On the way back from lunch with my friend Michael Drummy, I received a TXT message from my wife alerting me to the news that Joe Biden was expected any minute at a hot dog shack less than a block from our home. I made it there by the 16th Street shuttle to end up close enough to shake hands with him and thank him for running. The handshake is at about 3:40 into the Qik video above.
I’m guessing a little crowd of 200 people had formed by the time Biden appeared. Several TV cameras were trained on him, along with a long boom mic. The rest of us held cell phones and cameras up high to record the moment. Our houseguest Dave Winer, who was with Darlene and first spotted the crowd forming, also got some a great photo and a video . Afterward we had lunch at P.F. Chang’s and savored our brush with history here in beautiful mile-high Denver.
The mood downtown today is happy, casual, maybe even delighted. Official types in dark suits with Hall passes hanging from their necks move among us civilians, and the police presence, to my eyes, is appropriately pervasive but uniformly casual and far from provocative. Yellow-shirted volunteers offer help and directions at every corner. Today we say one serious motorcade rolling down 14th Street toward the Pepsi Center. Michelle? Jimmy Carter?
Outside my window now I see a steady stream of people walking up and down the 16th Street pedestrian mall. We have a great view from the 11th floor. Later this afternoon, after I unpack the new iMac I bought to process videos of convention week, I’ll head over and try out the perimeter pass I received from a Twitter friend, Dan Patterson. It will get me into the area next to the Pepsi Center but not into the building itself. Stay tuned!
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