
7. Best dig on John McCain came from Biz Markie: “Vote for Obama. This right here is no country for old men.”
8. Don’t sit in front of Tom Hayden at a panel, unless you would rather hear him talk the entire time instead of the panelists
9. Don’t attempt to make a schedule for any given day, unless it is for purely comedic purposes when you judge it against what actually transpired
10. You know you’re in town for a political convention when you see this as you’re buying a cup of coffee:

Denver Locals and Obama supporters Lauren Blair, Lauren Frinkman and Oleta Nelson soak up the scene at the YDA convention kick off party Sunday night. Photograph by Chris Nelson.

So we’re hearing a lot about what the 50,000 activists, delegates, elected officials and journalists who have descended upon the Mile High city this week, but what about the people who, you know, live here?

We ran into a few young locals taking advantage of the convention-enhanced party scene at the Young Democrats of America’s convention kick-off party last night.

Jessica Alder, 23, and Lauren Frinkman, 22, who both work in Colorado state politics, said they feel the convention is facilitating a lot of discussion about issues—both big and small—throughout the city.

“It’s really great to see national-level politics coming to Denver,” Alder added.

Frinkman has faith that the youth vote is going to pull through and make a big difference come November. Why? Because this is an election that people really care about with a candidate like Obama who “offers something different,” she said.

“He offers a perspective outside a typical White House perspective, which seems to be propagating evil,” she said, adding “”I think this election is going to be groundbreaking. It’s going to shatter everything before.”

Not everyone at the party was down to fete Obama. Lauren (a different one than pictures above), a 24-year-old Denver native who works in the finance sector said she was supporting McCain, but not without reservations.

“He’s the lesser of the two, I guess,” she said. “I agree with more of what he supports than I do Obama. It’s a default.”

She said she’s turned off by Obama’s stance on capital gains taxes and his recent shiftiness with his position on energy and other policies. “I can’t trust him,” she said.

Lauren’s friend Lesley, who was out celebrating her 24th birthday, sided with Obama.

Lesley recently moved back to Denver from Arizona, where she taught middle school math. She said she couldn’t support the Arizona senator after seeing the impact of his stance on education policy play out first-hand in her classroom. “Our population of students was very left behind with [the things he supported],” she said.

One thing no one was excited about? The traffic that comes with the massive influx of people and security.

“Working downtown’s going to suck, but it’s cool that it’s come to Denver,” Lauren said.

Last week, sitting at the Culver City Cuban restaurant, Versailles, in the midst of planning our coverage for the DNC, I asked P+P founder Farai Chideya for some sage insight. She’s covered many conventions, after all: “It’s just as much show business as it is politics,” she answered with no hesitation. “Maybe more.”

Flying into Denver on a tiny United Express plane was an experiment in turbulence tolerance. Our pilot radioed that a tornado could be seen over a lake out the left window. It was an ostentatious beginning to my voyage into the Rockies.

If you are coming from L.A., Chicago, or New York, Denver can hardly be called a city. It reminds me of Minneapolis, the Little City That Could. Strangers compulsively say hello to each other, as if they genuinely cared. For locals, “traffic,”  is not being able to change lanes when they want.

We are staying in Highland Park at a house I could only hope to own 20 years down the road. I am driving a rented Durango. I keep waiting for Verne Troyer to pop out out of a dedicated compost recycling bin and offer me three wishes. It’s all very surreal.

Sharifa Johka, our fearless multimedia producer and official documentary filmmaker, and I were the only two to arrive on Saturday. We heard  of a “media party” at the amusement park located between the Pepsi Center (the site of the convention) and Invesco Field (where Obama will officially accept the party’s nomination on Thursday).

Having never been to one of these shindigs, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but usually anything with the word “convention’ in the title, involves Powerpoint decks, bad ham sandwiches, and burnt coffee that fails to jolt you out of eight-hour stretches of mindless doodling.

Instead, we arrived at a fully operational amusement park—rides, concessions, carnival games—crammed with press people, all reveling in the free beer and brownie bites. I ran into Amanda Michel, director of The Huffington Post’s Off The Bus section, and the discussion was not about Biden, but about the crazy roller coaster. her and fellow OTB’er Kelly Nuxoll had just experienced.

At one point, fireworks started out of the blue, popping off for a good 15 minutes, from three different locations. It put pretty much every Fourth of July display I’ve seen to shame.

So far, Farai was dead-on. Lots of pomp and a seemingly hollow circumstance. Substance will undoubtedly come, but apparently not without an accompanying dose of cotton candy.

Click on any of the thumbnails below for a larger image.  (those are brownie bites, you sicko)

DENVER — Artist Malcolm Farley painted and displayed a portrait of Barack Obama at a pre-DNC party on Saturday which he told Pop + Politics would be the fourth official poster used by the Illinois senator’s presidential campaign.

The painting was perched at the entrance to the main area of the Elitch Gardens amusement park, where approximately 15,000 journalists who are covering the Democratic National Convention were invited to take in some complimentary roller coaster rides, empanadas, and ice cream.

In between taking pictures with eager onlookers, Farley said that mass-production of his painting would begin on Sunday.

Solo shot after the jump

Photographs by Chris Nelson

The sequel to this story, comes today, as the blogosphere is alight with claims that McCain knew the questions beforehand, even though he was not to hear Obama’s portion. McCain’s teams has responded to this outburst with a wag the dog manuever, pointing fingers and whining that NBC News covers Obama more and it’s so not fair. Politics is fun isn’t it? It’s almost like watching five-year olds in a playground. Except the five-year olds are more mature.

Where’s My Veep At? The Democratic National Convention is a week away and the Republican National Convention is two weeks away, and still no VP announcement has been forthcoming. The Financial Times says that an announcement from Obama might come by Thursday, since announcing the pick over the weekend would be fruitless. Still, the same names are floating around: Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, Tim Kaine, and Kathleen Sebelius. Over the weekend, John Kerry was mentioned, which seems absolutely bizarre. For McCain, Tom Ridge and Joe Lieberman still seem to be in the running.

Dems No Angels. Those who were in New York City for the last Republican National Convention have no fondness for those days when 1800 protestors were arrested en masse (1700 were dismissed), ranking as the main black spot in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s two-terms. It seems Denver is prepping for a sequel in reverse. Colorado news channel, 9 News, reports on a “secret jail,” dubbed “Gitmo on the Platte,” that will serve as a holding pen for unruly protestors, which doesn’t really jibe with that hope and change lovey dovey thing does it?

Denver Debauchery With just 10 days until the Democratic National Convention kicks off. The media is salivating over every scheduling change and RSVP. The Obama camp has decided to let Hillary Clinton’s name be added into the mix to appease the legions of Clintonites who won’t quit ’til their gal has a fair shot at clinching the nomination. Some are concerned that HRC is scheming to steal the spotlight, but we know that the big O will be the shining star. And we’re not talking Obama — Oprah has confirmed that she’s leaving the windy city to attend Obama’s big Thursday night speech. Smart, considering that everything she touches turns to gold and some university researchers are saying that the chatty surrogate has already delivered one million votes to Barack. Former Virginia Gov. and U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner has been tapped as a keynote speaker, leading some to speculate whether he’ll ultimately get the veep nod (meanwhile, reports are swirling that Sen. Joe Biden is quickly climbing the short list). Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who has been charged with assault and perjury, has gotten the go-ahead from a judge to leave the state for the big event…. though we’re not sure why Democratic leaders would want him there.

Xtreme Campaigning Aspiring First Lady Cindy McCain demonstrated the dangers lurking on the campaign trail yesterday when she sprained her wrist shaking hands with an “enthusiastic supporter.” Apparently she has carpal tunnel syndrome or something… maybe from transcribing all her luddite hubby’s e-mails? The GOP nominee has been fundraising this week and talking to people about their hardships and the failing auto industry in the swing state of Michigan to show he cares more than his vacay-bound opponent. He’s also hinting that he might be open to a veep who doesn’t completely abhor abortion rights…

Conflict Continues The Georgian government says Russia just won’t let up. Moscow continues to ignore warnings from the U.S. — Secretary of Defense Robert Gates maintains that we won’t intervene with force, so we’ve sent Condi to broker a cease fire that will hold up. The BBC has a day-by-day breakdown of what’s happened so far.

In it to win it In case you haven’t heard yet, Michael Phelps is, like, paramount to a Greek God. He’s closing in on breaking the standing record for most golds in an Olympics Games and has been named the “icon of the games.” Not everyone is showcasing good sportsmanship. A Swedish wrestler threw his medal in a tantrum of sorts after getting upset over the judging. Chinese gymnasts snagged a gold, but the U.S. says they’re cheating because their team members too young. And as NBC’s “multimedia phenomenon” coverage blitz continues to draw in record viewers of the Games, Tibetan protestors are clashing with police in Nepal.

Under the Federal Election Committee’s guidelines re-written in 1993, unions and corporations are forbidden from funneling unlimited contributions to political parties.

So last week when Congress provided immunity for telecom giants, such as AT&T, who are collaborators in the biggest spy bill passed in history, perhaps they weren’t looking for anything in return.

Except the fact that AT&T is now the sponsor of the Democratic National Convention.

Coupled with other winners like Comcast, Motorola, Coca-Cola, Google and a smorgasboard of additional corporate piggy sponsors, AT&T has donated over a $1 million to the DNC in return for “prominent display space and access to elected officials.”

Access to elected officials? Isn’t a corporation forbidden from political charity?

Alas, under an exemption that was created by the Federal Election Commission, which essentially is made up of representatives of the two major parties, “all of this money can be given if it’s given through a host committee under the pretense that it’s merely to promote the convention city.”

Denver 2k8 or bust!

There are 146 company donors, of which nearly 40 are giving to both the Democratic and Republican conventions. Out of the organizational and corporate nasties, only 31 have disclosed information about their contributions, according to a report filed by the Campaign Finance Institute.

According to Stephen Weissman, Associate Director for Policy at the Campaign Finance Institute, this means, “By giving it to these host committees, they assure themselves of gratitude from the national party, from the presidential candidate, because what is a convention except the biggest and longest ad of the presidential election? And to have that speech come off well, to have the lighting and the rigging and all of the sound and the Broadway producers who do it, to have the production and the setting look just right, to have specially built podiums and so forth, that will earn gratitude.”

Funnel man, funnel man, where have you been? Oh I’ve been to Denver, to visit illegal campaign finance!

As Weissman continues, “We’ve shown in our reports that the companies that are supporting these two conventions have already—are companies that have already spent, in the last—since the last presidential election, $1.1 billion lobbying the federal government. So, even if some of them have in part a kind of civic booster notion, obviously these people are very concerned with federal legislation, and in return for this money—we could discuss this, I hope we do—the parties, through the host committees, offer access to top politicians, to the President, the future president, Vice President, cabinet officials, senators, congressmen. They promise these companies who are giving that they will be able to not only get close to these people by hosting receptions, by access to VIP areas, but they’ll actually have meetings with them.”

As Glenn Greenwald, a constitutional law attorney, commented on the ordeal, “In the meantime, privacy groups, like Electronic Frontier Foundation, and civil liberties groups, like the ACLU, and other citizen groups were frozen out of the process completely. The Democrats in Congress literally turned over the process to AT&T, Comcast and others, in order to write this extraordinary law to protect them from consequences for having broken our laws. And so, to read about how at the same time they’re funding to the tune of many, many millions of dollars the Democratic National Convention is just a very potent illustration of this sleazy process that drives our lawmaking process.”

Both the GOP and Dems are equally guilty of this massive state of soiled, transparently illegal conflict of interest.

See you at the convention!

In Denver this morning, something took place that seemed a lot like a time-warp flash-forward to the Democratic National Convention, which isn’t supposed to be coming here until the end of August. This morning the Obama campaign held a rally at the University of Denver that caused traffic jams that made the highways look like a mini-version of the nightmare Los Angeles 405! In the end, I parked in someone’s driveway. Others were just parking on lawns around the city campus. Preliminary reports were putting the crowd at something like 10,000 people. Lines started before 7 am and snaked all around the campus, literally around whole city blocks. It was clear by 8:30 am when they opened the doors to Magness Arena that we weren’t all going to get a seat. So they shuttled us into overflow sections. Half the overflow crowd— thousands of us—filed into the Arena gym and the rest were seated in the lacrosse field outside, snow piles from last week still rimming the edges of the grass.

Waiting for the doors to open, I started asking people why they came out, whether it was their first time to a political rally, etc. The response was always pretty much the same: “Are you kidding me, fool? Look around you?” People talking to one another in the crowd were all saying things like: “Can you believe this?” and “This is insane!”

And it was. This thing was no political rally, not like any of the political rallies I’ve ever been to in my life. This was no Dukakis rally. This was no Clinton rally, whatever they say. It was different. This damn thing was a rock show. The crowd was buzzing for two hours out there in the Colorado briskness and when Caroline Kennedy got up and said that there was something about all this she recognized from conversations she had been having her whole life with people about the way her father energized Americans, the crowd went mad, even in the overflow gym, where we were watching her on a JumboTron and she couldn’t hear any bit of the clapping or hooting that was bouncing off the rafters.

Obama took a while to get on stage because he was making a tour of the rally, speaking first in the open air to the lacrosse field crowd, then stopping in and giving us gym dwellers some love and then heading to the main stage to rock the house.

He gave an early nod to John Edwards for making his campaign about the people. He said the Democratic field this year has been exemplary, etc, that they all want to “turn the page on the disastrous policies of the Bush/Cheney years,” for which he got much applause. “In November, one thing we know for sure: the name George W Bush will not be on the ballot,” he said, and the crowd roared. But then: “The thing, though, is it’s easy to be against something. We have to look ahead and also turn the page on the politics that made the Bush/Cheney policies possible. From now till November, we will be deciding what kind of party we want to make: a divisive party that continues the toxic politics of the past or one that uplifts and provides hope… We will win not by choosing a candidate who will unite the opposition party against us. We need one who will unite all of the people in our country who are yearning for change. On the first day in office… I don’t want to come in with 47 percent for, 47 percent against, and 5 percent undecided, all of whom apparently live in Ohio and Florida. No. We need a candidate who brings more than that…”

And so on. Generally, given the much-remarked-upon similarities in their platforms, Obama today was articulating as strongly as ever, with newly powerful fully endorsed references to JFK, what’s at stake in the choice between Obama and Clinton. To that end, even in articulating policy initiatives, he sounded a lot like Kennedy.

“Some people, they’re looking back, Clinton versus Bush… they want to build a bridge back to the 20th century. They think we need someone practiced in power. But John Kennedy, when he was considering running for the presidency, he was counseled by Harry Truman to wait, to build more political experience. But Kennedy said ‘No, I can’t wait, the time is now, a new generation is ready.’ This is our moment. The old politics won’t do. This election is not about us versus them, not about rich versus poor… certainly not about black versus white. It’s about the past versus the future. If I’m the nominee, they can’t make this election about the past because you will have already chosen the future.”

And:

“Young people graduating from college with thirty, forty, fifty thousand dollars in debt is not my idea of America… I propose $4000 tuition credits per year for every college student in the country. We will expand Americorp around the country… But this is a call to service for young people. You see, we’ll invest in you and you will invest in us and we will carry the country together into the future.”

And:

“When I’m president, we won’t wait any longer to do something about the environment. Kennedy’s generation went to the moon. This is our challenge. We have to act before our planet passes a threshold. There isn’t anyone else…”

Behind Obama on the stage sat clapping what looked like a significant cast of Colorado Democrats, including former Denver mayor Frederico Pena, current mayor John Hickenlooper, state senators and so on. Elder statesman Gary Hart sat right behind the podium, looking himself like a Kennedy, all jaw and outsize mane of white hair. In a telling moment—either a “this is the next generation” moment or an “I don’t care if I look like a groupie” moment or both, Hart pulled out his own digital camera and held it high to get a good shot of Obama and then took a snap.

Note: During the speech, I was scrawling in a notebook that I dropped in the four inches of snow that fell while I was driving home. So the official transcript from Denver may look a little different from the paragraphs above.