Seven years ago, they were the featured speakers at the winter Gridiron dinner, a forum of Washington journalists.
And last year, they were almost everywhere the candidates were: at picnics and rallies, dinners and forums and debates.
And even before the victors formally took office, many attended dinners and forums held by the party to further cement its relationship with them.
A certain quota of free places at conferences, events, dinners, online forums should be granted to teens and college students (and their chaperones if needed) and they should be given the opportunity to contribute as well as listen.
Although Makana plays in a style with a Hawaiian name, he sings in English, and the day after his performance he revealed that he had slipped in repeated references to the Occupy Wall Street protests as he strummed in the background during a forum dinner on Saturday night.
The Hotline, the Internet tip sheet that tracks whatever is happening in politics, big or small, ran a survey last week to find out which '04 wannabes were getting invitations (and how many) to give keynote speeches at state party Jefferson-Jackson Day dinners, major speaking forums for those who would be president.
His target forum: upscale dinner parties.
Then came the official dinner of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on Saturday night.
The family dinner table was a forum that respected politics, he said.
Just last week, Paul S. Otellini, chief executive of Intel, said at a dinner at the Aspen Forum of the Technology Policy Institute that "the next big thing will not be invented here.
