“Vermonter” Neil Jensen has been blogging about Barack Obama longer than anyone else I know. This election has been a long haul for many of us, but Neil has really been at it for a long time, and while it’s still not quite over, he has finally managed to at least fill in the little oval next to his candidate’s name. Congratulations, Neil.

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And here, JD tapes Hilary’s historic halting of the roll call…

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So it turns out that JD Ryan, our Exit Voices correspondent on the scene in Denver for the DNC, is posting all of the really good stuff on his own blog, Five Before Chaos (even though we gave him the camera!).  Here are the videos he’s posted over there so far.  Nice work, JD!  Keep ‘em coming!

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The Democratic National Convention is being held this week in Denver and a strong contingent of Vermonters are in attendance, many of who will be blogging and videoblogging their way through the event.

Exit Voices even has a correspondent on-site!  J.D. Ryan, a Vermont political blogger for Green Mountain Daily and his own Five Before Chaos blog is in Denver this week carrying around a little video camera that we provided for him.  He’ll be posting snippets of his adventures on a (hopefully) daily basis this week, so stay tuned!

J.D. is hartdly the only Vermont blogger to keep your eyes on though.  Fellow GMD blogger John Odum has his own camera and will be video blogging at the behest of zannel.com — his first post is up already, so go check it out!  Vermont Daily Briefing’s Philip Baruth is gracing the Burlington Free Press’ website with his own special convention blog, The Deal in Denver.

Christian Avard is in Denver doing some writing for The Huffington Post, and Kevin Kelly will be blogging about his Denver exploits at Seven Days’ staff blog, Blurt.

There’s more too!  Check out this GMD post for a rundown, and keep a browser tab open to Exit Voices for J.D.’s exclusive coverage.  (Did I just write “exclusive coverage?” That’s so cool!)

Of course, The convention is mostly a planned affair and few surprises are expected, but it will be interesting to follow the perspectives of all of these Vermonters who are so deeply committed to politics.

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Broadsides‘ Michael Colby has a post up today that’s critical of the leading Democratic presidential candidates.  According to Colby, Obama’s appeal is all about his rhetoric, but when it comes to issues, he’s just another craven politician.  Colby writes…

There is apparently no end to the suspension of logic. But I guess we already know that since the dominant theme of the apparent winner of the Dem Oz-fest is the “man of hope,” Obama. At least he’s being honest. He’s not talking about accomplishments. Revolution. Systematic overhaul. Peace. Or any such measure of true change. Nope, just hope. And the crowds go wild, tap, tap tapping away….

All this hope comes from a most distinguished place of privilege too. If you’ve got a couple of years to do little but hope you certainly aren’t amongst those who are dodging bullets and IEDs in Baghdad. Or amongst those who are drowning in the financial atrocities of the subprime fiasco. Or amongst those who are so marginalized by the workforce that they no longer even qualify to be counted in unemployment numbers. And just try to send a hopeful note to your insurance corporation seeking an extension on the policy you can no longer afford. Good luck with that.

Sorry, but hope works better on a bumpersticker.

Read Colby’s entire post here.

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UVM professor, novelist, VPR commentator and blogger Philip Baruth has been invited to address a group of young Obama supporters at Nectar’s tonight in downtown Burlington.  According to Baruth…

 A small army of UVM students, led by student organizer Dana Jokela, have thrown together an impressive event for Monday night, aimed squarely at turning out the youth vote for Obama. They’ve asked me to speak somewhere between a band called The Sepia Tones, and another by the name of Chainlink Gunlove. Which sounds fairly intense. Stop by, talk strategy, or just groove on the gunlove, whatever that turns out to be.

The event is billed as “Barack Obama Jam for Change” and it begins tonight at 9pm at Nectar’s.

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Vermont Public Television will host a live web chat with representatives from all three major presidential candidates this coming Wednesday evening at 7:30 pm. The one-hour chat is free and anyone is welcome to participate. According to VPT, blogger Neil Jensen of Vermonters for Obama; former governor Madeleine Kunin, co-chair of Hillary Clinton’s Vermont Campaign; and Robert Chernin, a McCain supporter, have agreed to participate.

The web chat is part of VPT’s Vermont Primary Tracker, which the public television channel describes as “a website for keeping up to date with the state’s presidential primary.” According to VPT…

Vermont Primary Tracker offers a variety of content, including candidate information and position papers. Discussion areas include issues of special concern to Vermont voters, such as retirement security and health
care, as well as broader topics like the Iraq war, global warming and education.

Go to VPT’s website to login to the web chat.

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