The decision by Democratic Party officials to move President Obama's acceptance speech "inside" on Thursday night started the dominoes falling in Charlotte for the news media and delegates, ensuring that we may have our biggest lockout of party bigwigs since the 1988 convention in Atlanta.

That year, the Democrats held their convention at the old Omni - which filled up so fast that lawmakers were left outside when the authorities closed the doors - as they did to the Time Warner Cable arena on Wednesday evening.

Colleagues of mine were stuck outside around 8:15 pm - and it didn't matter if you were a Congressman or not - the fire marshal wasn't letting anyone else in until more people came out of the building.

I shudder to think of what the lines will look like on Thursday - some poor delegates will be left outside in the crush of people trying to get in.

Of course, it wasn't supposed to be this way, as the President was to speak to over 70,000 people at the Bank of America stadium in Charlotte, home to the Carolina Panthers football team.

But with the threat of severe weather in the forecast, Democrats decided to pull the plug on that, meaning about 50,000 fewer people will see the President give his speech in person.

Even though everyone says it was the right thing to do, looking at the weather map I wondered if it would really result in not one raindrop falling the rest of our time in Charlotte.  We shall see.

You could tell on Wednesday that security was getting a bit tighter at the convention arena; my boss had to eat several apples at the door because the security people wouldn't let her bring that type of food inside.

It could be a projectile, after all.

The same goes for a banana, though security people have told us that if you cut up the banana and put it in a plastic container, then you can bring that through the security checks.

As for the security dragnet around Charlotte, I had to chuckle when I arrived at work on Wednesday, because a day after blocking my route to the parking garage, the local police had vanished, and I was able to zip in with no problem at all.

Who knows what will happen on my last commute into the Queen City.

On my way back to my hotel, I saw how police had shut down a number of major roads into the city while the convention was in session.  If you wanted to get to "Uptown" Charlotte, you might need a bicycle.

Wednesday featured one of the few moments of breaking news in either convention, as Democrats suddenly pushed through two changes to the party platform, restoring langauge about God and Israel.

It was a good feeling to cover that kind of story, because much of the convention is regular scripted news.

While Bill Clinton was speaking on Wednesday night, I noted on Twitter that the reaction of the delegates was much different than in 1988, when I was on the floor as Clinton nominated Michael Dukakis.

"Old man tweet," jabbed Aaron Sheinin of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

"Get off my lawn," I messaged back.

I do remember being locked out of the Omni in 1988, a night after Clinton nominated Dukakis.  I was walking outside of the building, aggravated that I couldn't get inside.

Then I ran into Rep. George Miller (D-CA), who also had been unable to get into the building.

Miller shrugged it off, indicating that he would quickly find something better to do.

"I'm going to get a beer," he said with a smile.

I would tell a story about drinking beer and going to a Redskins game with Rep. Miller two years before that, but I don't want Sheinin calling me out again.

Anyhow, he wasn't even born when I covered my first convention.

Or something like that.

One day to go.