Jefferson-Jackson Dinner 2009: liveblogging, page 1

Interestingly, the pastor giving the invocation tonight said, "Only in America can the son of a black man and a white woman grow up to become president of America." Um, well, yeah, that's true.

"Isn't it nice we have a president that we can be proud of?" -- Sen. Nelson

Next, Sen. Nelson introduces the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, Karen Thurman. She just recognized "the next government CFO Alex Sink." I don't think that's what she meant to say, though.

"Last year, we worked to unite our party and focus our efforts on electing Barack Obama. Look what we accomplished: we delivered Florida's 27 electoral votes to Obama/Biden, we defeated two incumbent GOP members of Congress, and now we're focusing on local elections."

We have our first mention of "George W. Bush." No booing. At least not audibly. Thurman goes on to say we are working to "drain the swamp of Republican corruption." I think she's lost her audience, though. The talking in the room is pretty distracting, actually.

(Incidentally, forget about pictures from this event. I'm situated just way too far back. Sorry.)