Friday Potpourri: 16 August 2024

Convention Memories: Philadelphia 2016

If you don’t know me personally, then you don’t know that I describe myself as “I used to say I was short, then I said I was vertically challenged, but now I just say I’m fun-sized.” A lot of the convention-related events were walking distance (downtown) from the Convention Center. If you remember the summer of 2016, a lot of people were playing Pokémon Go. I never did, so I don’t know what it was, but a lot of people were walking around Philadelphia playing on their phones AND NOT LOOKING WHERE THEY WERE GOING. Let’s say that I was often jostled, knocked into, and knocked down. I’m pretty sure it contributed to the knee surgery I ended up having the next year. But I digress.

While I had a great time, met a lot of people, blogged constantly, enjoyed both the daytime events and the Wells Fargo Center goings-on all evening, I have two memories that I like best.

First, I met Michael Steele. I had been a huge fan of his campaign for the Republican National Committee Chairmanship in 2009. It was a fascinating election process. The campaign, overall, showed the inherent racism of the GOP, including the Christmas CD sent to all delegates from one candidate which included the song “Barack the Magic Negro”. As usual, I am not making this up. The race, overall, was all about race.

I was very glad he won, because I believe in the two-party system, and I wanted the GOP to go back to being a party with which our side disagreed, but with which we could negotiate and come to compromised outcomes.

I followed his actions as chair over his two-year term. Mr. Steele endeavored to use his platform to expand the Republican tent. He was, in terms of policy positions, comparatively moderate. Objectively, he did a good job: raised a ton of money, and took back the House in 2010, and won 6 Senate seats.

He lost in 2011, because the Republicans were not electing a Black man to lead them twice. Had he won in 2011, the Republican Party would be much different today. After his loss, he became a commenter for MSNBC.

We met in the lobby of the Wells Fargo Center, where, as is my wont, I gushed and repeated back to him some of his most famous lines. My pick fave:

We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-suburban hip-hop settings. We need to uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets. Source.

 I told him how glad I was that he was on his way over to the side of truth and light. I am to this day a fan of his.

In addition, I spent some time with current Senator John Fetterman, who, at the time, was the mayor of Braddock, PA. I had met John back in 2009, at Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh. It was evening, in the hotel bar, and two guys got a little rough with one another. One knocked into the other, and he knocked into me, and I went slightly airborne. I was caught by John Fetterman. The back of my head landed at his shoulder, and my feet hit his thighs. Coulda’ been a concussion, but he saved me. We had a good laugh and a nice chat. We continued chatting over the years, and it was nice to catch up with him at the convention. In 2018, when running for Lt. Governor, John drove back and forth across Pennsylvania, visiting every county in the state, and I was lucky enough to speak with him every week or two as he was driving. Learned a lot from him about voter data at the precinct level, as well as his positions.

I’ve now amused myself with memories. Off tomorrow, and back on Sunday with a look at how the Harris-Walz campaign is impacting Senate races, and whether we can hold the Senate.

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