Ted, Michelle and a couple of nutters - Jon Snow in Denver, Colorado
Updated on 26 August 2008
Jon Snow witnesses Michelle Obama's opening gambit at the Democrat Convention in Denver, Colorado.
Eat yer heart out Clint Eastwood, this is the American West.
Spectacular mountains and valleys, turbulent and shockingly hot weather - and Denver, Colorado.
I haven't been here in 20 years and it's five times the size it was when I last saw it - a massive concrete sprawl of urban America backed by the incredible shapes of the mountains beyond. An ugly ring of low rise tedium encircles the high rise blobs of downtown Denver peeping through the smog.
My vantage point was a hill above Table Mountain North where William Franklin Cody is buried - Buffalo Bill to you and me. I visited his grave and the tawdry shop close by - an installation that has clearly never enjoyed the best of times.
So here we are at the Democrat Convention in a town where nearly everyone seems to be in their car.
We are in an armed camp, which is a good thing too as a couple of nutters were rounded up in possession of rifles, military fatigues and telescopic sights. The FBI says there was no 'credible threat' to Obama (who is in Kansas anyway).
Sarah Smith will be reporting on two events. Ted Kennedy, miraculously rising from his cancer bed, has come once again to take a Democratic Convention by storm. He looked battered but not yet beaten.
And then there is the significant appearance of Michelle Obama, who seized the emotions and the politics of the place and lit new fires in the hearts of many in the hall.
Her presentation was extraordinary. Wearing a plain yet bold turquoise dress she spoke with passion and point - touching areas that would woo the doubters, targeting Hillary supporters and McCainites alike.
That's quite enough from me. This is hot stuff here. See you at seven as ever!
