Day 3: before the madness

Well, I don't imagine I'll have too much time tonight and tomorrow to blog, so we'll get in an extra post now.

Looking forward to seeing the delegate counts coming in. I've heard Kennedy's a solid 3rd in turnout, but nobody seems to know the exact numbers.

It should also be interesting to hear the speeches tonight. It's always better to hear them live, so you get a real impression (and not have the simultaneous translation annoying you). Starts at 4:45 or so, so expect a big cheer for Martha at the start, then expect everyone to go in for supper around the time Volpe gets up to speak. The big 4 are at the end, so they'll probably be starting at 6ish.

And then we have the ever-important parties tonight, where we get the last chance to court delegates. Everyone should be out in full force tonight, getting out last chance to woo other delegates away. Then it'll get even better once they release the numbers, as that will really be the first actual numbers we get, that will tell how the ex-officios declared, and should give us a clue for the weekend. My prediction: that clue will be wrong, and the real way it will play out will depend on the second ballot, once the bottom few people drop off.