Like all state parties, Ohio’s Democratic delegation started its day with a breakfast at its hotel.  State party Chairman Chris Redfern laid out the days’ agenda and thanked everyone for attending Sunday’s welcoming reception. He announced that Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, who died suddenly last week, will be honored at Thursday’s breakfast. The overriding agenda for today, and most of the week, is defining ways to help Barack Obama win the White House. Including delegates, Redfern says nearly 600 Ohioans are in Denver for the convention.

Hotels in the Denver area are booked solid, meaning delegates, staffers and media, are lodging as far away as Boulder, which is 30-plus miles from downtown Denver. My bus ride from the Best Western Boulder Inn is over an hour if you include the half-hour walk from the hotel to the bus stop.

Like most national political conventions, the real show is on the streets of the host city: