About The J-J Dinner Last Night

The Georgia Democratic Party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson party last night was a blast, especially with Presidential hopeful, pretty boy John Edwards offering rock star, red carpet glitz to the evening. (And yes, he is adorable in person, but Jon Flack is right, the hair is overrated.)

Heck, Edwards’ had TWO drum lines to give him that big ‘ole ATL welcome. And 1,700 gushing fans crushing on him, quite literally, to get the money shot with their camera phones. Working the crowds, Edwards’ charming, tanned face would reveal a flicker of tiredness, then in the blink of an eye, it was gone. You wondered if you’d just imagined such a thing.

Edwards worked the crowd like the champion show-jumper of a lawyer he is. He’s no Bill Clinton; he’s just “too white” to get on that one-of-a-kind wavelength, but Edwards is quite charismatic in his own right, and a beautiful, engaging orator.

Besides Edwards, the entire evening was a Georgia politico and media Who’s Who. I was at the dinner table alongside Jim Galloway of AJC’s Political Insider; bless their hearts, they were live blogging! (Guess I can’t call ‘em old farts now.) Galloway was a seasoned journalist on a mission… to unearth just WHO produced that anti-Whitehead YouTube offering! Blogger Jon Flack of the new Tondee’s Tavern blog sat next to Galloway and fed him tantalizing tidbits, but no names, all night long.

I shot loads of great video myself, asked a question at Edwards’ presser alongside the Big Broadcasting TV guys, and hope to package some of the DV goodies over the weekend for you folks.

My personal highlight? Interviewing Vernon Jones about blogging! Heck, Vernon had more signage there than Edwards. All in all, a fabulous time was had by many Georgia Dems, despite the icky, remora fish lobbyista swarmin’ over the place too. Lordy, do they EVER go away?

Look for good things to come all around with GDP, especially with Martin Matheny running some new communications operations and strategies for them. Their website is really heating-up under his guidance, with blogging too!