MSNBC has set up a broadcast stage in a parking lot which is actually nowhere near the convention center ...



... but which does give them scenic Union Station for a backdrop.



A woman brushes off Chris Matthews' shoulder as a voice counts down the seconds to broadcast time.



Meanwhile on the street, Pat Buchanan signs autographs for some self-professed conservative admirers.



And at the crowd's perimeter, large anthropomorphized political symbols mill about aimlessly.