Here in Colorado, there are more voters registered as independents than as Democrats or Republicans. I lucked into this factoid when I switched on the TV yesterday afternoon to liven up a 40-minute slog on an elliptical trainer. Who said these conventions were all blather? I've lived in Colorado for nine years and have learned more in the last week about the state's politics than I'd gleaned from the Denver Post the whole time I've been here. It helps that I've got a house guest who's in town as a convention volunteer. She was a women's rights activist when she lived in California a decade ago but has since traveled the world as a family planning consultant in places like Tajikstan, Krygyzstan and Uzbekistan. She's been a Hillary supporter all the way, not to mention, the source of the intelligence I shared with you the other day that had Hillary as Obama's choice for a running mate. That rumor soon gave way to another that a Texas congressman named Chet Edwards was actually the anointed one, but by that time I thought better about reporting it in the Rick's Picks gossip column, only to find myself repudiating it an hour later. A Tough Act One tidbit I will relate to you, however, is that even among some liberal Democrats, Michelle Obama is viewed as an Angry Black Woman. If so, that'd be quite a change from the tirelessly demure Laura Bush. It might also explain why we haven't heard much from Ms. Obama in the last six weeks or so, after she let it be inferred, however mistakenly, that she had become a proud American only after her husband had racked up a slew of electoral victories. If she is indeed angry, we might expect her to over-compensate in the
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