So, I'm at the Wardman Park Marriott watching AFSCME's Presidential Candidates Forum. It's part of the union's first leadership conference. They're training 2,000 leaders who will go back home to train an additional 40,000 members to work on the 2008 elections. The event is also live on MSNBC. (I'll be updating this post after each speaker)
The first speaker was Bill Richardson who got a good reception. Kucinich actually got the crowd pretty riled up. The next three speakers are: Clinton, Edwards and Obama.
So the rest of the morning should be interesting. AFSCME is a major union that knows how to play politics. This morning's NY Times reported that, no surprise, the candidates really want that endorsement:
The union is not expected to endorse a candidate until the fall; a senior adviser to Mrs. Clinton said her campaign was “working Afscme hard,” and the same goes for other candidates.
Hilllary Clinton got a good reception. She sure knows how to answer questions. But, like many candidates, she constantly refers to "the current administration" or "this administration." That's such inside D.C. talk. Call them by name: The Bush administration or the Bush/Cheney administration, please.
But, the bigger question is why is Chris Matthews the moderator? He is as annoying in person as he is on t.v. -- and how does he make it about him?
Edwards seems very comfortable with this audience -- and the audience is very comfortable and supportive of him. Edwards just seems so much more natural these days -- he wants to be President to make sure everybody has the chances he's had. He says a lot with that line.
Haven't seen Obama in person for awhile. He gives a great stump speech. His introductory remarks went over very well with the audience. Seems like he's gotten better at answering questions, too. Confident. Great response from the crowd.
So another Presidential forum is over. It's going to be a long six months til the voters actually start voting. It's interesting to see in person...to gauge the response from activists. And, AFSCME has a crowd of hard core activists who get politics -- and who genuinely seem happy with the crop of candidates.
