Sept., 4, 2012. Charlotte, N.C. The evening progressed as a veritable Where’s Waldo of high-profile politicians and celebrities, with Michael Dukakis bumping into John Leguizamo on the stairs next to me. But the Where’s Waldo effect is somewhat ruined if everyone is a Waldo, which can happen very quickly. If the speeches are dull the night quickly devolves into a game of “Name That Famous Face.”

Fortunately there were very few speakers who turned out to be unmemorable. Democratic delegates seemed to take the job of rallying enthusiastically very seriously. Furthermore, the interest and debate that delegates poured into the Platform Committee’s work resulted in a document that could be enthusiastically discussed and cheered even through a speaker who turns out to be a dud.
The speaker for this year’s platform, Cory Booker, Stanford BA ’91, did not require forced enthusiasm, and his thunderous reception and speech delivery brought delegates who had left the hall to get a hotdog or who had been waylaid by The Daily Show correspondents running back to their seats.
The night progressed in a rising tide of energy and by primetime, the floor got really packed and most folks could not bring themselves to sit down.
Only a powerful interlude, like the short film reflecting on the life of Ted Kennedy could calm the room. And still, even in a calm moment, a clip from the 1994 Kennedy-Romney debate could turn tearful sighs into shouts of delight. Sitting in the convention hall one risks serious emotional whiplash.
Some of the best speakers in my opinion turned out to be the testimonials: the woman whose daughter was born with a heart defect, speaking in favor of Obamacare; the former Marine from Ohio speaking in favor of the Obama administration’s support for veterans; and the military mom who introduced Michelle Obama. Who makes it onto primetime coverage is immaterial in the convention hall, as each spoke with the tremendous volume of an average citizen, often drowning out the speeches of polished politicians’.
Now, during primetime the most difficult task during the big speeches is sign distribution. For each big speaker, the Obama campaign created a separate sign, sometimes two, and then had to distribute them on the fly to 6000 people with instructions on how they were exactly to be used over a period of two minutes, It is an amazing thing to see when it works, as it did with Julian Castro and Michelle Obama. The signs also made great souvenirs for convention-goers.
Though the distribution effort can distract from listening to the speaker—especially if you have an aisle seat—and some delegates claimed it was easier to watch the whole thing on television, there was no replacing the feeling of straining your throat to shout louder during a call for “four more years” after a powerful portion of a speech, or taking a moment to look around the room and take in the history being made. It left you with the most amazing emotional high.
And it was a good thing that today’s speakers left everyone on such a positive high, because it kept the crowd calm as they poured out of the center. In the end, a good speaker is really a safety requirement, as you need to have folks wanting to exit back into the real world slowly, savoring each moment. The blissful feeling ensures no one gets a short temper in the bumping and jostling flow of humanity that slowly, slowly spills back onto the streets of Charlotte.
Fortunately, Mayor Castro and Michelle Obama delivered that high. When folks smashed into another convention-goer from behind, pushed forward by the crowd, the victim of the collision usually turned around with a smile rather than sharp words. Thankfully, this was the case even when a surge of humanity pushed me much closer to Wayne Knight, Seinfeld’s Newman, than the TV show ever allowed me to be. After I peeled myself off his back he turned and said now that we were such close friends, we’d need to get a picture together once we were outside.

Democratic conventions bring together the most interesting combinations of people.

The fact that buses usually run slowly once the after-parties end and you’ve done your mandatory wave behind the CNN anchorman doesn’t really matter. The extra time simply allows you the wonderful experience of discussing the magic of the experience with strangers waiting with you, and to exclaim to one another that tomorrow surely cannot be any better.

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.