ST. PAUL — No President Bush. No Vice President Dick Cheney. But a lot more free time. That’s what Kansas delegates are facing on their first full day here in Minnesota as party officials announced this afternoon that they will cut back all non-essential events during Monday’s opening of the Republican National Convention.
The delegation was slated to spend 2:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Xcel Energy Center here in downtown St. Paul, but delegate Kelly Arnold said the delegation will now likely return to their hotel about 20 miles south of here around 4:30 p.m. “As a delegate, it’s kind of disappointing,” Arnold said. “But we understand why and we think they made the right decision.”
Arnold said Kansas delegates haven’t set up any events for the unexpected downtime, but he said many delegations are considering donation tables at their receptions for people to donate to the Red Cross and other organizations that may be tasked with recovery efforts after Hurricane Gustav makes landfall Monday.
On a cold day in January last year, Sen. Sam Brownback stood in a room full of friends in Topeka and said his family was taking its “first steps on the yellow brick road to the White House.”
Nine months later, the walk was over. Brownback stood before microphones in a room full of friends in Topeka to say the yellow brick road — and his campaign funds and showings in the polls — had stopped short.
It was the first presidential campaign for a relatively unknown conservative Christian Kansan in a race that included war heroes, a New York City mayor and an energetic, bass-playing former Baptist minister.
Yet this week, the 51-year-old will be on the stage he wanted to be on, on the day he wanted to speak, at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.
He speaks three spots before nominee John McCain.
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DENVER — As Barack Obama took the stage at Invesco Field on the final night of the Democratic National Convention, Larry Wilson quietly said, “This is it, this is the night, this is the change. Thank you God. Thank you.”
Wilson, an African-American from Topeka, wasn’t speaking to anyone in particular. But a few moments later, he talked with a reporter about how he felt as he watched the first African-American presidential candidate from either major party accept the Democratic nomination.
He said he saw it as a victory not just for African Americans, but for Americans.
“Look around,” he said, gesturing to the crowd of 75,000 filling nearly every seat in the stadium where the Denver Broncos play their home games. “You see people of all colors and sizes. This is what America looks like.”
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DENVER — One Kansas delegate to the Democratic National Convention learned the hard way that politics can be a rough business.
Elizabeth Bustamante of Garden City got roughed up by four women who objected to her efforts to get back into a caucus meeting at the Colorado Convention Center.
Bustamante was inside when she popped a zipper and had to go out to repair the damage.
When she tried to get back in, four women waiting for seats boxed her in, jostled her and one elbowed her in the ribs, causing her to hyperventilate.
“The paramedics had to come in and take me outside,” she said. It was “the worst moment of the whole convention” for Bustamante.
“I couldn’t believe people could be that mean and cruel over just a space,” she said.
There may be a little bit of Obama in Wichita tonight — and we’re not just talking about a televised speech from Denver. State Sen. Donald Betts, who’s in race against Congressman Todd Tiahrt, plans to introduce a member of Sen. Barack Obama’s family at an Obama speech watch party at Torre’s Pizzeria (131 N. Rock Island in Old Town) around 7:30 p.m. tonight, Betts’ campaign manager, Lisa Reiss, said this afternoon.
Reiss wouldn’t say who. But Obama’s El Dorado rally earlier this year gives a possible hint. Margaret McCurry Wolf is the first cousin of Obama’s grandmother. And Obama’s grandfather is Stanley Dunham, was raised in El Dorado, and his grandmother, Madelyn Payne, grew up in Augusta. Obama never lived in Kansas. For more, check out The Eagle’s previous coverage… Read More »
DENVER — One Bush doesn’t equal another, U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore told Kansas delegates to the Democratic National Convention here.
At the daily delegation breakfast, Moore said he felt that President George H. W. Bush, although he was from the other party and had different ideas, had been an honorable opponent and thoughtful leader of the country.
“The first President Bush, I didn’t agree with him on everything, (but) he was a real president, you know what I mean,” Moore said. “This son is a different story.”
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DENVER — “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” is Dan Glickman’s favorite political film.
Glickman views that from a unique perspective. He also went to Washington, as a U.S. representative from Wichita in the 1970s and 1980s, and as agriculture secretary during the Clinton Administration. He’s now the chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America.
In a speech to members of the Kansas delegation to the Democratic National Convention, he said the country needs to return to the kind of idealism depicted in the classic Jimmy Stewart film.
In the movie, the young Stewart plays a honest but naive freshman senator who battles political corruption at the Capitol.
“Go back and see it again,” Glickman said.
“What we have to do is to try to restore the confidence of the American people that the system is on the level.”
If you want to watch Barack Obama’s acceptance speech with local supporters tonight, check out one of these events — or find more at Obama’s web site.
Among the Wichita events:
–“One Giant Step,” about 6-10 p.m., Torre’s Pizza, 131 N. Rock Island.
–Northeast community watch party, 8 p.m., All Occasions Events Center, 4940 E. 21st St. No., sponsored by the Kansas Black Leadership Council. Preceded by a young adults watch party at 6 p.m.
Throughout the Democratic National Convention, Jason Dilts has been sort of Sedgwick County’s delegate-without-portfolio.
Dilts, executive director of the county Democratic Party, came to Denver with no credentials and no formal standing at the convention.
But that hasn’t stopped him from participating in it.
On Tuesday, someone lent him a pass so he could be on the floor when Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Sen Hillary Clinton made their speeches. Dilts is a big fan of both. Read More »
