I'm sitting here with Christine Pelosi at the DNC Western Caucus in San Francisco. We're going to hear a lot about polling data, strategy, and what's going on politically in the West.

We're live-blogging it, and will be posting photos, presentations, etc.  Check it out here:

http://web.mac.com/jgreenleaf/iWeb/DNCWC

I am so happy that the DNC has made room for bloggers at this meeting. Tracy Russo, who runs the DNC blog, told me that the DNC had issued 45 blogger credentials. That means I don't have to take notes through all the meetings. Thank you for being here!

Most of the bloggers I've run in to are guys, though, so I thought I'd cover the Women's Caucus meeting. Here goes...

The DNC held a special session on voter protection. Don't for a minute think that Democrats don't get it on this crucial issue.

One key component is the DNC National Lawyer's Council. Here's what they're doing:

I attended the Women's Caucus meeting here at the DNC meeting in Chicago today. Here are some highlights:

Debbie Dingell noted that affirmative action is on the ballot in Michigan. It's being cast as a civil rights measure, which she noted is "neither civil, nor right."

Women were encouraged to run for office to help build our farm teams, especially in the state legislatures, city councils, and county commissions. Molly Beth Malcolm, from Texas, said that she had run for the Texarkana community college board and won, and that she was the first woman to serve on that board.

Christine Pelosi, (yes, that's Nancy Pelosi's daughter) urged everyone to log on to dccc.org and vote for candidates to receive support from the DCCC. She especially urged that we vote for women candidates, or at least male candidates that support women.

The DNC has launched a new online organizing site called 100actions.com. The site features a new action for every day between now and the election.

Please help spread the word about this site. If you have a blog or website, you can put up a nifty countdown badge to remind people to do their patriotic deed for the day.

The actions are cool, but what's even better is that any campaign or individual activist can use the site to set up events. If you have an upcoming canvass, phone bank, or fundraiser, feel free to enter it, and new volunteers may come your way. If you aren't near a Democratic organization (or don't want to belong to one), you can use the site's tools to download materials and create your own neighborhood canvass.

Josh McConaha, Internet Director for the DNC, says "I think one of the problems the Party has is that activists don't know where to go to find things to do.  If we can try to aggregate that somehow - in the events tool, for instance - it would got a long way toward connecting people with places that need the help.  Certainly wouldn't hurt to put any event in there in hopes that one more person hears about it."

The site also connects Democrats with their local parties. It's barely been launched, but it's starting to work. I was sitting with one of Oregon's DNC organizers when he checked his mail, and the volunteer signups were already rolling in.

The press likes to pump the meme that the Democrats have no agenda.  Unfortunately, we haven't done a great job of rebutting it.

So, the DNC has printed 1 million doorhangers for the Neighbor-to-Neighbor Organizing Day on April 29 that declare our agenda. I hope Dems everywhere will write it on their palms or memorize it.

I'm certainly going to. I don't ever want to be saying "duh" when someone says "the Democrats don't stand for anything."

Dean said that this had been tested in all parts of the country and does well everywhere. He said that Reid and Pelosi had signed off on it as well.

A lot of this will seem like familiar ground to Dean fans. It's more comprehensive that I expected. I know that 6 things is too many--so does Dean--but frankly, there's a lot more than six things wrong.

The text is below the fold:

The actual "meeting" of the DNC was held this morning here in New Orleans. Most of what really happens at these events does not occur at the meeting. By the time we get to the meeting, everything has been decided and we simply ratify committee reports. Much less interactive than I had supposed before I was elected to the DNC and somewhat disappointing, but I'm starting to figure out how things get done.

Probably one of the more interesting outcomes was that the DNC passed a resolution addressing the Iraq war. The resolution includes a long list of Whereas clauses:

• the Bush administration cherry-picked intelligence and failed to plan for post-war Iraq


• the Republicans in Congress have stonewalled investigations


• the Downing Street memos indicated that Bush planned a war regardless of the outcome of arms inspections


• North Korea and Iran have been become nuclear threats


• the Bush administration continues its failed strategy


• the Bush administration has allowed massive corruption as part of the reconstruction


• the Bush administration has not supplied the troops appropriately


• Republicans in Washington have failed in their oversight role

and then states "...the Democratic National Committee endorses a plan for Iraq that honors the sacrifice of our troops by ensuring that 2006 is a year of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty with the Iraqis assuming primary responsibility for securing and governing their country; that pushes for a political settlement that leads to political stability and reduces sectarian violence; as well as a commitment to tell the truth to our soldiers, our citizens and our allies about the situation in Iraq."

Given that the war has been the elephant in the room at these meetings, I am pleased this passed. While the activist base (which includes DNC members) are pretty much all against the war, elected Democrats seem to be having a hard time coming to a consensus. The people, in this case, are way ahead of the politicians.

While a DNC meeting can be rather anticlimactic, we often do hear from some interesting speakers. More on what they said after the jump.

One of the things that happens at every DNC meeting is the polling report. Our pollster is a man named Cornell Belcher, who has a firm named Brilliant Corners. He's been the pollster of record ever since Dean took over.

The current numbers were from studies done in February '06, just prior to the Dubai ports deal finally entering national consciousness (thank you, Chuck Schumer!), so I think we can assume things continue to trend our way.

Below the fold, distilled, is what Mr. Belcher had to say: