Foreign Press Center

I had a really cool opportunity today as someone at the State Department invited me to brief foreign journalists at the DNC about the Latino vote. So this afternoon I made my way downtown to the convention center where the journalists are located (a colleague advised me where to park, which turned out to be much easier than I had feared). The scene outside was an odd combination of festival and security--live music, minor protesting, and guys from Men in Black everywhere. Entire streets are fenced off and the police do their best to look as unfriendly as possible.

Inside the Foreign Press Center it felt like a class lecture because I stood at a podium in front of about 40-50 journalists, made some opening remarks, then took questions. Then I took follow up questions individually with people from a number of different countries. Ultimately I also did TV interviews with Australians, Colombians, and Georgians. Really a once in a lifetime experience (unless they bring the DNC back here after this bad weather).

There were journalists at tables with laptops everywhere in an emormous room. It was a reminder about how important U.S. presidential elections are--for better or worse--all around the world.