The Delegates

5:26 PM: Bill Richardson (coming up in an hour or so) will contrast Obama’s positions on the Iraq war and other foreign-policy issues with McCain’s.

5:18 PM: The texts of speeches are being chaotically handed about and they’re playing U2. My colleagues have pointed out that I don’t really like any of the musicians that have come through the convention so far. My colleagues know me well.

Someone in the room is whistling along. That’s not annoying at all.

5:12 PM: The football robocam is hovering and panning across the field, bearing a disturbing resemblance to an Imperial probe droid surveying the icy wastes of Hoth. I think they could use some icy wastes out there, actually.

MLK III is very round, and has a hectoring voice. There’s something wrong with his collar.

5:02 PM: I have been a fan of Grauniad blogger Oliver Burkeman this week, but he’s pressing his luck here in Blogchester. He’s been filing and running in a way that leaves his laptop and his station — which are precious and in short supply — unattended for half-hour chunks. Ooh, I think he just got booted — but without drama. Doesn’t the Guardian have regular press-box credentials? Asahi Shimbun does.

4:53 PM: So far we had an opening musical warmup from the Yonder Mountain String Band, Colorado’s bluegrass princes — not to be confused with Yonder Hill, Montreal’s bluegrass queens. Jennifer Hudson lavished the Star-Spangled Banner with Velveeta and earned a big hand from the passel up here in Bloggessee.

Howard Dean is currently attempting to be statesmanlike, which is a speaking style that does not suit him. In the next hour: John Lewis, MLK III, and Bernice King in a Martin Luther King tribute, with musical interludes from the dreaded Mr. i.am and the even more dreaded Sheryl Crow.

4:46 PM: Crowded doesn’t begin to describe it, we’re jammed in here. One of our DNC online outreach people is reading this from over my shoulder and takes slight umbrage at the phrase, but they have been unfailingly nice at corralling us over the week and they aren’t to blame in the least.

Obama will speak at 8:15 and we will know by 7:30 if we’ll be in here for the main event. Propitiate any local gods you have handy.