Rosenberg also was impressive and I was surprised by how effective he was as a speaker, as I'd never heard anything about that before.  I liked most everything he had to say.  Course most of it sounded like Dean, so . . .

Wellington Webb was really great as a speaker and I really liked most of what he said, but I was put off by the fact that he seemed kind of stuck in the "identity politics" mindset.  I'm not against taking those issues seriously at all, but I don't think that should be the core approach of the DNC Chair.  The pitfalls of this way of looking at things were revealed when he said that it was bad politics for Dem Senators to have given Rice a hard time and voted against her, because it made the African-American base think that they were attacking her because she is a successful Black woman.  Sheesh!  That's a GOP talking point!  According to this way of thinking, BushCo can appoint any creep, just so long as they belong to a minority ethnic group, and we can't criticize them.

Fowler was quite effective and entertaining as a speaker, and said the "right things," but I didn't find him persuasive--he kept saying "I've been there with you for 20 years" about the grassroots and state Party folks, like he was some grizzled veteran--guy can't be more than very early 30s.  From what I've gleaned from previous discussions, he wasn't all that effective as an organizer either.  So for this reason he seemed a bit of a poseur and also a kind of immature.

Frost really turned me off.  I'd heard him on an NPR interview before and kind of liked him, but he was very abrasive today.  For one thing, he was LOUD and I felt like I was being yelled at.  He also seemed irritable in general and nothing he said was particularly original.  His main argument in his favor seemed to be that he is from Texas.

Roemer--ugh!  He seemed really arrogant, and also seemed to be yelling and berating us.  And then he brought up the "choice" issue, saying that he thought the Party should be a big tent without a litmus test (I agree, but the tent should have mosquito netting so we don't get eaten alive).  He finally crashed and burned when he announced that we should not become captives of a "special interest group."  There was loud hissing from the people.  So what is this special interest group, Tim?  Women?  Pro-choice Americans (2/3 to 3/4 of the population)?  He lost the crowd for good, there.

I was not familiar with Leland before.  He seemed fine but not outstanding in any way.

Issues that I thought were short-changed both in the candidates' comments and the members' questions were how to counter the right-wing media glut and how to reform the election system, although this did get some mentions.

The DNC members and the public attendees had been told not to engage in any "demonstrations" and they were polite but applauded when they liked what they heard.  The DNC members were very animated--got a little call and response thing going at times.  The audience seemed to respond best to Dean, Webb, Rosenberg, and Fowler.  Very cool to Roemer and lukewarm to Frost.  Much like me.