I wrote this for today's Beyond Chron, San Francisco's Alternative Online Daily

This weekend, all the major Democratic presidential candidates attended the California Democratic Convention in San Diego to solicit support from the party faithful.  Although getting out of Iraq was top on the mind of party delegates, Hillary Clinton's campaign had a surprising show of support - but she lost most of the crowd by refusing to apologize for initially supporting the War.  Barack Obama was treated like a rock star and gave a powerful speech, but despite being the only major candidate who opposed the War from the start failed to do what he should have done: hit a home run the way Howard Dean did in 2003.  John Edwards did not have much of a campaign presence at the convention until he spoke on Sunday morning, when many of the delegates had already left.  But for those who stuck around to hear Edwards speak, his concrete progressive proposals coupled with a passionate and eloquent message won many converts on the Convention floor - including possibly myself.

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