The Angle

Getting to the convention…there were dozens upon dozens of tour buses lining the streets of downtown Minneapolis waiting to take convention goers form their hotels to the Excel Center in St. Paul. because so many of these buses were parked where public buses typically stop it seemed to make the commute out of town more hectic than usual. I took one of these buses.

Surprisingly the convention buses didn’t take I-94, the quickest, most direct route to St. Paul. instead they took city streets past a pretty fair representation of the two cities. we went past a lot of older neighborhoods and some areas with lower income households. I was happy to see the out-of-towners get a more realistic tour of the area. I thought I heard some of ‘em even remark about that too. on the way back from the convention an Idaho delegate told me that yesterday a 100lb bag of sand was dropped from an interstate overpass onto a moving convention bus below. I don’t know if that’s true or not but I didn’t see too many overpasses on our city street route.

Stepping off the bus in St. Paul was pretty creepy. I was definitely aware that it was rush hour but since most of the downtown streets were closed I couldn’t see any sign of people trying to get home. the silence was striking, Minneapolis had been the opposite. the only protesters I saw where on the TV news later in the night.

The last few blocks of the bus ride took us past several security check points.  I saw police and sheriffs and unmarked security in what looked like some sort of blue military fatigues. that added with the never ending stretch of chain-linked fence made me feel like I was headed into a nuclear fallout shelter. after watching the protesters/rioters on the news tonight I guess I can see why it’s necessary. but part of me still wonders what’s the point of holding a convention in a downtown area if you have to shut down that area in order to secure it.

Outside the Xcel Center was quiet…dead. inside was just the opposite. it felt like a big cocktail party. I met up with fellow AIA’er Nick Ruehl. really great guy…he also got us into the RNC chairman’s skybox. (see Nick's blog below.)

I spoke at length with two other convention goers – someone representing a political donor (seated nearby) and the aforementioned Idaho delegate. This is a gross generalization, but by in large it seemed like the floor was full of Hank Hill republicans and the tiered/balcony seats were full of Steve Forbes types. Interesting to see two groups working together…a more cynical version of myself would say “using” each other.

[Fred] Thompson’s “pay grade” comment [see http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h4GaGD5c7NgTtWhCMFTvy15LP_GgD92V01600 for a description] was probably the biggest line of the night…at least for the people in the arena. 

When you’re watching on TV you can’t see all the people on the floor milling around and not paying much attention to the speakers. It seemed like a difficult environment to have to make a speech. Fred Thompson’s speech had everyone standing still though. Ten years from now I think that’s what I’ll still remember the best about tonight.

[Joe] Lieberman’s reception wasn’t the same. But in fairness he seemed like he was there to speak to the camera and not the convention itself…nothing wrong with that.

No real policy discussions tonight…identity politics mostly. Hopefully I’ll have more architecturally pertinent items to discuss after Wednesday night.

The ride home was much quicker than the ride there. I loved seeing other people discover how great the twin cities are. since I moved to Minneapolis five years ago I think I could count on one hand the number of Republicans I’ve met. So seeing all these GOP’ers in my adopted city felt a bit like when I’ve seen two separate friends of mine being introduced to each other for the first time. Admittedly, this is real sappy thing to say, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get a kick out of seeing these people and these cities occupying the same space. seems weird.

For a political junky tonight was kinda like seeing the first quarter of the super bowl in person. It was a lot of fun.