Convention wrap-up

In some ways the conventions are like comparing apples and oranges. The line of people for Obama’s final speech in Denver was said to be between 2-6 miles long. Then last night, McCain’s speech had a different atmosphere. The Democratic convention felt more frantic, a lot more foreign journalists and more journalists in general. (Did you have a sense of the delegates and politicians at the conventions were mindful of the amount of foreign journalists and foreign interest?) The protesters were keen to that. (At the Democratic convention, what were the sense that the world was watching?) The presence of the international news media was huge, something like 15,000 journalists. You can’t miss them, you hear all kinds of languages at the conventions. (Did you hear delegates talking to foreign reporters and getting language practice?) I didn’t, though I did talk to some folks at Al Jazeera and they said they focus on Arab-American delegates. Another thing that struck me was during McCain’s speech, a journalist from New Zealand said both candidates really say the same thing.