A quick program note is in order. I just got back from the end of Day Four of the Democratic National Convention. The media tent had no WiFi access at all tonight, so I wasn't able to follow the work schedule I'd set for myself. My personal take is that the routers in the tent must have frozen solid in a giant block of ice. While it's nice to have air conditioning when it is 95-plus degrees outside, they had it set permanently to "meat locker" levels. I mean, when it's 97 degrees out, you don't think to bring along a coat, do you? Anyway, I am now connected again, so I'll be posting a few things, but I'm also now behind on the play-by-play so much that it'll have to wait until tomorrow. I've got a few things to post now, though, so after I format them, there'll be that, at least. My apologies for the delay, but this time (at least) it was due to circumstances beyond my control. More in a moment or two....

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Maybe I should have subtitled this "random notes from the whirlwind" -- this is going to be a collection of disjointed observations, at best, so I thought I'd just warn everyone up front not to expect a coherent narrative or anything. What follows are random notes from the Democratic National Convention that I haven't had the time to set down before now. The early portions of tonight's program in the arena are just an affirmation of Tim Kaine's nomination, so I'm going to skip trying to attend (or to even pay attention), as I did for the first day (Bernie supporters challenging rules) or the second day (roll call for presidential nomination). We are now halfway through the convention, after two days and nights. This year is more of a marathon event than the previous convention was in Charlotte, which only lasted three days. So here is everything I've noticed so far, in no particular order.

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**** Breaking News! ****

I am sitting in the media tent at the Wells Fargo Center, normally a pretty backwater sort of place at the Democratic National Convention. Things are generally pretty unexciting here, which is kind of the whole point. It's a place where media types can find a desk, a power supply, and some peace and quiet to write their stories up without the distractions of the convention itself, which is right next door.

However, a mild form of chaos has erupted. Almost immediately after Hillary Clinton was officially nominated by Bernie Sanders, at the end of the roll call of the Democratic delegates, hundreds of people streamed into the tent in a coordinated protest. From where I sit -- literally about fifteen feet from the action -- it seems like the aftermath of a major walkout of Bernie Sanders delegates from the floor of the convention.

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I conducted the following interview yesterday, before the convention actually started. Denise Merrill is a Connecticut delegate (although not, as she pointed out to me, a superdelegate) and serves Connecticut as their Secretary of State. A recent achievement was the state becoming the first to pass a campaign finance reform law which created a public financing system for elections -- all the other states with such laws created them through ballot initiatives or referenda.

I thought it would be interesting to hear the thoughts of a delegate to the Democratic National Convention who was fairly balanced about her position and could see the other side's point of view, rather than just focusing on those who are more (shall we say) impassioned.

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Day One of the Democratic National Convention is now over, and tonight seemed designed to allow Bernie Sanders supporters to vent their frustrations, given the lineup of speakers. All the most liberal and progressive speakers were lined up for the first night, which only served to concentrate the energy for Bernie Sanders. At first it was announced that Bernie would speak tonight, but not in primetime. Later this was changed to give Bernie the final speaking slot of the night (which was entirely the right move for the convention to make), but instead of getting into all of that I'm just going to jot down my initial reactions to the spectacle of the first night.

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Greetings from Philadelphia! I have just eaten a Geno's cheesesteak after a busy day getting ready for the Democratic National Convention to start, and I finally have some time to sit down and share a few preliminary thoughts.

First: there are disagreements between fellow party members, and then there are bitter knock-down drag-out family fights. Earlier today, I headed to the famous "cheesesteak corner" where two of the most famous of these establishments sit across the street from each other. As I pulled up, a magical parking space appeared in front of Geno's, so I took it as a sign from the culinary gods and pulled in and bought "two, Provolone, with." Later in the day, I saw Elizabeth Warren had tweeted a photo eating a cheesesteak across the street, at Pat's. Do I think any the less of her? No, and I hope she would return the favor. Minor differences of opinion matter little, in the long run. But the difference between Bernie supporters and those who favored Hillary Clinton go a lot deeper than which cholesterol-laden treat to enjoy. We're about to find out how deep those differences go, and whether they will be bridged this year. The Republicans struggled mightily to appear as united as possible last week, but in the end failed to do so. Will the Democrats also fail to convincingly sell the idea of party unity, even with Debbie Wasserman Schultz out as the party's head? That remains to be seen.

But before we get to all of that, a general observation is in order. Attending a national political convention and trying to report on what's going on is a little like being caught up in a whirlwind. "Now I know how Dorothy felt," in other words. The entire time, no matter what you're doing, what you're watching, or where you are; you always have a sneaking suspicion that you're missing the real story -- that something bigger or more exciting is going on where you aren't. If you're inside the convention hall, you wonder what's going on outside with the protesters. If you're outside on the streets, you're worried that big news is happening inside the arena. If you take time to type up an article, you could be missing all sorts of things. And that's even before you get to the evening parties, where (of course) you're worried that there's a better party with bigger names happening at the pub down the street.

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Program Notes: Before I begin, a few quick program notes are in order. I had promised a second installment of my "Friday Talking Points" retrospective today, but I didn't have time to put it together due to having to scurry around getting ready for our trip to Philadelphia. We've got the cat-sitter/house-sitter lined up, but there's always tons of last-minute stuff, so I just decided to bail on FTP and punt. So I'm re-running a column from only about a week ago, sorry for that (but you can see why it deserves more air time, today). Oh, I also have to admit, I have no idea what I'll be doing next Friday here at CW.com, either -- I can't even promise there will be a column at all.

This brings up a larger program note -- the schedule for next week will be absolutely fluid. Posts may appear at any time, in any order. Guest bloggers will be appearing. Multiple posts per day are possible. I may kick things off with a rare weekend post, on Sunday night. There will be no schedule at all -- it'll all be dependent on what is going on, when I have time to actually type and post, and what parties we'll be invited to (heh). But I'll try to post as frequently as circumstances allow.

Originally published on July 14, 2016

Will one of the most exciting primary election seasons ultimately end in sheer boredom? That was my immediate reaction today to hearing the news that Donald Trump is all but set on selecting Mike Pence as his running mate, and that Hillary Clinton's first choice might just be Tim Kaine. After I yawned widely, of course. Pence? Kaine? Really? These are the best two choices for vice president around? Wow.

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Donald Trump finally stopped talking, so I can now start writing. His speech went on for almost an hour and a half, which was a bit much for me -- especially after an exhausting week of listening to Republicans talk. But that's the end of the evening, so let's go back to the beginning and see how we got here.

A few overall thoughts (none very coherent, at this point) to begin with. First, they seemed to have a lot of musical interludes tonight that were mostly missing from earlier nights (or perhaps I just wasn't paying attention). It seemed like G. E. Smith and his band had the most time on stage of anyone tonight, other than Donald Trump. Their choice of songs was a little eclectic at times, as well.

Like last night, the scheduling was better than the first two nights. There were only a couple of snoozers, and the buildup to hearing Trump speak mostly was pretty smooth. Also, as Gwen Ifill of PBS put it: "The house is full for the first time this week." Everyone showed up to see the big night, instead of the upper decks being almost deserted. A bigger crowd meant a lot better response to almost all the speakers.

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Heading into tonight's speechifying, I was convinced that Ted Cruz would emerge afterwards as the heir apparent to the Republican nomination in 2020, should Donald Trump fail to win in November. Now, I'm not so sure.

But before we get to the big story of the night, let's start at the beginning. Today, the realization finally dawned in the Trump camp that they had to do something to stop the bleeding over the plagiarism storyline. A staffer was summarily dragged out who offered to fall on her own sword, and magnanimous Donald pardoned her, saying "everyone makes mistakes." So they likely successfully prevented the story from continuing for another day. But it would have been overshadowed anyway (obviously) by the end of the night.

But again, I'm getting ahead of myself. John Kasich also stirred the pot a bit today, saying he was courted for Trump's veep and that, furthermore, they offered him control over both the domestic and foreign agenda, leaving Trump to... um, play golf? The Trump camp immediately denied the story, which only served to highlight the Trump/Kasich feud even further than Kasich's refusal to set foot in the arena already had.

Tonight, the scheduling finally approached professionalism, I have to say (as an overall comment). There was a slow build throughout the night from all the speakers (and their placement), the minor folks in the first hour, the more prominent in the second hour, and (excepting Callista Gingrich's bizarre appearance), the third and primetime hour was nothing but the A-list -- with no minor-leaguers left hanging at the end of the night after the excitement was over and the crowd had gone home. So there was that, at the very least. To put this another way, tonight's trainwreck did not resemble that of the previous two nights of scheduling idiocy -- it was for an entirely different reason.

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We are now halfway through the Republican National Convention, and I still have yet to hear a single policy proposal or thing that the Republicans or Donald Trump are for. Well, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but not by much.

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