The crowd is still filtering into the Pepsi Center, but Rep. Joe Baca, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, got more applause when he said he was from California than when he called for an end to the war in Iraq or for universal health insurance. But the lady who followed him to the podium got rousing applause when she said John McCain voted 90 percent of the time in lockstep with President Bush. “We don’t need 10 percent change,” she said. “We need 110 percent change.”

Then when Silvestre Reyes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, promised that Obama would take the fight to the terrorists and be tough with American adversaries, crickets chirped. Though in fairness, Congressman Jose Serrano’s line about Bush running the economy into the ground didn’t get much crowd reaction either.