Spent the day yesterday with my suit on, something that I get to enjoy as it's not what i have to do every day. It was good. Quickly:

• The convention had all the Democratic candidates (save Joementum Part Two: Biden his time) there for a forum. It was the first time I've seen many of these people operate in person, and the first time I've watched a whole "debate" in real-time.
• Sen. Clinton continues to earn grudging respect by projecting a very solid presence and, in the words of one of the union guys I met who was working hanging signage in the convention center, seeming the most like she would run the show well. Her "I wish you were there in 1993" line to the audience re healthcare is a winning frame for her.
• She got DP'ed from Edwards and Obama on taking lobbyist money, but to her credit didn't back down and kept it intellectually honest. Her biggest stumble IMHO was sticking to the "we're safer now than on 9/11 line" and using shoe x-rays as the example. Bad idea. Everyone hates that shit, and anyone who pays attention knows it's security theater.
• Other than that, Johnny Sunshine talks the prettiest and has the best sense of the zeitgeist, but can't answer a question directly to save his life; Obama doesn't seem to know how to shift gears; Gravel phoned it in; and DK comes off more and more as really kind of a prick.
• Chris Dodd seems to be making a move. He's pumping up like in Dragonball Z and appears to be moving to take the wide-open "don't fucking insult our intelligence" space in the debate. You could also probably shred surfing the part in his hair, and to their credit the campaign knows this is an asset. Of all the candidates, I think he did the most to help himself with this crowd this weekend.

Other things happened too:

• The Teamsters had a cookout with burgers and gratis beers and semi trucks, which was awesome. I think the blogosphere could benefit from more of that kind of working class oomph, maybe a little rednecking even. That and diversity, natch. It's a rich tapestry.
• Got away from the convention and to my original reason to visit Chi-town: a fantastic wedding for one of the cutest, quirkiest couples I have the pleasure to call friends, where I got shanghied by a mom into dancing with her hot 6-foot-tall co-ed daughter. Apparently it was a cut-in on Creepy Guy, but she seemed to enjoy being clumsily spun around a few times, and I'm not complaining.
• I made a 1am $200 beer run for the Drinking Libarally front-porch party. The previous night the hotel suite was busted up by security, but apparently they have no problem with us bringing tons of booze down and getting sauced-up and crazy in front of the convention center. This is in itself a whole blog-post worth of story.
• After the B-double-E-double-R-U-N, and the sky bursting open, my competition and I had a nice drunken debate with the real competition (who's not even really the real real competition) about tools and practices and whatnot, and it was good for me at least to clear the air.
• The absolute highlight though would have to be seeing a shirtless Howard Park scrambling out of the elevator across from mine. It turned out there was a perfectly sensible (and relatively mundane) reason, but it was a really great little moment.

And now I'm off to see the Simpsons with David and Jessica, drop of some health-insurance paperwork with 'Sheeed, and then wing it back to SFO to get back in the game with my day-job.

It was a good and inspiring weekend for seeing friends and weddings and candidates too.