From Pamela Gentry at BET.com (She blogged about this last night).
Snip:
Headline: A Star-studded Audience
Posted June 29, 2007
The audience was filled with faces spanning several generations. Howard gave tickets to some college students; Smiley invited some youth folks from Florida. But other faces inplace were quite familiar: activist/actors Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee; author Terri McMillan; and activists Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, the Rev. Al Shapton, Dorothy Height President of National Council of Negro Women, and Ted Shaw of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
After the debate, the room filled with spin doctors, making sure we knew who were the frontrunners. Surrogates for senators Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Chris Dodd and Joe Biden (D-Del.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) were stressing their candidates’ strengths.
Rep. Dennis Kuchnich (D-Ohio), New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) and former Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Ak.) met with reporters face to face.
The crowd pleaser and most popular African-American celebrity was Professor Cornel West. His crowd, and his stream of reporters and photographers, grew larger and larger at the Obama stakeout.
I heard a few reporters say that they weren’t sure what the shining moment was tonight.
Candidates have been asked about education, AIDS/HIV and racism in America - the first Democratic debate that has not been foucsed on the War in Iraq. ”I got tested for AIDS I know Barack got tested for AIDS, there’s no shame in being tested for AIDS,” Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) brought laughter to the media room, as did Obama’s response, “I got tested with Michelle,” he said. The loudest laughter was reserved for the cut-a-way of Rev. Al Sharpton who had a scoll on his face. Finally a little levity in the debate.
At the beginning of the debate:
The PBS debate is underway and my first thoughts are the three introductions of the event only detracted from the amount time for the candidates to debate. Tom Joyner, Tavis Smiley and Gov. Deval Patrick (D-Mass.) should have made their remarks brief. The media room is full but not crowded, and the spin locations are clearly marked on a red carpert in the center of the room. The absence of ground rules before starting could be disruptive as the debate continues. In the first few minutes during the opening photo op with candiates, there was a clear level of discomfort from candidates with shouts for Obama from the audience.
http://betintroduces.com/news/pamela/