Rough Video Call Closes Night One of the Dems' Big Show in Denver

After Michelle Obama's keynote speech at the Democratic Convention's opening night tonight, the party had planned a "surprise" video video call from Barack, who was out campaigning in Kansas.

The mood was electric in the hall after Michelle Obama's rousing speech, but soured somewhat as the video call began. As soon as the video call began it seemed like something was technically awry.

(Photo courtesy AP)
Why did the Obamas keep talking over each other, as if they could not hear one another, throughout most of the live video call? Why did the Obama daughters (Sasha and Malia, who had joined their mother onstage after the speech) keep blurting out questions while Barack was talking? Why couldn't we see the Girardo family, from whose Kansas City, Kansas home Barack was calling? The camera stayed fixed on Barack as he introduced them, and for some time afterwards.

And what lucky technology company had provided the video calling technology? The best guess (underline guess) might be DISH Network, the "Official High Definition Satellite Television Service Provider" of the conference. In that role, an August 12 press release explains, DISH Network "will bring live satellite video feeds into the convention hall from off-site locations across the country."

Actually, the Technology Gods, it seems, have not been smiling on the Obama campaign lately. What happened with that widely-hyped, "unprecedented," super-techy text message we were supposed to get announcing (at long last) Obama's V.P. choice? I signed up for it online, but it never came. Several of my politics-watching friends had the same experience. And now this weird video call thing.

On a brighter note, I took an informal poll of the print journalists working inside the hall tonight, and they all said the wired broadband connections worked fast and steady. There was no wireless data connectivity going on in the hall tonight, I'm told, but I talked to several people who were Blackberrying away with no connectivity problems.

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