Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner spoke at the Hawaii delegation’s breakfast yesterday, telling the tale of her personal journey from the daughter of a sharecropper to the widow confronting routine discrimination against women by banks, to a climb through the political ranks to eventually serve two terms as governor.

It was a touching story, and the backdrop to her strong statement of support for Obama/Biden.

But some of the warm and fuzzy feeling faded when I got back to my room and picked up yesterday’s copy of The Hill, one of the many newspapers being distributed here at the convention. Here’s the first sentence of Betsy Rothstein’s page 1 story: “Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is tightening the reins on campaign speeches and stressing that speakers emphasize a rags-to-riches theme.”

Later in the story:

Several speeches have had a rags-to-riches theme. In his address, Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) said, “One of my proudest moments was when I received keys to my first classroom. It was high-quality public education that allowed this son of strawberry sharecroppers, raised in the Japanese-American internment camps of World War II, to grow up to become a Peace Corps volunteer, a vice chair of the DNC, and chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.”

In his address, Austin Esposito, the son of Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), said, “My name is Austin. These are my sisters, Maddie and Lily. … How did we get here? Well, it started with few strong Americans. My great-grandmother Mildred was a single mom, which was tough. Thankfully, she was strong and independent and wasn’t afraid to state her opinions, even when women weren’t supposed to be heard from.”

Democratic strategist Peter Fenn — also a contributor to The Hill’s Pundits Blog — believes the best conventions are those with the most tightly controlled messages. “The important thing to come out of the convention is Barack Obama’s message,” he said. “They should be controlling the message.”

I’m not sure why this rubs me the wrong way. It immediately raises the question of how great the distance is between the authorized and controlled “message” and the truth.

The next heartwarming story should trigger the reporter’s instinct–better check it out.

I grabbed a quick photo as the Hawaii delegation gathered for a group photo after breakfast this morning.

Not a great photo, but it gives you an idea. The pro photographer hired to do take the group photo was trying to block others pictures from being taken. I managed to disobey just long enough to catch the group as they got set up.

Note: I’ve taken some flack as a result of this photo in an email message from a reader, also a photographer. He writes:

Ian, you should be ashamed of yourself. A professional, who was hired to do a job, is trying to make a living, asking others not to take pictures, and you go around him! The photographer is trying to make a living and you are stealing from him!

My brief response, written on the move:

well, I beg to disagree.

I’m very obviously not in competition with the pro. Different purpose, different type of photo, far inferior in all ualities.

There’s no comparison in any technical sense between a pro version and a blurry, rushed, maybe you can guess who’s in the photo product.

No one would accept this as a souvenir in place of a reasonably priced pro photo (and in this case they were reasonably priced).

If I were taking a comparable quality photo and peddling it to delegates, you would have a case. At least that’s how I see it.

Things could get interesting again tonight. After the fire martial shut down access to Pepsi Center last night, capacity issues may come to the fore.

For Hawaii, that’s not necessarily good news. On Monday, Hawaii initially had 29 seats and it has 29 delegates and two pages with floor credentials. It also has one designated blogger. Oh, oh. The math, and the power relations, were not in my favor.

But I have to give state party chair Brian Schatz lots of credit for being persistent in a chaotic setting where similar issues were coming up with many of the delegations. A folding chair was set up, there was some juggling around, and all was well, although some with temporary floor passes had to stand on the floor below the delegation.

In the end, I sat next to the Hawaii flowers which were displayed on the pole announcing the location of the HAWAII delegates. There was, as promised, a free electrical outlet and an ethernet cable for my use. Hopefully I’ll be there again tonight.

As interest and attendance builds, there could be seating issues anew this evening.

Maui delegate Kari Luna started the week with a very good excuse to go shopping. She and her family caught a direct flight from Kahului to Denver. All their stuff, including pineapples, arrived safely except for her suitcase. So here she was, convention starting, without even a toothbrush. Kari reports United was initially unable to trace her suitcase. I ran into her as she returned from shopping for essentials, including clothes to wear. She was in good spirits nonetheless. Her bag finally showed up Monday night.

Sometimes it pays to be mayor. Mufi Hannemann and his staff were able to land a block of tickets to Sunday night’s concert at Red Rock featuring Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds, Sheryl Crow and Sugarland, courtesy of his relations with Denver’s mayor. By show time, tickets were trading hands for lots of bucks, so this was quite a coup.

I think the Hawaii delegation (along with Delaware and Arkansas) is housed farthest from downtown at the end of the light rail line to Lincoln (wherever Lincoln is). I ran into Rep. Hirono here on Sunday, so she may be in the hotel, but the rest of the Congressional delegation, as well as Mayor Hannemann, are staying in hotels closer to the action.

I didn’t see Rep. Neil Abercrombie on Monday night, but the rest of our Washington team were there at Pepsi Center.

Speaking of Pepsi Center, a Poynter Institute column questions whether we really need to keep plugging the product when writing about this venue.