Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012. The ultimate irony of my journey to Charlotte as a delegate for President Obama from the state of Oregon is that it began on Sunday from Los Angeles, California’s LAX airport. It will no doubt be my dark convention secret—one that might have prevented my election as a statewide delegate in June. Though folks in Oregon may respect Stanford Law’s reputation, I am not sure they want someone who touts Cardinal representing our solid blue state. So please understand as you read this blog, that I write at great risk to my reputation.

Nevertheless, my wife Katie’s job, as an Air Force JAG at Los Angeles Air Force base, made an LAX departure necessary. And appropriately enough, as with most good things in my life, this trip was made possible by Katie who strapped our three-month-old daughter, Madeleine, in the car seat at 11:45 pm for the ride to the airport. As I kissed them both good-bye, the idea of participating in what might amount to a staged show in Charlotte seemed silly, a tremendously stupid thing to do. Wouldn’t the time be better spent with them? And the money better spent on diapers and future college tuition?

But as I looked at Maddy, I thought about the fact that this convention and this election will help determine the direction of the country and world she will grow up in and that she will leave to her children. The realization made me feel just a little bit more responsible about leaving her as I turned toward the Delta airline counter. Thank God both Maddy and Katie will be joining me on Wednesday. This will be the longest our new family has been apart.

In some sense the convention serves as a reminder of the larger family we all belong to. I have met many people that scoff at that notion of belonging and family stemming from politics. But as I checked in for my flight to Charlotte via Memphis, the gentleman at the ticket counter asked if I was going for the DNC. When I answered yes, he told me that my checked bags (which were mostly diapers, baby wipes, and a car seat) would all fly free—as long as I promised to cheer a bit extra for the working men and women who would be making sure my bags got to Charlotte. I promised.

I certainly love being a Democrat.

As I went through security, I met a fellow delegate, an older woman from Orange County, California. Her Obama-button earrings gave her away. On the plane to Memphis, I met another, a 67-year-old woman who serves as an employment counselor for the state of California, who told me that she had never seen an economy like this one, with so many people in need of support as they look for work. In the Memphis Airport I crossed paths with a Utah delegate at the Starbucks counter, then two Massachusetts delegates as I sat down at the gate. Looking around, most people had on an Obama T-shirt, or a rising-O ball cap. It felt like drops of progressive water from all over the country coming together into a mighty Democratic river.
We board the plane, and feel a special magic—a huge steel machine lifting into the sky. We are finally Charlotte-bound.

I woke up without having realized I’d fallen asleep, as the pilot announced that we had begun final approach. As we landed, a delegate from Tennessee began the chant for “four more years,” and though the energy was wonderful, what I really would have loved was four more hours of sleep. I suspected that this feeling would be a continuing trend during this trip and in the weeks after. But there will always be time to sleep after November.

The baggage claim hall was swarming with DNC greeters. I grabbed my bags and jumped on the bus for my hotel. Across from me was Vop Osili, who ran for Secretary of State of Indiana in 2010, losing to a man who would later be convicted of voter fraud. Vop was a wonderful conversationalist, but as he leapt off the bus for his hotel I realized that his laptop was still in his seat. I began to form an idea of how he might have lost his race… Fortunately, the driver was only too happy to help an Obama delegate and drove back to the hotel we just left.

Also on the bus were delegates from Louisiana, and judging from how long our bus ride took, I am guessing Oregon, Louisiana and Indiana are not considered in play this election. “The shorter your bus ride, the more the campaign cares about your state” is a commonly accepted adage.

I arrived at the hotel with enough time to share hugs with a few other Oregonians, pick up a schedule and my credentials, and grab a bag of convention swag (my favorite is a shirt for the element “Obamium,” discovered in 2008, density “365,” boiling point “No Drama,” and an atomic weight of 66,882,230— Oregonians are so proud to be nerdy). I ran through the shower to be decent before the evening multi-state party.

So much of what happens at a convention seems just designed to get folks talking and feeling good, and the multi-state party at the Levine Museum of the New South with Arizona, Idaho, Colorado and Nevada did just that. Nothing like a great live band, shrimp and grits, and an open bar to get folks feeling friendly. But you know it is a political event when most people form connections via the campaigns they worked on in the past.
Exhausted, I walked a bit outside to see Charlotte’s uptown and the sites for the upcoming days. It was amazing to realize how tightly packed everything is: the Convention Center, where the caucus meeting will be, the Time Warner Center, where the convention will take place, and the media outlets. Everyone will be on top of each other for the next few days. I hunted down the CNN Grill so I knew where to find it—they do my favorite post-convention day reporting.

Waiting for the bus to the hotel with the entire Oregon delegation at the end of the night, Jesse Jackson passed by to great cheers. He then passed by again to stronger cheers. Then a third time to familiar waves of hello. We all started to get the feeling he is a big fan of Oregon.
But after a great start to the Convention, who wouldn’t be?

James Allen “Jake” Klonoski is a Navy veteran who served in Afghanistan, fought piracy off the coast of Somalia, and deployed in support of the 2011 conflict in Libya. He co-founded the Stanford Law Veterans Organization and is active with the American Constitution Society. He will graduate from Stanford Law School in 2013.