Riding Through the DNC- Day 3

"We are experiencing delays due to the Democratic National Convention."

I heard that about 5 times this morning as my train kept getting held up while we waited for trains in front of us to get searched. It really annoyed me, though, because its completely untrue. We're experiencing delays because the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority couldn't figure out that spacing out the trains by 5 more minutes would accomodate for the security checks and keep everything running smoothly. Don't pass the buck, MBTA. This is all your fault.

In other Boston life news outside of the Fleet Center... um, well, see here is the thing. Nothing is happening. No mass arrests of protests, no terrorists attacks, no extreme break-downs in the transportation grid. Everything has been positively ordinary.

I'm sure things are helped because so many were scared off by doom and gloom projections by folks like the Boston Herald that they all stayed out of Dodge. Which, naturally, gave the Herald more ammo to use against the DNC. See, without all the business from the people who would be in Boston anyone but were scared off, it seems business is a little down around town. Naturally, this was front page news.

Not the only news, though. It had to share the front page with this other shocking story: John Kerry's daughter is nsidered attractive and may or may not have been hit on by Ben Affleck. Because, you know, its not like anything IMPORTANT is going on in Boston right now that a local paper might want to mention on the front page. But, this is in keeping with their reporting all week. Yesturday's big news was Obama. It was Jesse Jackson bashing the city's race relations. Well, actually, he had some soft criticism which he's since softened, but you could tell that from the big front page story.

The day before? Theresa said some mean things about Ted Kennedy 30 years ago. And Monday? Theresa said some mean things to a reporter. You know, they could at least try to be decent paper. But no pretense here. Its a Dem-bashing rag and wants no mistaking that. They've fallen behind the city's free daily, the Metro, in journalistic respectibility. Which is saying a lot since the Metro is basically a severely dumbed down version of the Weekly Reader for adults, USA Today.

I was happy to have a chance to see John Edwards speak live last night. Great, great speech. I always loved his Two Americas message and I was one of his voters in the Massachusetts Primary, and he really brought it all together, now focusing on building One America. So perfect. He hit all his points dead on. All that trial lawyering clearly paid off. He knows how to convince a crowd and to inspire compassion. I felt his national security message was strong. Loved that he not only worked in Kerry's Vietnam service but also his work on Senate Intelligence Committee. He's hardly a foreign policy newbie, and that needs to be recognized. I thought his message on Civil Rights was spot on, and it was great to see the crowd break into an "everywhere" chant, even if the lead-in was Straw-men-esque. Strong close, of course, and he just looks like such a natural up there, especially with his family.

So, it all comes down to today. Police are expecting trouble. Seems like most of Boston is, too. The streets were eeriely quiet this morning and I'm by no means near the Fleet Center, but still in a part of Boston that's very high traffic. Lets just hope none of that trouble materializes. I'm looking forward to another boring an uneventful day riding through the DNC.