I've come back from a wonderful weekend at the Florida Democratic Party's convention in Orlando. Despite what you might have read in the papers, the convention was tremendously uplifting and hopeful for all who attended!

I was particularly involved with the 2007 Netroots Conference where we hosted Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos (via the Florida Progressive Radio Show) and Matt Stoller as our closing speaker.

Florida seems to be the state that the national blogosphere has kind of ignored and doesn't know a whole lot about. So I was very happy to see a big post on the changing nature of Florida politics by Matt Stoller at OpenLeft:

The convention was crowded, friendly, and energetic. It didn't matter that none of the Presidential candidates except Mike Gravel showed up, because this is a party that is proud of what they've gotten done within their state. I've been to a bunch of state Democratic Conventions, and honestly, they are often depressing affairs. It's usually fat middle aged guys trading development deals, a banquet with gray steak and lifeless salad, and bored kids sitting through endless politicians thanking each other for serving on commissions. This one wasn't like that.

The feeling I got was one of renewal.

Here's the link again to read the full post.