"We dream of dying blue-collar towns blooming as green-collar meccas..."

While not nearly so treasured a memory as my ride in the Aspen's 4th of July parade, I had a chance encounter working the Ideas Festival last month that really made the experience for me-

Catching up on the May issue of Fast Company on the plane ride to Colorado, I had read this article about a larger-than-life activist named Van Jones and his crusade to lift the boats of the urban poor on the rising tide of eco-consciousness. His plan for training low-income workers in Oakland, and eventually nationally, as skilled laborers in fields like green retro-fitting and renewable energy production - and the reporter's breathless account of Jones' boundless energy- was an uplifting reminder that there does exist such a thing as win-win public policy.

Long story short, it seems the Aspen Institute had learned about Jones' work long before I, and had invited him to speak at the Festival, which is how I ended up just a few feet from him in a parking lot, enthusing - okay, gushing- about my appreciation for the work he was doing. (He was, for the record, unexpectedly friendly and self-deprecating, despite his obvious exhaustion. hooray, Van Jones!)

I had been thinking about Jones' campaign in the weeks since in small ball terms - my own policy interests, the Ideas Festival - but was reminded of his efforts last night listening to last night's convention speakers talk about expanding green jobs to rural and impoverished communities. I'm so heartened to see this party rally around great policy ideas - this sort of thing seems exemplary of "government as a force for good" progressivism.

And relatedly, the whole thematic build of "Renewing America's Promise" was capped off very well by Mark Warner, in my opinion. I'm increasingly convinced that Warner's real value to this party is brand ambassador - by dint of both his biography and his evangelism for technology, he is a powerful representation of the Democratic brand as innovation and (as he put it) The Future. This is terrific framing, I think - even more visceral and compelling than "change," not to mention a substantive way to bring up McCain's age without being gratuitous.

Oh, and go read that Van Jones article. I believe we'll be hearing that name again.