A Democratically conventional post

Photos by Peter Rozovsky
for Detectives Beyond Borders

Sixteen years ago, when the Republican National Convention came to Philadelphia, I used a one-day press pass from my paper to spend a day on site. I saw placards being placed beneath chairs on the convention floor in preparation for that evening's spontaneous  displays of enthusiasm. I walked through the media tent and saw Michael Medved at his table, though Oliver North was away from his.

I rode on the back of a golf cart with Linda Chavez, conservative commentator and future failed nominee for labor secretary. She was intelligent and an eager conversationalist and, showing bipartisan openheartedness rare since Richard Nixon, said she had been to national conventions of both major parties and admitted that Democrats party better than Republicans.

No such one-day passes were available for this year's Democratic convention, thanks to security reasons, so my closest contact with the convention has taken the form of traffic jams, detoured buses, and the observation that a subway car full of Democrats looks much like a subway car full of Republicans, except that the Democrats have healthier complexions. Oh, and signs and other political bric a brac around town, including the T-shirt I bought from a vendor on Market Street for a surprisingly low price. Here are a few photos of my experience, at several removes from reality, of the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

© Peter Rozovsky 2016