‘Mile High City’ Gears Up for the DNC

By Kera Bartlett

Arriving in Denver the week before the highly anticipated Democratic National Convention, one would expect to find the calm before the storm. Instead I was greeted with the storm before the storm, in the form of torrential rain, flash flood and tornado warnings. Even snow in the higher elevations. The ‘Mile High City’ sure knows how to send out the welcome wagon. 

In less than a week, this friendly and beautiful city will be turned upside down with the invasion of tens of thousands of delegates and their families, over 15,000 members of the media and the Democratic political elite. Signs for the DNC are plastered and hung every fifteen feet in the downtown area. Official merchandise shops have begun popping up in empty mall units in anticipation of the eager visitors. Hotel rooms have been sold out within a ten-mile radius during the week of the Convention for over a year. Seeing opportunity in the high demand for housing, many clever locals have put their apartments and homes up for rent for up to four thousand dollars a night. 

I came to Denver on a research grant from Occidental College with the intent to study the foreign media coverage of the Convention events. I am also promoting the “Rebranding America” report that fellow students and I created this spring addressing the next administration’s potential foreign policy. Securing a reasonably priced sublet for the month, I have been able to explore this city and see many of its sites and attractions before it is overrun next week. From the intriguing Denver Art Museum to the Cowboy Lounge where western hats, jeans and boots are the official dress code, Denver has the Rocky Mountain spirit that the Democrats are hoping to capture in the upcoming election. 

A week ago, I spent a full day volunteering for the Obama campaign in Denver, hoping to gauge the city’s enthusiasm for the young Chicago politician and possibly earn a ticket to the Obama Convention speech. I met many residents hard at work answering phones, entering voter data into computers and going out in shifts to canvas neighborhoods, all hoping to contribute to the campaign that is breaking many of the rules of Presidential politics. Their enthusiasm is mirrored by the tens of thousands of Colorado residents that applied for tickets to Senator Obama’s speech at Invesco Field the final night of the convention. With only half of the available “public seats” allotted for Colorado residents, the demand for tickets was overwhelming. Last Thursday, I was answering phones when the Convention Committee sent out a mass email alerting tens of thousands of hopeful residents that they had not received tickets. Within minutes, we received several angry phone calls from rejected potential attendees. Luckily for the campaign, I had also received such an email, and could sympathize with the callers. After learning that I was committed enough to volunteer for the campaign after being denied admission for the speech, their anger quickly subsided and we bonded over our shared enthusiasm for the campaign. 

In the coming week, the city will temporarily become the center of US politics and the world’s attention will turn to the events in Denver. Each day will be full of panel discussions, meetings and inner-party debates. Each night will feature primetime speakers, fabulous parties, celebrity appearances and fund raisers. In the end, the Candidate and the Party hope to have inspired a nation and gain momentum for the home stretch of this epic presidential election process. Check back next week, when I will be reporting on the events and surprises that make up the Democratic National Convention.

Kera Bartlett is a senior Diplomacy and World Affairs major. She can be reached at kbartlett@oxy.edu