Wait Wait DNC Dispatch #2

0:04Okay, there is the official music that we downloaded royalty free. We are once again at the DNC in Chicago. This is our second dispatch. How's everybody's DNC step count looking? Mine was excellent. Just because I, well, got lost. That'll do it. You did. I did, in fact, get lost. I actually ended up, and I should say the United Center is, of course, an arena, meaning that it's sort of oval shaped. Yeah. And it's symmetrical on all axes almost, right? So at one point, I was desperately trying to find the NPR booth. And I realized I couldn't find it. And I'm like, why can't I find it? Why did they hide it?

0:47I was here the night before. And I realized I was literally on the other side of the building from where it was. You were as far as possible as you could be. Exactly. And still be inside the building. I guess technically in three dimensions, I could have been in the basement. I was at least on the right level. Speaking of the United Center. Yes. There's something that happened yesterday. imagine that you are in the United Center, which is, you know, it is a profession. It is a NBA arena and an NHL arena. It has a capacity of 25, 23 ,000 people. Something like that. It's full. And everybody is so excited.

1:21They have traveled from all across the country, all these territories to fill this place. The energy is amazing. Everybody just wants to party. There's music playing. The vibe is really good. And then at a certain point, someone comes on the PA and makes an announcement. We are about to take the official 2024 National Committee panoramic photograph. Which sounds like a great idea. Right. Then they say no one can move during this photo. There are tens of thousands of people who are vibrating. And they say, we're going to need you to be still for this photo. Then they say the camera is 110 years old.

2:09And it's a fourth-generation photographer who has taken many a panoramic photo. They turn on his mic so that he can direct the crowd to be still. Please listen to a boss who is located in the center blue press stand in the center of the hall. He keeps telling everybody to stop moving. He is talking on a microphone to 20 ,000 people. There is some moving in the hall. Please, wherever you are, stay right there. You're going to make other people glare. Please hold it right there. I greatly appreciate that. And then he begins singling out people who are moving. There is some movement. Please, please stay right there.

2:52He's begging. He's negotiating. It's so funny. Do not move. You can hear, like, listen to the frustration in his voice.

3:05So after all of that, listen to this.

3:12He just said, here goes the real camera. Everything up to this point was not the real camera.

3:22There's this feeling in the room that it's like a class photo. and everyone was wrong in it and you're going to have to write a note to the photographer later apologizing. And your mom will be mad because when she gets her packet of photos she paid for, you're blurred. Yeah. How could you have been blurred? After, I'm going to say, five minutes of trying to get everyone to be still, we got here. I converge with all of you. Thank you for your passion. And people clearly were very happy, I think, to have this moment over with. Because that is the joy you're hearing. Did you guys note? So this is one of the things I noted when I was lost and wandering around.

4:01So people should know that everybody at the convention has credentials. But not all credentials are the same. Each credential gets you just into a certain level. There's like one credential that only gets you into the perimeter outside the building. And another credential that gets you inside. And another credential that gets into a certain level. And what that means is, is like everybody was desperate to try to get into some place where they could sit. that they were allowed to sit. And when I was walking around, there were people who were standing in the back and angry about that, people who had given up.

4:32A friend of mine who was also up in the rafters, a volunteer at the DNC, actually said that a fight broke out between people vying for a seat in his section just after Bernie Sanders called for community and cooperation. Wow. So, yeah, things got dicey up there toward the end of the evening.

5:00Emma, after the photo, you got a text. Do you want to talk about what happened? Oh, yes. So yesterday we talked about the Mayor's Pub, right, which is a bar and it's only for mayors. And earlier I had just loitered around the Mayor's Pub waiting to see if I could catch a mayor to bring me into the pub. Yeah, you and I went down there and we decided we would stand there and anybody who looked like they might be a mayor, we would go up and ask them if they were a mayor and if they would escort us in. Define looking like a mayor. Thank you for the question. I was looking for top hats and sashes. Not a lot of them there.

5:37But there was this one guy wearing a very nice suit and a yellow tie on his phone and I thought this guy might be Mr. Mayor. Excuse me? Hi, I work for NPR. Can I ask you a question? Trickly? Are you a mayor? No, I'm not. Sorry. What are you doing here? I'm a chief of staff to a mayor. Wait, really? Who's your mayor? Kathy Sheehan from Albany, New York. Okay. Do you want to talk to her? Well, I would love to get into the mayor's pub. I'll text my mayor right now and see if she'll come up. I love it. Okay, see you soon. See you soon. First try, I got a big bite. And so, anyways, later after the roll call, David, the chief of staff, texts me.

6:11He's like, me and Mayor Sheehan are headed down to the mayor's pub. Meet us there. And so I book it. Hi. Hi, Emma. Nice to meet you. Mayor Sheehan, so nice to meet you. Am I allowed to come in? The pub, just for a second. The pub is like any bar, but all the decoration around the room is mayor-themed. There's a neon sign called Mayor's Matter, and people are just milling around. It's pretty busy, and there's one thin velvet rope separating it from the outside hallway. Oh, my God. I just stepped over the rope. You're fine. Are you going to get me in trouble? I'm not the boss of the rope, but you can come over the rope.

6:44Well, if this rope was in Albany, I feel like you'd be the boss of the rope. Oh, I would 100 % be the boss of the rope, Rope with rope wouldn't be there. So true. There would be no rope. Well, can you introduce yourself quickly to us? I'm Kathy Sheehan, and I'm the mayor of Albany, New York. Do you have best mayor friends? I have lots of mayor friends. It is a really great group of people. And I will tell you this. It is the most bipartisan group of people that you could meet anywhere. We say all the time, there are not Republican potholes and Democratic potholes. There are just potholes. I'm a little bit disappointed that I don't see anyone in this pub wearing a top hat and a sash.

7:20Wearing a what? A top hat and a sash. Do you guys, where are they? Yeah, I don't know where those mayors are, but these mayors are dressed to get things done. Do you at least have a key to the city in your pocket? I do not have a key to the city in my pocket. Where is she, him? I'm sorry, I don't. Is there any mayor friends here right now that you can introduce me to? Sure, I can introduce you to another mayor who is doing a lot of work for the campaign. Let me just grab Tashara Jones. She's mayor of St. Louis. Hi, I'm Emma. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. I'm mayor Tashara Jones from St. Louis, Missouri.

7:58I'm such a huge fan of your city. Do you have a key to the city on you? No, I don't carry them. Nobody has them on them. What's your top hat and your sash? No, I don't carry those around, but I do carry my cell phones. Parole. Come on. I'm India Kincannon, the mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee. Do you have a key to the city on you? I do not. They're sort of heavy. I'm sorry. I have a business card. How big are they? Oh, well, beyond your imagination. Can you introduce yourself quickly? Yeah, my name's Mayor Brandon Sackbun, B-R-A-N-D-O-N, S-A-K-B-U-N. I'm the 28-year-old mayor of Terre Haute, Indiana.

8:38Oh, my gosh. Youngest mayor of, are you the youngest mayor of your town? Youngest mayor in tariff history, yeah. Do you have a key to the city on you right now? Do I have a key to the city on me? With all due respect, I'm a millennial. I don't use a lot of keys or cash. What mayor do you think we should talk to next? Ooh, have you chatted with Miss Mayor Angie Nelson from Michigan City, Indiana? Hello, I'm Emma. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Okay, every other mayor I've asked this has said no, but do you have a key to the city on you? No. No one carries the keys to their city? But I was scared to bring my keys, period.

9:14So I'm only about an hour away from Chicago. So I left my keys at home so I wouldn't lose them. Okay, fair enough. And then no one, oh, this man over here is the first man I've seen, mayor I've seen, hopefully, wearing a sash. That's my guy from Sheboygan. Yeah, my name's Ryan Sorensen. I'm the mayor of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. And you guys are pals. Of course. You were the first mayor that I assumed, I assumed every mayor wears a top hat and a sash. Yeah. You were the first mayor who's wearing a sash. Well, of course, we've got to look the part. Us mayors have got to represent. There have been other mayors with sashes, but...

9:49Really? Not right here, right now. Okay, I'm looking for them. Do you wear the sash every day? Not every day, no. Just for parades, festivals, and keg tappings. A what? Keg tappings. You know when you tap a keg to celebrate an event? Do you do an official mayoral keg stand? Not officially, no. Off the record? Off the record, maybe.

10:15Peter, you went to a party. Yeah, apparently much of the action at this sort of thing happens at parties, so I felt I had to go to a party. I'm not a party guy, but I got an invitation to the Axios party because I have friends who are other friends of the Chicago Axios. I think if there was ever a party for not a party guy, it's the Axios party, yeah. But it had the whole party experience. It was an event space. They had a range of speakers. They had Kathy Hochul plus Gina Raimondo and Bill Daly, who was the brother of our mayor. So that's exciting. And there were a number, a small fraction of people paying attention to what they were saying.

10:51And 70 % of the people were going after the free food buffet like lions at a carcass of a wildebeest. Which one were you? I, I, I, the line for the food was so long and I had just gotten in. I didn't want to immediately go into it. So I decided to wait until the line died down and I waited too long and they just broke down the whole buffet and it vanished. But so I felt a little bit at sea at this party. I'm not a party goer. I'm certainly not a political party goer. But I happened to run into Molly Jong fast at the convention. Now, Molly is an interesting person. She's a, she's a political socialite.

11:26Her main thing is she has gathered all these political people who she has invited to her house for parties. So I said to her, you know, as a political socialite, what is the key to a successful political party? Just pretending you remember everybody. Really? This is a D.C. versus New York thing. In New York, you go to school with someone, you know them your whole life, and they pretend they don't know you because they don't want to deal with you or whatever. In D.C., you may or may not have met the person a hundred times. you pretend you know them because people hate being forgotten and you just try to sort of on the fly.

12:02So how do you do that? Do you go up to somebody and say, oh my God, it's so good to see you. The most important thing is they look at you, you look at them, there's some flicker of recognition and then you say, so great to see you versus so great to meet you. And this is the difference between DC and New York. As far as I can tell, that's it. Really? That is so true. I've I grew up in D.C., around D.C. I just lived in New York. That is so true. Especially, like, something I noticed in D.C., someone will be like, I like your outfit. But in New York, they'll say, where did you get your outfit? I feel like this just tells me the only party I want to go to is a mayor party.

12:38It feels like that's where the mayor party was the party to be at. Were there any mayors at the Axios party? There were just a lot of— You've not had your fill of mayors at this point. Well, at this point, though, I'm beginning to believe that if there had been mayors, it would have been a better party. You know, the thing about mayors is that they're not focused on clout, right? You would think maybe because they're going to fade down Emma here because I have a feeling that this isn't going to stop. And we need to get out of here and get back to the DNC. Yes. Peter, thank you so much for exploring the DNC with Emma and me.

13:12We're going to get out there and see if we can find more stories of, what did we say yesterday? The weirdos and dignitaries that make our country great. Yes. That make our country what it is. And some mayors, apparently. More mayors. At the Democratic Mayoral Convention. DMC. Run, DMC. Yeah. Run, Emma, to the DMC.