This afternoon I headed to the People’s Republic of Boulder (where I lived for almost 2 years) to see Ed Schultz do his show live. I’d have to say it was a pretty empowering experience overall. Ed was on fire as usual and was pretty much what I expected in person. I know he’s not for everyone as far as liberals are concerned, but I enjoy his humbleness and “good ol’ boy” style as he’s the type of Dem we need to get the message out beyond the obviously blue states.
The crowd was fairly mixed, and it was a relief to not see any of the stereotypical Patchouli stank tie-dye hippies there. I’d say the theater there was at least in the neighborhood of 80-90% capacity, and it was nice to see a good number of older folks there.
I assumed some local political power would at least phone-in to the show, but I was VERY impressed when Congressman Mark Udall showed-up in person for the show. He has a very impressive presence, and actually struck me as a bit of a functioning introvert (it takes one to know one, right?). He didn’t really have that charisma that you’d associate with someone like Ed, but he seemed more like a very collected cool cat. There were a couple of issues that he didn’t seem to be aware of, but then again at his level he’s pulled in so many different directions I’m sure it’s hard to catch every news bit. I think he’ll make a great Governor or Senate candidate in the years to come.
Udall was followed by Chris Gates, the chair of the Colorado Democratic Party who had some very interesting news which hasn’t made it’s way through the press outlets until now. The most interesting was that they used some web based software which was locally developed specifically for this purpose during the election for Broomfield, Larimer and Boulder counties to keep track of who had voted and who hadn’t in real-time fashion. As a result of using this software and encouraging/helping people who hadn’t been to the polls to vote, they helped contribute to a 94% voter turn-out in Larimer County. That’s amazing!
Gates also mentioned that we had the most successful Democratic run out of all of the states during the election as both the Colorado House and Senate are held by the Dems now. and we also have the faux cowboy Ken Salazar in the Senate, and his brother John in Congress. If you want to see a real cowboy involved in politics, check into Wes McKinley. It should be noted that I don’t really care much for Ken’s views even though I voted for him, but whatever…
I actually got in line to ask Chris and Ed a question, but the show ended with one person in front of me. Surely I’ll get another chance sometime. I was going to ask something along the lines of “After the 18-25 demographic was being touted as a big advantage for the Dems, the young voter turn-out was around the same as it was during the last election. After talking to friends and acquaintances who didn’t vote, it seemed that the primary reason was because they felt their vote didn’t matter. What are your thoughts on how to combat this argument and get more people my age involved in politics?” I did end-up getting a copy of his book and having him sign it, which is really what I needed– yet another political book in my queue of books to read.
Anyhow, it’s pretty amazing the Ed has grown to a national audience within 13 months, and seems to slowly be gaining more and more momentum; mostly by word of mouth. He’s not the typical Democrat, and he’ll readily admit that. I’d say he’s doing pretty well for a guy from Fargo (the city, not the movie, as he says) who claims the show is cutting into his huntin’ and fishin’ time.
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