So I’ve just walked into the Realizing the Promise Forum at the Hilton in Washington DC, which is being presented as a roundtable of community leaders from across the country by the Center for Community Change. Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett will be here giving an address (where hopefully she will talk about that new White House urban policy office) and Juan Williams (!) will be moderating the forum, which promises to deal with health care, employment, the economic crisis, immigration reform and “the role of community organizations in sustaining our democracy”. But right now I’m listening to an amazing steel drum band called Positive Vibrations (Bob Marley reference), which is made up of young musicians. They’re really pretty great.

A few observations:

*There are mad heads here. This place is super crowded.

*These people are mad friendly. I’ve been spontaneously hugged by strangers several times since I walked in.

*Spontaneous labor chants are really kind of awesome.

*As a blogger, I’m getting a better seat than many of the reporters. Which is kind of cool, even though I’m also a reporter.

That’s it, more as things get started.

UPDATE: Forgot to mention that the panel includes Melody Barnes (who is expected to be Obama’s domestic policy adviser) and Reps Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Louis Gutierrez (D-IL), Donna Edwards (D-MD) and John Sarbanes (D-MD).

Update: you can follow the truly live blogging in this post.

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