Graham, Al and Jack

Graham and Jack sitting on the Step of Greatness with Al Franken, DFL candidate for Minnesota Senate.

When people started asking for photos, Al told people they could come on up onto the "Step of Greatness"- of course Al was just being goofy. He's really not full of himself, he's quite down to earth. Daddy told Jack to cheer Al on with "You can take that guy! You can take that guy!" Jack got up there and told Al just that. Al was pretty impressed and wanted to know where Jack heard him say that. When Al was at the Wellstone Dinner, he told a great story that Paul Wellstone's son told him. When he was running cross-country races, Paul would run along side of him and cheer him on, chanting "You can take that guy! You can take that guy". He'd be down and falling behind and his dad would keep up with him. Then, he'd look and his dad would be far, far ahead of him- out running him!

Jack told a Franken booth staffer that he only had "9 more years until I vote!" I had no idea he figured that. She was quite impressed (and so was I).

We are watching the Democrat National Convention. As we wonder how McCain will fair with his acceptance speech/crowd. So, is it the media coverage that makes him pull all of these people together? Both Chris and I see or think there seems to be some media love-affair with Obama. We wonder if McCain will get this much "coverage" and he is "announcing" his VP candidate tonight. Will he get the coverage Obama did when they (media) were stalking various VP options. I haven;t seen it so far and unlikely McCain is going to pull the coverage like this. One of the reasons we hear more about McCain's VP pick is because our Gov Tim Pawlenty is suspected to be on the very short list.

So, back to my question. The reason, I feel that Obama gets such coverage is because he is pulling out into uncharted waters- history in the making! Beyond that, he has made many people from all sides (especially the youth) come together and stand up like never before. The media covers what's hot and Obama has been on fire for a long time now. The fire hasn't died and the coverage just keeps going on. As long as there is a fire, the media will chase it down. The television, radio and paper are only a small part of the media that keeps this fire going. More, the Internet and the youth have shaped a lot of this campaign in my opinion. He's stayed super positive and that keeps the fire going. What an exciting time in history!