Chip Roberson: A ticket to see history

<em>Editor’s note: Chip Roberson of Sonoma is one of California’s 241 elected Democratic delegates. He is pledged to vote for Barack Obama and making his first trip to a political convention. He has filed dispatches for The Press Democrat throughout the convention.</em><p>I’m a “middle of the road” guy. In most situations, I believe I can see both sides of the story. I guess that’s why I was an independent voter for the past 25 years. I come from a conservative background, but over the years, I have moved to the center and now, I suppose, to the left.</p><p>Still, I can appreciate some traditional principles of the right, such as fiscal conservatism — although the past eight years have put “ownership” of that one into question.</p><p>I’ve never completely bought into the “liberal media bias” argument. I believe that if one were to take a poll, the folks on the newsroom floor might be more liberal than conservative, but I refuse to accept that it’s a mono-culture.</p><p>I also believe that as we look up the chain of command, one is probably likely to find the balance might tip toward the conservative.</p><p>Still, my fundamental principle is this: People are multi-dimensional, and no two are alike. Over the past eight years, I have seen so much distilled down into black-and-white slogans that fit on bumper stickers.</p><p>Life just isn’t that simple.</p><p>So, I have avoided criticism of the media because I know they are trying to report on complex situations under the pressure of a deadline.</p><p>Still, something doesn’t feel right to me. I’ve been watching MSNBC in the mornings, and I’m surprised by the perspectives being shared regarding the speeches and the change of venue. What I’m seeing is making me as ask myself, ‘Am I getting caught up in the moment?’</p><p>If you have read my other posts, you know that emotion is definitely very much part of the experience. However, is it clouding my perspective?</p><p>This morning, as my wife and I were getting ready, we heard criticisms over the switch of venue. One consultant even opined that Obama should have switched tonight’s event back to the Pepsi Center.</p><p>When I heard this, I had an immediate response. My wife and I have stood in line every day to get her name on a list in the hope she might get a ticket. We are usually standing in a line with a couple hundred people, and this is just for the New York and California delegations.</p><p>I know this is being repeated in every other major hotel in Denver. So far, my wife only has been able to watch from the hotel lobby.</p><p>Now, I don’t think we’re that special, but as an Obama for America organizer operating at the highest unpaid level in the campaign, I thought it would be a decent gesture that my wife actually got to attend at least one night.</p><p>This morning, we finally got a ticket. She won’t be sitting with me because she’ll be in an upper deck, but she’s finally getting in.</p><p>I figure the Pepsi Center holds about 12,000 people, so about 60,000 more people will get to attend tonight than last night.</p><p>For a candidate who has been labeled “elitist,” I think the move of venue was a very non-elitist decision, and I’m looking forward to sharing this experience with 70,000 other Americans.</p>