When asked earlier today if CODEPINK might try the tactic again, another of the group's founders, Gail Murphy, said "Don't be surprised."

(From Rob Margetta)

Let's remember about one week ago, when Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination. The music following his speech was the inspirational music from "Remember the Titans."

Then think back to earlier tonight. Following John McCain's speech, the crowd heard inspiring music from the movie "Rudy."

Not that we're reading into anything but we thought we'd refresh your memory on what both movies are about.

"Remember the Titans": About a racially integrated team that overcame obstacles and won the Virginia state football championship.

"Rudy": About an undersized football player who overcame adversity to inspire fellow athletes and earn a spot on the University of Notre Dame football squad.

Yep, that includes you Coloradans, Ohioians, Pennsylvanians and a handful of other voters from states that are considered toss-ups or narrowly likely to vote for one candidate.

That includes you too Michiganders, who, according to CQ writer Greg Giroux have been mentioned more than members of any other state in speeches by Biden, Palin, Obama and McCain.

Now, of course this is an early stage, but who wouldn't want to be going after a state that boasts the nation's worst unemployment?

The Anti-War Committee has gone through with its promise to march from the Capitol to the Xcel Energy Center. Using roadblocks made out of lines of bicycle-mounted police and officers in riot gear, security forces diverted the march from its intended path of heading straight south to the Xcel Center.

The crowd of about 1,000 was driven - still marching at a controlled pace - onto the John Ireland Boulevard overpass, where they stopped, halted by a line of horse-mounted police, backed by riot squads and, further back, snow plows. The crowd is mostly full of young-looking people - from high school to their 20s.

A group at the very edge of the police line sat, and began chanting "You're sexy, you're cute, take off those riot suits." At the north end of the bridge, police blocked the route marchers entered through - the only one they could use to gain access to downtown and the Xcel Center.

Some of the demonstrators wandered back, away from the chanting pack, and watched events play out from across the street. A group of protesters on bicycles and skateboards rode in a circle, shouting slogans like "You can question authority, too" at the police.

Several of the police officers held cans of pepper spray. The marchers were contained, and chanting, but not pushing against police lines or damaging any property.

(Story and photo by Rob Margetta.)

The former vice president under Jimmy Carter was a rock star in the world of politics nearly a quarter-century ago. Of course, he was a Democrat, but that doesn't take away the fact that he got his party's nomination in 1984. Of course, Mondale did lose that race to President Ronald Reagan in a landslide.

Sitting in the Fraternal Order of Eagles on Maria Street in St. Paul, Kuhn doesn't really relate to those at the Xcel Center. He says he supported California Sen. Alan Cranston in 1984, but later became a Mondale convert.

He dislikes Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, and can praise late Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash while campaigning in upstate Minnesota in 2002. "On the Hormel strike, he was on the line with us," he said of Wellstone of picketers from the meat company in his old hometown of Austin, Minn.

Kuhn can share stories of Minnesota politics and his days as a state conventioneer, and of course that 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco.

He is much like the blue-collar people who seem worlds away from Republican headquarters, despite being less than two miles away. He says he can't believe Republicans are even given a chance for a second term. He says he won't vote for McCain, and will support Obama, though he isn't too hot about that either.

"I've never seen in my life so many Minnesotan families' children moving back in to their (parents') homes 'cause they can't afford theirs," Kuhn added.

With police lining every street, one cab driver said his town had suddenly turned into a police state.

"I've been to Gaza and the West Bank, and I've never seen anything like it," he said.

A female flagged down another cab outside the Xcel Center, and the driver stopped to let her in. But an officer came running and screamed at the driver, "The next time you do that I'm taking you to jail."

Kissinger, secretary of state from 1973-1977, said he was "under some attack" when Humphrey invited him to make several joint speaking appearances in Minnesota. Humphrey, a senator and former vice president at the time, was contemplating another run for the White House. He had lost the 1968 campaign to Republican Richard M. Nixon -- who was advised on foreign policy by Kissinger.

"Occasionally, I would have him introduce me," Kissinger said, recalling Humphrey's legendary gift for gab. "If he introduced you, you never got to speak."

For example, Kissinger said the pace of change in China, which has 4,000 years of history, won't be overnight.

"Societies are organisms," Kissinger told about 200 people attending the panel discussion. "There are rates of change that they can absorb."

Forcing changes more urgently, whether in China or smaller countries, can backfire. "It's beyond our capacity and involves us in tragedies that in time will become unmanageable," he said.

The panel on democracy and America's role in the world was among a week's worth of sessions covering a variety of issues, including climate change and foreign aid, which the institute hosted to coincide with the Republican National Convention.

While secretary of state, Kissinger recalled chatting confidentially with the Soviet Union's ambassador, Anatoly Dobrynin, to boost emigration. Figures rose until international pressure grew, Kissinger said, which prompted the Soviets to tighten the screws again.

Likewise, political, economic and cultural factors will encourage China toward greater democracy better than a strictly military confrontation.

"We don't want to produce a generation of Chinese nationalists, as a substitute for the communists," said Kissinger, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973.

He cited Saudi Arabia as an example of a country where democratic elections might yield an even less cooperative country in the Middle East.

"What you do with Saudi Arabia is a question that has defeated every administration I've ever worked with," Kissinger said. "Every administration had kicked the can."

(By Bart Jansen, CQ Staff Writer)

Gail Murphy, one of CODEPINK's founders, said the police and the protesters had come to a truce of sorts. During Wednesday's event, "We spoke to them as human beings," she said. "We asked them to look at us as human beings. We really tried to treat them as human beings, and I think they returned the favor."

She said security forces had months to train and should have known that CODEPINK is not a violent group. The organization is best known for disrupting congressional hearings and speeches with shouting, chanting, signs and their bright attire.

"From my perspective as a D.C. resident and activist ... I was so shaken by the lack of training that the commanders and the police have in dealing with the protesters," she said.

On Sunday, she said, a group of 10 CODEPINK members holding a banner on a bridge found themselves surrounded by more than 100 police.

The group near the Xcel Center today adopted a deliberately playful theme.

"We're CODEPINK Cafe waitresses and we say were serving up peace, and all you'll get with John McCain is another helping of war," said spokeswoman Jean Stevens.

CODEPINK's other planned activities tonight include forming a human peace sign in Harriet Island and working to intervene against physical violence occurring at the Anti-War Committee's rally before its march today.

The song, written by country superstar John Rich, who is best known for his part in duo Big & Rich, already has nearly 50,000 hits on YouTube.com and can be expected to be played on airwaves throughout the country this fall.

"It's timely and topical," Grams said of Rich's political song. "I haven't received a CD yet, but going through e-mails this morning I saw something on the song."

But not all stations are inclined to play the Arizona senator's anthem as he vies for America's approval this November.  Mary Gallas, music director for the Twin Cities' largest country station, K102, said her station isn't in the business of promoting political candidates, whether that's Republican or Democratic ones.

"We do a lot of research into what we play, and to be honest we aren't in the business for politics," Gallas added.

By the way: If you're like "Being There," you'll soon have the refrain stuck in your head.

Police said the two women came in dressed to blend in with delegates and later shed the disguises and began yelling during Palin's speech. Security dragged both of the women, clad in bright pink, out of the auditorium. The women were not arrested, but their credentials were confiscated.

"As they were heckling on the floor, they were removed from the floor," St. Paul Police Chief John M. Harrington said.

(From CQ reporter Rob Margetta)

A CODEPINK protester made it in, and began yelling and waving a banner near the Minnesota delegation's spot on the floor. Security dragged her off, struggling.

(From CQ reporter Rob Margetta)

9:04

Before Rudolph Giuliani took the stage, members of the New York delegation craned their necks for a glimpse of Palin's 6-year-old daughter Piper.

"That little girl is the cutest thing I've ever seen!" said delegate Alana Sweeney.

(From CQ reporter Rob Margetta)

"He's absolutely phenomenal," McErlane said. "This guy has got guts and energy. Even when Arlen was in chemotherapy, it was a big deal for him to do at least five days a week in the squash courts."

McErlane said his law firm supplied an associate named Evan, who is 35, to play with the Senator. Specter didn't run Evan off the court, but, McErlane said, "He's still a pretty good squash player."

(From CQ reporter Rob Margetta)