VP contenders share DM stage

V.P. contenders share D.M. stage

"Edwards and Vilsack spoke at the state party's annual awards banquet at the Polk County Convention Complex. Both have undergone a background check by John Kerry's campaign, and their joint appearance comes as the Massachusetts Democrat is honing in on in a decision of who to choose as a running mate..."

Just about everyone I know is in Des Moines for that and for the state convention today. My phone's been quiet and my in box is empty.

I gave up on state conventions a while back. It's a sit-and-wait marathon with usually no real stakes since they killed platform debate in the mid 90s other than "I wanna be a national delegate!" "I wanna be a national delegate too!"

One of the things I tell my candidates is: don't do anything that someone else can do for you, and spend as much time as you can doing stuff that no one else can do. (That means talking to voters, some of the money stuff, and being a dad/mom/partner/whatever.) This rule ususally gets ignored, and you go to the mailing party and see all the candidates. But it's a good principle and today I'm following it and doing human being stuff. I only have X amount of time for politics and state convention isn't the best way for me to spend it.

My bet is still on Vilsack. John Kerry isn't the sort of guy who wants to be overshadowed by his VP.

UPDATE 6/30

Well, looks like I called that one right. The convention adjourned at 3:40 A.M. And I had a nice day of human being stuff.