Obama Opens Up Convention as Protesters Prepare Direct Action

There's an almost incredible incongruity to the politics of the Democratic National Convention today.

On the one hand, Democrats plan to "throw open the doors of the convention" by holding Barack Obama's acceptance speech at INVESCO Field at Mile High in Denver; while on the other hand, hardline activists in the party base intend to hold protest rallies outside of the convention, apparently in the hope of holding Obama's feet to the radical fire:

Every four years, liberal activists follow political power brokers and the world media to the Democratic and Republican party conventions, filling the streets with spirited protest against war, corporate domination and environmental destruction.

This year there's a twist: Many protesters will demonstrate outside a convention that will nominate the first black major-party presidential candidate in history, who is opposed to the Iraq war and was once a community organizer and activist in Chicago.

But Barack Obama will not get a pass from demonstrators at the Democratic National Convention. Activists say they are wary of his shift to the center since he secured the nomination last month.

"We're hoping he can remember his roots and, through these mass rallies and protests, we can move him," said Glenn Spagnuolo, a spokesman for an umbrella group coordinating the Denver protests, provocatively named Re-create '68.

For more on Recreate 68, check here and here.

These folks are hardine leftists of the first order.

So far Obama's pretty much thrown them under the bus - they most likely won't be in attendance at Mile High - but the public spectacle of radical protests throughout the convention will be a reminder of Obama's very real ties to prominent nihilist cohorts of an identical stripe.

See also, "Obama Picks 75,000-Seat Stadium for Convention Speech."