This morning John McCain revealed his pick for Vice President. It was timed as expected: The announcement was made directly after Barack Obama’s history making acceptance speech yesterday to reduce the news coverage about the Democrats successful and historic convention and to refocus on the Republicans. I actually first heard about it, when I was at Denver International Airport this morning waiting for my flight to Salt Lake City to depart.

I guess I should turn this into a series… After all, people who sit next to me in the air plane seem to always feel like they need to talk to me. So here is my most recent experience:

Today, Barack Obama officially accepted the nomination as the candidate for president of the Democratic party, 45 years after Martin Luther King’s internationally known “I have a dream” speech.

There is no free wireless internet on the floor and in the press stands in the Pepsi Center… to my great surprise. So I went to the technology center asking about the access at my press seat, only to find out that it would cost me $850, plus $500 because it’d be a late order, to have the internet at my seat for the three days in the Pepsi Center. Seriously?! I decided to safe that money and to use the press filing area that has free wireless instead. The sole delegate for the Democrats Abroad from Germany told me that it was advertised before the convention started.

To give you a few impressions of the Democratic National Convention in Denver check out these pictures:  

Diese Woche treffen sich die Demokraten in Denver, Colorado. In den letzten Tagen sind tausende Journalisten, Lobbyisten, Aktivisten und Politiker in die Stadt im Westen der USA geströmt. Die Einheimischen haben ihnen das Zentrum der Stadt großteils überlassen. Universitäten und Bürogebäude bleiben geschlossen. An jeder Ecke gibt es Obama und Convention Souvenirs, sowie Aktivisten, die unter anderem gegen den Krieg protestieren.  

It’s just a few hours to go until the Democratic National Convention officially starts. I have been in town since the 21st. I have witnessed a transformation of the city in the last couple of days. Everybody is getting ready for the official opening of the convention Monday night 5 pm ET. The number of police cars and officers has substantially increased. Reports and politicians flocked to town and helicopters started flying regularly over the area.

American Studies Leipzig welcomes Andrea Siebeck as the institute’s new secretary for the time that Ms. Keyselt is on leave. Ms Siebeck, who has studied American Studies in Halle and has worked as a freelance English teacher before, has started her new job on 19. August with enthusiasm; The secretariat now offers new, regular, and expanded office hours for students. Please see the Staff page for more information.

On my flight from Washington DC to Atlanta today, I had a very interesting conversation with the guy, who was sitting next to me. My one-hour conversation with Garry, a computer engineer and registered Republican from Tallahassee/Florida, focused on politics. He was eager to talk politics, asking me about Obama’s positions in different policy areas after I told him that I study American Politics.

American Studies Leipzig student Caterina Rost left Sunday on a flight to the US to visit the Democratic and Republican National Conventions this fall. The trip is part of the research project she does investigating the current elections and especially the “youth vote.” See her blog at americanstudies.uni-leipzig.de/blog/4 for more details.