About an hour before the Sen. Obama is scheduled to speak, the advance teams start getting their volunteers out in force. The lobby where people check in is swarmed with advance teams and supporters of both Obama and Edwards. Players put on their candidates T-shirts, similar to preparing for a friendly game of softball. Stickers and buttons abound, and the teams scurry to find the best place to put up their posters.

Those who aren’t at special locations head inside to find seats before they get too filled up. Outside, Politico has a poll for attendees of the conference, and one of their questions is to see if the speeches cause people to change their opinions of various candidates. It will be interesting to see the results. I suspect that many people already have their minds up.

So, what does all this jockeying for position really do? Will it impress the boys on the bus and get slightly better earned media? Is it merely protecting against earned negative media? Perhaps an important part of the circus is to encourage the supporters, to help them feel like they are part of something special, to help them feel that their actions make a difference.

Even if that is all that it does, it serves an important purpose. All of us need to do things that make us feel like we are making a difference.

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