Delegates wearing their hearts on sleeves and everywhere else

By The Associated Press

Published: August 26, 2008

DENVER — It was pretty easy to figure out that Monica Stonier cares about education, that Johnnie Patton supports more energy conservation and that Ruth Rudy wants the party to unify behind presidential nominee Barack Obama.

You could see it in the hats they were sporting on the floor of the Democratic National Convention on Monday.

Stonier, a 32-year-old delegate from Vancouver, Wash., had covered a large Dr. Seuss hat with black felt and written in white, "Trust Teachers, Not Test Scores” and "Teachers for Obama.”

"I think this is a great place to get a little attention on what No Child Left Behind is doing to our kids and to our teachers,” the instructional coach and former middle school teacher said. "We don't have the innovative thinking we need.”

For Patton, of Jackson, Miss., energy conservation is her main concern.

She decorated a white plastic hat with a multicolored pinwheel to signify wind power, then perched a small stuffed donkey and some Uncle Sam napkin holders on top.

"I just slapped it together with some glue and put it on,” said Patton, 65, a superdelegate attending her fifth convention. She said she had made a hat with a different theme for every convention.

But she's ready to put her disappointment behind her, and hopes others are willing to do the same. She sat on the convention floor in a sparkly red cowboy hat that sported a large white star painted with the word, "Unity.”

Abby Dart of Michigan had a friend take a blue "Obama '08” hat and attach a foot-long, green-and-white Mackinac Bridge to it. She said the hat was to remind conventioneers that tourism is the state's No. 2 industry.

"I'm doing it to highlight the beauty of Michigan,” said Dart, 52, of Harbor Springs, Mich. She's a first-time delegate.

Comments