Top 5 people at the DNC opening day

Hillary's still laughing (Courtesy: ExamCam)

But short of the many versions of Barack Obama, or the sighting of Teddy Kennedy's son Rep. Patrick Kennedy hugging folks, some of the best faces in the place were floating around, hawking and gawking.

5. Rik Clay of Boulder was hawking his custom metal school rulers with all the presidents’ names engraved on them… including President Obama. And for each person who purchased the souvenir from his MisssingPresident.com enterprise, he would dig into one of the metal buckets on a table inside the center and mail the White House eight marbles because, he says “the president has lost his marbles.” So far, some 4,000 envelopes have headed to Washington, D.C. , he claims. A few folks are “upset because it’s irreverent” to the office, but most smile.

4. Buddies Steve Fendt of Aurora and Ryan Maldonado of Arvada stood out from many in the crowd milling around 14^th and Curtis today. The two were carrying their own message on hand-lettered signs: “NoBama.” “We’re trying to set the world straight and get the conservative message out,” Fendt said as someone bellowed “Obama!” Nobody was threatening, the pair asserted, and some came out in support of their candidate – John McCain.

3. Call her the Anonymous Ms. Clean. A slight, silver-haired woman who says she’s lived in Denver since 1979 and worked in the mailroom of a major financial firm, wanted to volunteer to help this convention. She stood patiently while delegates and others hurried by her station which had bins for various sorts of recyclables. Mayor John Hickenlooper had declared this was going to be a Green convention, and Ms. Clean wanted to make it so. A delegate handed her a coffee cup with a plastic lid: “The lid is trash, but the rest is compost,” she said with a smile. “This is getting a little boring,” she confided. "Please, keep me anonymous." It ain’t easy being Green.

2. For Heather Courtney, newly arrived from San Diego, the peoples’ choice is clear: Obama-in-a-box. That Jack-in-the-Box toy, with the Illinois senator’s custommade head, had already sold out, she said. There were plenty of Hillary-in-a-box items though. For those who want more, they are available online at Hillary-in-the-box.com. “They’re $30 online, but only $20 here,” said Courtney. Turn the crank and “Hail to the Chief” plays. But the question remains: Can Hillary break out?

1. The sight of the gadget on “Live with Regis and Kathy Lee” show was just too irresistible for John Stames of the Wash Park neighborhood in Denver. So he bought up the entire batch of laughing Hillary pens, and is hoping to laugh his way to the…well, not Pepsi Center. “It’s funny,” he says of the $10 item ($15 online at hillarypen.com)  which uses real recordings of her belly laugh coupled with state-of-the-art “Jabber Jaw” technology. Judy Baker, a Clinton delegate from New Mexico, tested the product, but seemed skeptical. Yet this latest blow to her candidate’s image isn’t putting her off. “I’ll support Obama,” she affirms. But is that the sound of the New York senator laughing?