From a first hand account of going to the 2004 DNC, this quote really struck home, as it the author is talking about people like me (emphasis added):
I grabbed a cab with another Boston-bound traveler. He was Alex De Ocampo, President of California Young Democrats and a Kerry delegate.
I asked Alex when he first started supporting Kerry, and he thought it was about a month before the Delegate Caucus (where delegates are elected by local supporters) in February. I thought about the people I knew in California who were elected as Dean delegates after a year of hard work, but aren't coming to Boston because Dean suspended his candidacy before the California Primary.
My election to be a delegate for Dean in the California 12th Congressional District was a big, but very welcomed, surprise to me. What really throws me for a loop, however, was the apparent ease with which Kerry delegates got elected. Alex de Ocampo got elected after having been involved with the Kerry campaign for one month!!!
Oh well - something to learn. Grassroots ain't everyting. Sometimes timing is everything.
