After a hectic morning running around various impersonal hotels and antiseptic convention centers, I've already begun to see why the press gets so grumpy about political conventions: there seems to be a million things to cover and no stories to tell. That, and the competition is fierce. I had to push myself through a door and past a security guard in order to ask Dennis Kucinich a few questions.
This morning I took in a speech Kucinich (or "Dennis" as supporters always call him) gave at St. Paul's church in Boston common. It was an impassioned plea to repeal the USA PATRIOT Act, and the crowd stood and cheered wildly after nearly every line. But the line of the day came from Dr. James Zogby, who's head of the Arab American Institute. "There are people in our movement," he said, "who think it has to get worse before it gets better. And then there are people who think it has to get a little better all the time. I have to be with the second group."
A day after Kucinich endorsed Kerry, the passion and pragmatism were both palpable.
Christopher Hayes is the host of MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes. He is an editor at large at the Nation and a former senior editor of In These Times.
