American Democracy Institute Photos 1

This is one of the legion of [not so] Secret Service detail present at the event. Upstairs, downstairs, outside and I'm presuming in the basement. Everywhere. Why are they called 'secret' service? Everyone can spot those earpieces from a mile away. And normal people don't have eyes as beady as theirs. Well, this guy was at the front of the room behind where Sen. Hillary Clinton spoke. I'm guessing this guy's got some serious eyes to take on the front of the room. He gave me the icy glare as I snapped this shot of him.

As far as I'm concerned, the students who travelled from who the fuck knows where got the shaft. This is where they were seated. No video screens, just a bunch of seats about 100' - 300' feet from where Sen. Clinton and the rest of the speakers spoke. And they were also partially behind the wall of local news video cameras set up on a platform behind where I/we [the bloggers] were seated. That said, there were about ten rows of reserved seats for 'student media' so maybe that's the balance? I hope that the students got to do a meet and greet or perhaps a smaller pep speech with Sen. Clinton beforehand or afterwards, but I doubt it. She seemed to be gone right after the speech.

This is American Democracy Institute CEO/President John Hart. I don't recall a single thing he said aside from that he was probably as excited as the audience was to see Sen. Clinton speak.

Ooh, this photo of the crowd reminds me that they had us stand for the Pledge before the event got underway. I thought that was really weird. They also had a moment of silence for the recently passed Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks, a change of pace that I thought was nice. They also made a big stink about nobody passing out literature or protesting in any sort, I'm assuming in light of Cindy Sheehan's State of the Union incident.

Next up was snoozer Sean Wilentz, Professor of History and Director of American Studies at Princeton and contributing editor to The New Republic. ACM recounts:

The first guy gave a rather professorial speech... of a historical nature – invoking the great historical documents signed nearby, and pointing out that the principles of democracy have always been a challenge and required defense (he pointed out a period in the 18th century when dissent was briefly outlawed). He concluded with the argument that it’s not might that makes right but "right makes might." It was probably a decent talk, but a snoozer in the context.

Tulin sums up:

1. Modern political Democracy is a new thing in the world. A "nanosecond" in the scheme of the world. More Ben babble.
2. Democracy is hard work. It's not freely given
3. Nothing in America is simple.
4. A quiet crisis in American Democracy? We will get through it because of faith in this country.

Next up was the best speaker of the morning. President of the William and Mary, Gene Nichol. This guy was one baaad mamajamma. eRobin described his speech as

... a good old fashioned barnburner of a progressive speech

I couldn't agree more. ACM has some nice bullet points and my favorite part of his speech when speaking of what is the American idea of equality

... he suggested that the disparaties that we see in our country are not what the Constitution, scripture, or our ideals envision. Quoting Lyndon Johnson, he said "we may not know much, but we know the difference between chicken salad and chicken shit."

Nichol ended his speech with a boatload of quotes from the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bible and Martin Luther King Jr. He got a standing ovation from the entire room.

The minute by minute account via Politics Philly.

More photos of the event to come including a bunch from Sen. Clinton's speech and the media panel I attended in the afternoon session.

Comments

[eRobin]

You're right about the seats. Horrible sound in that space. It had to have gotten worse as you moved away from the speaker and into the echo chamber. That's why, I think, there was so much conversation going on in the way back to the speaker's right. Those kids couldn'th hear.

[Matt]

I love the shot of the not-so-secret service guy.