Thursday watch parties set across Idaho

There's a growing list of Democratic National Convention watch parties slated for Thursday night, when Barack Obama will accept the party's presidential nomination at Denver's Mile High Stadium. The big Boise event will take place at the Basque Center; details here. Canyon Countians will gather at Market Limone in Nampa. Parties are also planned in Coeur d'Alene, Hailey, McCall, Moscow, Pocatello, and Post Falls. Go to BarackObama.com and search on events to find the parties nearest you. MoveOn.org is holding speech-watching parties, too; click here for information.

Now, for today's roundup of Idaho coverage from Denver: 43rd State Blues has video of yesterday's convention opening. ... Jill at New West has a beautifully written account of Teddy Kennedy's appearance. ... New West's David also has a profile of Steven Mercado and Julian Langness, two of the delegation's youngest members ... Nicole has some cool pix and insider's info at Notes From the Floor ... Megan writes about a long, rewarding first DNC day at Blue Girl from a Red State.

And that's not all! The Denver NBC affiliate KUSA did this story on the seating switcheroo between the Delaware and Idaho delegations. Video here, print story here. ... KPVI from Pocatello filed this piece focused on McCain attack ads and Senator Clinton's votes, though they worked in a few comments from delegate Jim Fletcher and Larry LaRocco, who traveled to Denver last night ...

Then there's the Idaho's mention in a very long story that Roger Simon has penned for Politico, "Relentless: How Barack Obama outsmarted Hillary Clinton." Here's the local-interest nugget, from near the end of the piece:

Now take two other Feb. 5 states, Idaho and New Jersey. Idaho? Did the Clinton campaign care from Idaho? It did not. To the Clinton campaign, Idaho was an odd place that had more potatoes than people, and it was also a caucus state, which the Clintons hated. New Jersey was a different matter. It bordered New York, it was a primary state and it was Clinton Country. But the Obama campaign targeted key congressional districts in New Jersey to keep Hillary’s victory margin there as small as possible. “In Idaho, we had a 15-3 win in terms of delegates, and in New Jersey, she had a 59-48 win,” (Obama national director of delegate operations Jeff) Berman said. Do the math. Obama gets a 12-delegate net win out of Idaho -- tiny, weird, potato-infested Idaho -- and Hillary gets only an 11-delegate net win out of New Jersey. “So we got a greater net gain out of Idaho than she got in New Jersey,” Berman said.

Read the whole article here, when you get time. Muchas gracias to Brett for several of these links. We'll be back with the Day 2 open thread late this afternoon. Here's the full schedule for tonight ... and here's to tiny weird, potato-infested Idaho!

Comments

[Sara Anderson]

In Latah County, the Dems are renting a movie theater downtown. I'll take pics and put 'em up on Friday or whenever I get a chance.

[Sara Anderson]

Um, downtown Moscow, which I suppose would be the downtown area of Latah County.

[Julie in Boise]

Sara, I heard about that. It sounds really cool! I wish we had a set-up like that here in Boise. Looking forward to your pix ...