Wait Wait DNC Dispatch #2

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Speaker 1 Okay, there is the official music that we downloaded royalty-free. We are once again at the DNC in Chicago.
This is our second dispatch. How's everybody's DNC step count looking? Mine was excellent.

Speaker 1 Just

Speaker 1 because I, well, got lost. That'll do it.
You did. I did, in fact, get lost.

Speaker 1 I actually ended up, and I should say the United Center is, of course, an arena, meaning that it's sort of oval shaped and it's symmetrical on all axes almost, right?

Speaker 1 So at one point, I was desperately trying to find the NPR booth, and I realized I couldn't find it. And I was like, why can't I find it? Why did they hide it?

Speaker 1 I was here the night before, and I realized I was literally on the other side of the building from

Speaker 1 where it was. So as far as possible from could be exactly and still be inside the building.

Speaker 1 I guess technically in three dimensions, I could have been in the basement. I was at least on the right level.
Speaking of the United Center, there's something that happened yesterday.

Speaker 1 Imagine that you are in the United Center, which is, you know, it is a professional, it is an NBA arena and an NHL arena. It has a capacity of 25,000, 23,000 people.
Something like that. It's full.

Speaker 1 And everybody is so excited. They have traveled from all across the country, all these territories to fill this place.
The energy is amazing. Everybody just wants to party.
There's music playing.

Speaker 1 The vibe is really good. And then at a certain point, someone comes on the PA and makes an announcement.

Speaker 4 We are about to take the official 2024 National Committee panoramic photographs.

Speaker 1 At this time,

Speaker 1 no one can move

Speaker 1 during this photo.

Speaker 1 There are tens of thousands of people who are vibrating, and they say, we're going to need you to be still for this photo.

Speaker 1 Then they say the camera is 110 years old.

Speaker 1 And this is a fourth-generation photographer who has taken many a panoramic photo.

Speaker 1 They turn on his mic so that he can direct the crowd

Speaker 1 to be still.

Speaker 4 Please listen to a boss who is located in the center blue press stand in the center of the hall.

Speaker 1 He keeps telling everybody to stop moving. He is talking on a microphone to 20,000 people.

Speaker 7 glare. Please hold it right there.

Speaker 7 I greatly appreciate that.

Speaker 1 And then he begins singling out people who are moving.

Speaker 7 Movement, please, please stay right there.

Speaker 8 He's begging. He's negotiating.

Speaker 1 It's so funny.

Speaker 7 Do not move.

Speaker 1 You can hear, like, listen to the frustration in his voice.

Speaker 1 So, after all of that, listen to this.

Speaker 7 Here goes the real camera.

Speaker 1 He just said, here goes the real camera. Everything up to this point was not the real camera.

Speaker 7 It's an extremely sensitive camera.

Speaker 8 There's this feeling in the room that it's like a class photo and everyone was wrong in it and you were going to have to write a note to the photographer later apologizing.

Speaker 1 And your mom will be mad because when she gets her packet of photos she paid for, you're blurred. Yes.
How could you have been blurred?

Speaker 1 After,

Speaker 1 I'm going to say five minutes of trying to get everyone to be still, we got here.

Speaker 9 I congratulate all of you.

Speaker 6 Thank you for your pension.

Speaker 1 And people clearly were very happy, I think, to have this moment over with. Because that is the joy you're hearing.

Speaker 1 Did you guys note, so this is one of the things I noted when I was lost and wandering around.

Speaker 1 So people should know that everybody at the convention has credentials, but not all credentials are the same. Each credential gets you just into a certain level.

Speaker 1 There's like one credential that only gets you into the perimeter outside the building, and another credential that gets you inside, and another credential that gets into a certain level.

Speaker 1 And what that means is, is like everybody was desperate to try to get into someplace where they could sit, that they were allowed to sit.

Speaker 1 And when I was walking around, there were people who were standing in the back and angry about that, people who had given up.

Speaker 1 A friend of mine who was also up on the rafters, a volunteer at the DNC, actually said that a fight broke out between people vying for a seat in his section just after Bernie Sanders called for community and cooperation.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 yeah, things got dicey up there toward the end of the evening.

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Speaker 1 Emma, after the photo, you got a text. Do you want to talk about what happened?

Speaker 8 Oh, yes. So yesterday we talked about the mayor's pub, right? Which is a bar and it's only for mayors.

Speaker 8 And earlier, I had just loitered around the mayor's pub waiting to see if I could catch a mayor to bring me into the pub.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you and I went down there and we decided we would stand there and anybody who looked like they might be a mayor, we would go up and ask them if they were.

Speaker 1 a mayor and if we could if they would escort us in. Define looking like a mayor.

Speaker 8 Thank you for the question. I was looking for top hats and sashes.

Speaker 8 Not a lot of them there but there was this one guy wearing a very nice suit and a yellow tie on his phone and I thought this guy might be Mr. Mayor.
Excuse me?

Speaker 9 Hi, I work for NPR.

Speaker 11 Can I ask you a question quickly?

Speaker 12 Are you a mayor? No, I'm not.

Speaker 9 What are you doing here?

Speaker 12 I'm a chief of staff to a mayor. Wait, really? Who's your mayor?

Speaker 12 Kathy Shannon from Albany, New York. Okay, she.

Speaker 13 Do you want to talk to her? Well, I would love to get into the mayor's pub.

Speaker 12 I'll talk to my mayor right now and see if she'll come up with it. I love it.
Okay, see you soon. See you soon.

Speaker 8 First try, I got a big bite. And so, anyways, later after the roll call, David, the chief of staff, texts me.
He's like, me and Mayor Sheehan are headed down to the Mayor's Pub. Meet us there.

Speaker 8 And so I book it.

Speaker 6 Hi!

Speaker 6 Hi, Emma.

Speaker 9 Mayor Shee-Han, so nice to meet you.

Speaker 14 Am I allowed to come in?

Speaker 8 The pub, just for a second. The pub is like any bar, but it's all, all the decoration around the room is mayor-themed.
There's a neon sign called Mayor's Matter, and people are just milling around.

Speaker 8 It's like pretty busy, and there's one thin velvet rope separating it from the outside hallway.

Speaker 9 Oh my god, I just stepped over the rope.

Speaker 14 You're fine.

Speaker 14 Are you gonna get the intro?

Speaker 15 I'm not the boss of the rope, but you can come over the rope.

Speaker 13 Well, if this rope was in Albany, I feel like you'd be the boss of the rope.

Speaker 15 Oh, I would 100% be the boss of the rope, but the rope wouldn't be there.

Speaker 14 So true.

Speaker 9 Well, can you introduce yourself quickly to us?

Speaker 15 I'm Kathy Sheehan, and I'm the mayor of Albany, New York.

Speaker 13 Do you have best mayor friends?

Speaker 15 I have lots of mayor friends. It is a really great group of people.
And I will tell you this, it is the most bipartisan group of people that you could meet anywhere.

Speaker 15 We say all the time there are not Republican potholes and Democratic potholes. There are just potholes.

Speaker 13 I'm a little bit disappointed that I don't see anyone in this pub wearing a top hat and a sash.

Speaker 15 Wearing a what?

Speaker 9 A top hat and a sash. Do you guys, where are they?

Speaker 15 Yeah, I don't know where those mayors are, but these mayors are dressed to get things done.

Speaker 13 Do you at least have a key to the city in your pocket?

Speaker 15 I do not have a key to the city in my pocket.

Speaker 15 I'm sorry. I don't.

Speaker 13 Is there any mayor friends here right now that you can introduce me to?

Speaker 15 Sure, I can introduce you to

Speaker 15 another mayor who is doing a lot of work for the campaign. Let me just grab Tashara Jones.
She's mayor of a, she's mayor of St. Louis.

Speaker 9 Hi, I'm Emma. Nice to meet you.

Speaker 17 Nice to meet you.

Speaker 11 I'm Mayor Tashara Jones from St. Louis, Missouri.

Speaker 9 Such a huge fan of your city.

Speaker 17 Do you have a key to the city on you?

Speaker 14 No, I don't carry them.

Speaker 17 Nobody has them on them.

Speaker 9 That's your top hat and your sash.

Speaker 14 No,

Speaker 11 I don't carry those around, but I do carry my cell phones.

Speaker 5 Yeah,

Speaker 14 come on.

Speaker 16 I'm India Kinkana and the mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee.

Speaker 17 Do you have a Key to the City on you?

Speaker 4 I do not.

Speaker 15 They're sort of heavy. I'm sorry.
I have a business.

Speaker 5 How big are they?

Speaker 4 Oh, well, beyond your imagination.

Speaker 9 Sorry, can you introduce yourself quickly?

Speaker 3 Yeah, my name is Mayor Brandon Sackbun, B-A-N-D-O-N, S-A-K-B-U-N. I'm the 28-year-old mayor of Terre Hood, Indiana.

Speaker 17 Oh my gosh. Youngest mayor of, are you the youngest mayor of your town?

Speaker 3 Youngest mayor in Terre Hood history, yeah.

Speaker 17 Do you have a key to the city on you right now?

Speaker 3 Do I have a key to the city on me? With all due respect, I'm a millennial. I don't use a lot of keys or cash.

Speaker 13 What mayor do you think we should talk to next?

Speaker 3 Ooh, have you chatted with Miss Mayor Angie Nelson from Michigan City, Indiana?

Speaker 9 Hello, I'm Emma. Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.

Speaker 13 Okay, every other mayor I've asked this has said no, but do you have a key to the city on you?

Speaker 14 No.

Speaker 17 No one carries the keys to the city. Period.
So what?

Speaker 11 I was scared to bring my keys,

Speaker 5 period.

Speaker 11 So I'm only about an hour away from Chicago.

Speaker 11 So I left my keys at home so I wouldn't lose them.

Speaker 16 Okay, fair enough.

Speaker 14 And then no one, only one, oh,

Speaker 13 this man over here is the first man I've seen, mayor I've seen, hopefully, wearing a sash.

Speaker 11 That's my guy from Sheboygan.

Speaker 18 Yeah, my name is Ryan Sorensen. I'm the mayor of Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Speaker 13 And you guys are pals? Yes.

Speaker 13 You were the first mayor that I assume, I assumed every mayor wears a top hat and a sash. You are the first mayor who's wearing a sash.

Speaker 18 Well, of course, we gotta look the part. Us mayors gotta represent.
There have been other mayors with sashes, but...

Speaker 18 Really?

Speaker 18 Not right here, right now.

Speaker 5 Okay, I'm looking for them.

Speaker 9 Do you wear the sash every day?

Speaker 18 Not every day, no, just for parades, festivals, and keg tappings.

Speaker 14 A what?

Speaker 18 Keg tappings. You know, when you tap a a keg to celebrate an event?

Speaker 17 Do you do an official mayoral keg stand?

Speaker 18 Not officially, no.

Speaker 5 Off the record? Off the record, maybe.

Speaker 1 Peter, you went to a party. Yeah, apparently, much of the action at this sort of thing happens at parties, so I felt I had to go to a party.

Speaker 1 I'm not a party guy, but I got an invitation to the Axios party because I have friends who I know. Well, they're friends of the Chicago party.

Speaker 1 I don't know if there was ever a party for not a party guy. It's the Axios.
It's the Axios his party, yeah. But it had the whole party experience.
It was an event space. They had a range of speakers.

Speaker 1 They had Kathy Hochul, plus Gina Ramondo, and Bill Daly, who was the brother of our mayor. So that's exciting.
And there were a number, a small fraction of people paying attention.

Speaker 1 to what they were saying. And 70% of the people were going after the free food buffet like lions at a carcass of a wildebeest.
Which one were you?

Speaker 1 The line for the food was so long and I had just gotten in, I didn't want to immediately go into it, so I decided to wait until the line died down, and I waited too long, and they just broke down the whole buffet and it vanished.

Speaker 1 So I felt a little bit at sea at this party. I'm not a party goer.
I'm certainly not a political party goer. But I happened to run into Molly Jongfast at the convention.

Speaker 1 Now, Molly is an interesting person.

Speaker 1 She's a political socialite. Her main thing is she has gathered all these political people who she has invited to her house for parties.

Speaker 1 So I said to her, as a political socialite, what is the key to a successful political party?

Speaker 16 Just pretending you remember everybody.

Speaker 16 Really? This is a DC versus New York thing.

Speaker 16 In New York, you go to school with someone, you know them your whole life, and they pretend they don't know you because they don't want to deal with you or whatever.

Speaker 16 In DC,

Speaker 16 you may or may not have met the person a hundred times. You pretend you know them because people hate being forgotten and you just try to sort of on the fly.

Speaker 1 So how do you you do that? Do you go up to somebody and you say, oh my god, it's so good to see you?

Speaker 16 The most important thing is they look at you, you look at them, there's some flicker of recognition and then you say, so great to see you versus so great to meet you.

Speaker 16 And this is the difference between DC and New York.

Speaker 13 As far as I can tell, that's it.

Speaker 5 Really?

Speaker 8 That is so true. I've lived, I grew up in DC, around DC.
I just lived in New York. That is so true.
Especially like something I noticed in DC, someone will be like, I like your outfit.

Speaker 8 But in New York, they'll say, where did you get your outfit?

Speaker 1 I feel like this just tells me the only party I want to go to is a mayor party. It feels like that's where the mayor party was the party to be at.

Speaker 8 Were there any mayors at the Axios party?

Speaker 1 There were just a lot. You've not had your fill of mayors.
There were mayors at this point.

Speaker 1 Well, at this point, though, I'm beginning to believe that if there had been mayors, it would have been a better party.

Speaker 8 You know, the thing about mayors is that they're not focused on clout, right? You would think maybe because they're.

Speaker 1 We're going to fade down Emma here because

Speaker 1 I have a feeling that this isn't going to stop. So, and we need to get out of here and get back to the DNC.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 1 Peter, thank you so much for exploring the DNC with Emma and me.

Speaker 1 We're going to get out there and see if we can find more stories of what did we say yesterday? The weirdos and dignitaries that make our country great. Yes, that make our country what it is.

Speaker 1 And some mayors, apparently. More mayors.
At the Democratic Mayoral Convention.

Speaker 1 DMC. Run DMC.
Yeah. Run, Emma, to the DMC.

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