Some on the ground blogging from the convention. Short version: young Democrats entreated to participate in training with promises of clubbing with Bill Clinton. But, the organizers don't have enough tickets to the club for everyone who did the training and then Bill Clinton didn't show. Oopsie.

I think these young Dems will still have enthusiasm for getting out the vote and their earlier energy and inspiration won't be lost. But, it was sure a downer at the end of the weekend training for them. Given how disorganized the tickets were, I wouldn't be surprised if the GAIN organizers never had final confirmation that President Clinton would be appearing and advertised it nonetheless. But, the GAIN training was promoted by official Party leaders, and this "false advertising" reflected pretty poorly on the Party. It seemed strange that the organizers didn't announce that Clinton wouldn't be coming until the very end-- Were they more concerned about not upsetting the celebrities who had yet to perform (the place would have cleared out as soon as they announced no Clinton)? Did they have a deal with The Avalon through 2 am and were helping them sell drinks? Or, were they as surprised as the audience that Clinton stood them up?

I would occasionally be very frustrated at disorganization and poor management at Dean events and MeetUps during the primary, but I wasn't willing to stand up and actually take charge, so I'd mostly keep quiet. But, it's July. This is the general election, this is the national party -- surely we can do better than this??

In this article, we also learn that the Kerry daughters are "confiding" that this is the first election they're voting in. I guess all those voter registration efforts are really needed after all.