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**AUGUST 19, 2024**
Kickoff in Chicago
Bringing you the side of the Democratic National Convention you can't get from watching it on TV
BY DAVID DAYEN
Aaron M. Sprecher via AP???????? ???????? ??
CHICAGO - Hello from the hog butcher to the world, where I am on the ground with four of my colleagues to cover the 2024 Democratic National Convention. We will be delivering this special email every day to your in-box throughout the week.
This is my third convention as a journalist but my fourth overall. When the 1996 DNC came to Chicago, I had just moved to the city that month. There was a screening of Haskell Wexler's
**Medium Cool**, a quasi-documentary, quasi-fictional account of the 1968 convention (the one with the police riot) at the Music Box, a great old theater on the North Side. I went to that and saw Haskell Wexler speak-somehow there's video of this [link removed] at some point (either before the screening or after), Wexler took out a camcorder and started interviewing people about the differences between 1968 and 1996. Eventually he turned to me. I gave some attempt-to-be-witty answer about how the whole world isn't watching anymore, the whole world's watching sitcoms, and much to my surprise, my comment wound up on
**Nightline**.
I think it was my last time on broadcast television as a political commentator! Sigh.
Anyway, I'm back in Chicago for the nomination of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as the Democratic ticket. What we're going to try to give readers this week is a view of the convention that you won't get from watching the speeches on C-SPAN. While for a fleeting moment this summer, pundit hopes were raised about a brokered convention, we're going to have the same infomercial of an event that we always have in the modern age. But the real interesting stuff happens far from the stage. We're going to talk to delegates, politicians, policymakers, donors, advocates, protesters, and everyone else who's converged on Chicago. We're going to peel back the shiny exterior and reveal the massive amount of corporate underwriting that props up this and every convention. We're going to make sense of this blob called the Democratic Party, how they're going to fight to gain power in the November election, and what they're planning to do once they get it.
All week long, we'll be posting dispatches at our website. You can find everything at our special mini-site set up for the convention, at prospect.org/dnc-2024 [link removed]. You can read what I and my fellow reporters are learning throughout the week, and get a nightly recap of the action in the convention hall.
We have a couple of pieces already out today to whet your appetite, while we fan out to gather more:
ON THE WEBSITE
Unlike me, Harold Meyerson was at the last two Democratic conventions in Chicago, in 1996 and 1968. Here, he discusses some memories [link removed] of the '68 convention, how Vietnam tore the Democratic Party apart, and how the party has been built back together just in the last month after Joe Biden decided to exit the race and pass the torch to Kamala Harris.
Speaking of Biden, he will give what you might see as a farewell address tonight. Ryan Cooper looks at his economic legacy [link removed], and finds it to be tarnished only by Biden's inability to articulate it. If you assess the reality of what Biden did on the economy, you give him pretty good marks: restoring the country to full employment, revitalizing industrial manufacturing, transforming American energy, supporting unions, breaking up concentrations of power, and more.
TODAY'S AGENDA
The DNC has kept people remarkably in the dark about what will take place on the convention floor tonight and throughout the convention. What we do know is that President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will appear on Monday, along with 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a progressive who earned a somewhat surprising victory last year. As to the rest of the evening's events, we'll find out when you do.
What we do know is that there are delegation breakfasts at their hotels this and every morning. Among the more notable states, the California, Wisconsin, and Nevada delegations have breakfasts on Monday. Typically, these events feature prominent political figures as speakers. So do the caucuses of the DNC, which have meetings today.
There is a march of anti-war protesters objecting to Israel's war on Gaza scheduled for today, and organizers believe [link removed] as many as 40,000 people will participate. This will take place about a half-mile from the United Center, where convention activities will be held.
Remember to check prospect.org/dnc-2024 [link removed] for the latest!
Join us LIVE from Chicago on YouTube this Friday for our Weekly Roundup! Tune in as our staff reports on what they're seeing and hearing from the convention floor.
This is an interactive program, so questions are welcomed!
We'll be going live August 23rd at 12:30 p.m. ET. Can't make it? We record every episode of our weekly show and make the full-length video available to all of our readers to watch afterward. Subscribe to our YouTube channel [link removed] today to get a notification when the show begins!
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