The Gist

The Democrats at YearlyKos

The convention provided an opportunity to see the Democratic candidates up close, interacting with smaller groups in the breakout sessions following the presidential forum (or, in the case of Hillary Clinton, before the forum, for reasons which have been widely discussed). Most attendees had to choose a candidate or two whose breakout they wanted to attend, but media were able to go to all of them, so I spent a little time at each one.

I'll give my impressions on the show tomorrow -- and we have audio from various bloggers, speakers, attendees and the Democratic candidates -- but just a few thoughts here:

Hillary Clinton ate up about 15 minutes of the 40 minute session on the first question, which was on No Child Left Behind. One man from San Francisco did ask about both the Defense of Marriage Act and Don't Ask, Don't Tell (as well as the Telecommunications Act, Welfare reform, and NAFTA -- all laws her husband pushed through), and Clinton talked about getting rid of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and repealing Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which would allow for federal benefits of marriage to those gay couples who are legally married in their state, which so far would only be those in Masschusetts. This was nothing new, and she was sticking to the dubious "states rights" argument on marriage that many Democrats promote.

At none of the other breakouts I attended did GLBT issues come up, and there were no questions on gay issues during the presidential forum.

John Edwards was pretty fiery during the debate, and equally passionate at the breakout session. His people re-configured the chairs so that the audience was all around him -- unlike everywhere else, where it was the usual stage with the candidate at the podium -- and he worked the entire room getting very close to people.

Mike Gravel, unlike the major candidates whose breakout sessions had a couple of hundred people in attendance, had about 16 people in his room, all young college students. He gave a slide presentation about the Constitution and what Bush and Cheney have done to destroy it.