Howard Dean inspects Denver's convention preparations

By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 24, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Howard Dean strode up the steps inside the Pepsi Center and stood before five rows of hard hats to thank them for their work and to issue a plea punctuated by a small chuckle.

"I also appreciate you're on time," he said. "Because we get very nervous about not being on time and you're all doing great."

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee came Wednesday to see the progress being made on the Pepsi Center in preparation for the convention that runs Aug. 25-28. Accompanying him was Democratic National Convention Committee CEO Leah Daughtry.

Dean, dressed in a tan suit, spoke for a couple of minutes and then shook hands with the workers, who got a short break to meet the chairman.

Dean asked one about the woodwork. He asked another about the electrical wiring. He smiled a lot. There were some laughs.

"Who's in charge of the sheetrock?" Dean asked. "How much sheetrock do we have in this place? I think we had a couple of hundred thousand dollars worth of sheetrock alone."

With just a little over a month to go before the convention, Dean said he was going to be "biting my nails until the day this thing opens."

After spending the night in Denver, Dean will head to Invesco Field at Mile High this morning to tour that facility.

That will be the place where Barack Obama will give his speech accepting the party's nomination for president.

But Dean didn't talk about that, instead focusing on the Pepsi Center, which was turned over to the DNCC on July 7. Workers have been in the process of converting it ever since.

Travis Dredd, who is in charge of operations inside the hall for the DNCC, said one area where worker are focusing is turning luxury suites into "white box condition."

Dredd said that involves taking out the seats and bars and painting the suite white so media outlets can outfit it to their needs.

The clock is ticking, but Dean said he already is beginning to visualize the convention starting.

"In 33 days from here, we'll be standing with our hand over our heart and saluting the flag," he said.

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