Howard Dean

Check back next week to view my Convention Sketchpads from the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis.

The fourth and final day of the Democratic National Convention will be called to order at 5:00 PM EST on Thursday, with a theme of "Change You Can Believe In."

The final day's events will take place at INVESCO Field at Mile High, where over 70,000 people are expected to attend.

Featured speakers will include Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D), former Vermont Gov. and Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean (D), New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), U.S. Rep. and U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D), former Vice President Al Gore (D) and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D).

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the Democratic presidential nominee, is scheduled to address the convention at 10 p.m. EST.

The full schedule is below.

On Winning, Life Inside Congress & Lessons From Bill Clinton

U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Fort Washington)

On Saturday, July 19, U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Fort Washington) traveled to Austin, Texas to finally speak in person with those who were among the first to listen to her and a message that would oust an entrenched incumbent less than two years later.

Edwards was the keynote speaker at ‘Netroots Nation,’ a gathering formerly known as YearlyKos, based off the popular progressive blog, DailyKos.com. Netroots Nation is an annual gathering of the left-of-center online political community and attracts a ‘who’s who’ of Democratic politics. Former Vice President Al Gore and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also addressed the gathering in person, while U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) addressed the conference by a taped message.

But few Party leaders have the stature Edwards maintains in that community. Like 2004 presidential candidate Howard Dean and 2006 U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont before her, she became an online icon for her ability to channel the power of the Internet into boots-on-the-ground action.

U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards: Campaign photo

Fourth district U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Fort Washington), the newest member of Congress, will deliver the keynote address at the 'Netroots Nation' conference in Austin, Texas on the evening of July 19.

Netroots Nation, formerly known as 'Yearly Kos,' began in 2006 as a conference for left-of-center political activists, many of whom frequented the website DailyKos.com. It's sponsor list reads as a who's who of progressive interests and organizations.

The event will include dozens of caucuses and workshops for activists. Other speakers include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, blogger Markos Moulitsas, activist Van Jones and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.

So what have we learned from the recent Democratic battle royal in Capital City?

For starters, if you break the rules, you have to pay a price. This could not be truer for the states of Florida and Michigan who had moved up their primaries, despite the fact that the rules for both the Democratic and Republican national committees forbid anyone to move their primaries before February 5. New Hampshire was the only exception for the Democrats.

Despite these rules, those two states moved their primaries up. The GOP penalized Michigan and Florida, along with Wyoming, New Hampshire and South Carolina by taking away one half of the delegates in that state. Obviously, there wasn’t a whole fallout about what the GOP handed down and no one seems to be surprised by the action. The Democrats, on the other hand, simply stripped Florida and Michigan of their delegates…all of them, and the candidates agreed not to campaign in those states. The democratic leadership did this to send a message to other states thinking about moving their primaries up, in an attempt to gain control of the schedule again.

Speaking with PolitickerMD.com over the weekend, Maryland Democratic Party Chairman Michael Cryor said many of the state party's 500 volunteer coordinators would spend a significant portion of their time and energy working to elect State's Attorney Frank Kratovil (D-Stevensville) in Maryland's 1st Congressional District.

"The race is becoming increasingly more competitive," Cryor said, calling Kratovil "a proven candidate" who can "work with the delegation."

The party chair said as many as 200 people attended a recent Kratovil volunteer session, and said state Democrats would continue to make their presence felt along the Eastern Shore.

UPDATE: Steed is there.

The Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee is having its most important meeting in decades, and roll call of the 30-member committee appointed by Howard Dean just took place.

Of Maryland's members, Janice Griffin is there, but Michael Steed did not respond when his name was called.

Is he late, or just not there?

Hey conspiracy theorists, chew on this: Griffin is an Obama supporter. Steed is for Clinton.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama: Photo by Getty ImagesMaryland Democratic Party Chairman Michael Cryor told PolitickerMD.com today that he hopes his decision to publicly endorse Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will "sway" other superdelegates to the same conclusion. Cryor and state party Vice Chairwoman Lauren Dugas Glover, also a superdelegate, announced their endorsement for Obama yesterday at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Cryor, who has privately been an Obama supporter for some time, said he and Dugas Glover "committed to not endorsing until we had set aside all our requirements as a party."

The Maryland Democratic Central Committee finalized the state's delegation to the Democratic National Convention on Saturday.

"I thought it was important to do now," Cryor said, citing the completion of the delegation, the fact that the Maryland primary has long since passed, the importance of today's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean's encouragement of superdelegates to make a decision.

The Swamp reports that Rep. Chris Van Hollen doesn't think a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton or Clinton-Obama ticket to emerge from this contentious primary season.

U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Baltimore) is one of several uncommitted Democratic superdelegates in Maryland. Today, his communications director, Sue Walitsky, said the senator had no plans to publicly endorse either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton anytime soon. While he may not vocally declare his support, we asked Walitsky what Cardin thought the role of the superdelegates should be in the Democratic nominating contest.

“He really sees the superdelegates as being in position to unite the party behind the nominee,” Walitsky said.

When asked if Cardin believed the superdelegates should vote for the individual who is ahead in pledged delegates, Walitsky would not directly comment, saying, “The primary process still has to play itself out.”

Obama leads Clinton by roughly 150 pledged delegates at the current time. Democrats still have more than ten contests remaining, including this evening’s Mississippi primary, where Obama is expected to carry the majority of the 33 delegates. It is virtually mathematically impossible for Clinton to overtake Obama in the pledged delegate lead, meaning her path to the nomination would come from the superdelegates.