Hahaha, I'm assuming GF stands for grandfather in your post.
Yes, its grandfather. My maternal uncle was openly gay and campaigned for Goldwater and Reagan. The rest of the family was even weirder than that. Needless to say, it got very interesting every other Fall.
BO is staging some pretty large events for which they pay for the venue and then build interest locally prior to the event, so unless you are plugged in to the campaign, you will miss out. JM has been ( or was ) doing more Townhall type things where he piggybacks on already planned events. If you join both's websites, you can then get news of local events.
I think CSPAN will carry both conventions live or semi-live.
This site is pretty good aggregator. Lots of GOOD commentary from both sides. Tell the kid that the polls lie and are to be taken with a grain of salt!!
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/
