What a day – and night! The delegates began voting after breakfast (yup, more cold eggs). A representative from the Clinton campaign came by to tell the Clinton delegates that they have been released by Sen. Clinton, who herself would be casting her vote for Sen. Obama.

Yet another shuttle bus ride (we estimate that we are on buses for at least 2 hours a day) and we arrived at the convention center, pushing past the vendors and the PETA people dressed as pink pigs, for a meeting of all Clinton delegates.

The meeting was called for 1:15, but the line was forming at 11:30 a.m. With feet still sore from the EL reception, we found other things to do and joined the end of a huge Disney-type line at 1:05.

Amazingly, we got in. All we could see was the top inch of Hillary’s hair, but we heard her clearly as she voiced her support for Obama and urged us to work hard for his election.

The roll call of the states began soon after shuttle bus #2 arrived at the Pepsi Center (we’ve had strange urges for Cokes all week).  After hearing “the great state of….” (fill in your favorite) cast X votes for Sen. Clinton and Y votes for Sen. Obama, the great state of New Mexico yielded to the great state of Illinios (which had passed earlier) which in turn yielded to the even greater state of New York. With grace and warmth, Sen. Clinton asked that the votes be suspended and Sen. Obama be elected by acclimation.

And in that instant, we were witnesses to history.

As the fact that the Democratic party has indeed made an African-American its nominee for the presidency of the United States began to sink in, tears came to our eyes. We can’t believe that we were actually there. Wow.

And so we have a nominee.

Speakers followed in support of Obama including a retired female 3-star general, a retired ex-Republican Rear Admiral and a female major who lost both legs in Iraq, and what seemed like half the members of Congress.

Did you hear the applause when President Clinton entered the hall? You should have – the noise was so thunderous it could be heard in Carrollwood. The Clinton magic was there as he voiced his full support of the new nominee. Go Bill!

The nomination of Joe Biden for vice president came next. A moving introduction was given by Biden’s son, who happens to be the Attorney General of Delaware and who also happens to be a reservist on his way to being deployed to Iraq next week.

To everyone’s amazement, Biden kept his remarks under 6 hours. A “surprise” visit by Sen. Obama (half the delegates got text messages from friends who heard about the pending visit on television) ended an incredible day.

We headed back to the hotels on what is now the painful bus no. 14, filled with a vision of what Nov. 4 could bring for America.

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