One half of one day in Austin

by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

The bulk of the Calitics crew has found its way to Austin now (just waiting on Robert still), and California is out in full force throughout the convention. Aside from the editors, Dante Atkins and Todd Beeton are running around as well as frequent guest of the front page Paul Hogarth. Just returned from Howard Dean's launch of the national Register For Change bus tour geared towards registering new voters. Californians were all over the place there.

Charlie Brown was specifically mentioned a few times in Gov. Dean's speech. Debbie Cook was in attendance. California blogosphere alums like Matt Lockshin and Matt Ortega were moving through the crowd. Big name Californians who sometimes forget about us like Markos, George Lakoff, and Gina Cooper were working around the edges. Earlier today I ran into Steve Young in the hall, hung out with orangeclouds115 last night, and sat next to kid oakland (and Matt Lockshin) on the flight to Austin yesterday. Most of the Courage Campaign folks are here (myself, Juls and Eden), Bob Brigham is on his way. I've met Calitics lurkers and occasional commenters like tilthouse and reconnected with cmanaster. There's more to come with (for example) Mike Lumpkin due to stop in for the California caucus this afternoon (among others) and hosting a breakfast tomorrow morning.

What's really striking about all this is to note how many strong voices, incredible minds and game-changing candidates we have in California. Last year at the California Caucus we discussed the role of California as a national leader and incubator for positive change. Looking around Netroots Nation already I'm reminded of just how true that is and how potent California's brain trust is. For those who are here and for those who are reading I'll ask- how do we do a better job of fostering and harnessing all this?