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Liveblogging the Democratic Debate
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Live blogging the Democratic Debate
11:45 If the measure of a campaign's success is its support before a debate, Obama would be the clear favorite. I counted at least 30 placard waving, sign holding, Obama chanting campaigners while no one from Hillary's camp was anywhere to be seen, yet. The Obama peeps included your run of the mill students, youngish staffers and street vendors, some who claimed to be working with the campaign and others just passionate about the Illinois Senator.
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One vendor, Tony B. Conscious (above), sold shirts and CDs full of Obama's greatest hits, er, speeches. He said he was with Students for Obama and, after posing for a picture shouted, "Obama is destiny's child" and "A vote for Hillary is a vote for history."
Tony was louder than any of the other supporters, his shouts echoing through the halls of the KODAQ Theater.
But it's still Hollywood and the campaign supporters competing for space with the sidewalk stars was a perfect picture of the two worlds that have collided here today. In this home of the Oscars, politics has taken center stage.
And on the streets, tourists, debaters and staffers began to fill the areas as lunch time neared. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is being interviewed at CNN's outside stage and helicopters are flying over head. Even with all the security, the mood seems rather calm. I joked with a couple Secret Service agents about the scheduling. "I have no idea," one said when asked about the schedule. "I leave at 1. I'm gone after that." We both had a laugh before I walked away, sort of nervously. Out of anyone, I felt like he would have known when the candidates were due to arrive.
12:34 Back inside, the tables still remain mostly empty. That's not to say things aren't happening. A reporter from ABC News is yelling his report into a table mic. A Chinese reporter from San Francisco is hushing hers into a computer's internal mic and a KNX guy, who hasn't taken his Bluetooth off, looks bored. I talked with a journalist from Italian News, who said Italians are following this election very closely, hoping America doesn't elect another "question mark President."
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