progressive involvement

Embarrassing Jimmy Carter

Did anyone find it strange that President Jimmy Carter did not speak at the Democratic National Convention?

On Monday night, Carter was featured in a short video, and then was introduced.  He and Roslyn appeared to warm applause.  Then, they walked around the stage a bit and walked back off.  I'm thinking, "What?  Why didn't Jimmy Carter speak?"

It couldn't have been because of time.  There were a lot of boring yo-yos who spoke at least a minute or two.  No, either they didn't ask him, or he didn't want to, and I can't imagine that he didn't want to.

Hillary gives Obama bigger bounce than he gives his own self

The Gallup daily tracking poll gave Obama a 5 point bounce after Hillary's speech on Tuesday, another 2 point bounce after Bill Clinton's speech on Wednesday, but no bounce at all after Obama's speech on Thursday.

My three seconds of fame

If Andy Warhol was right, and everybody gets 15 minutes of fame, then I'm still owed 14 minutes and 57 seconds.  I get three seconds of face time at about the 19 minute mark.

The Obama Speech

It was a progressive speech and seemed mainly designed to appeal in particular to working and middle class Americans.  The video introduction tried to counter the impression that Obama is somehow "foreign."  It was all about Kansas, grandparents, heartland.  Opening the speech, Obama went right to "ordinary men and women - students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors." 

He went right to concerns that affect the middle and working class in particular, such as home foreclosures, health insurance, gas prices, then accused McCain of being out of touch with ordinary people, and tied Phil Gramm's clueless and haughty crack about a "nation of whiners" to McCain.  He talked of the difficulties of own life, and contrasted this with McCain's remark that middle-class was something under $5 million in assets.  (This was a triffle unfair.  McCain was clearly joking when he said that.)

Reaching out to middle-class and working-class Americans is exactly what Obama needed to do.  He needs those votes, and he can get them.  In fact, he sounded quite a bit like Bill Clinton, the last Democrat to do well with middle America.

From my perspective, the best thing Obama said all night was, "We Democrats."  Obama has not run as much of a Democrat.  It was not part of his strategy to do so, and since his strategy worked, you can't really argue with it.  Nevertheless, it has bothered me that Obama has tended to lump Democrats and Republicans together and accuse them both of screwing things up.  (Sorry my friend, that is not true.)  I was pleased, therefore, with Obama's self-identification as a Democrat.

It was a beautiful night, the speech was great, he delivered it well, the reception was positive.  I keep wondering:  What was missing?  Why didn't the "thrill run up my leg"?  For one thing, the hype about Obama's speeches has been so over-the-top that he couldn't possibly meet those expectations--nobody could.  That's part of it.

The other part may have been the venue and the situation.  It was a great sight to see Mile High Stadium filled up and fired up.  The field was set up for the convention, just like in the Pepsi Center, which meant that 80,000 people were not only there for Obama's speech, but also for the Democratic Convention itself.

The set, with its Greek columns, has come under some criticism.  I'd have ditched the Greek columns--they invite sarcastic cracks--but, otherwise, the set looked to me more like a newly-constructed department store, especially on television.  When Obama gave his speech, the background looked like a store display window.

The setting didn't seem to fit the speech.  The production was slick, high-tech, flawless in execution.  I couldn't help thinking of the evangelical megachurch.  The progressive message of Obama, oriented toward working class America, didn't really fit in a venue and style that seemed to reflect more the world of affluent suburbanites. 

What happens when you wind up believing your own propaganda

You lose all semblance of objectivity.  Kos:

When was the last time we saw a speech like tonight's -- a full-throated defense of progressive principles, devoid of mushy "centrist" crap?

Um, the night before, and the night before that.

It didn't avoid the tough social issues like abortion, guns, or gay marriage. It wasn't apologetic.

Actually, it did.  We're all in favor of fewer abortions.  (That's our pitch to the evangelicals.)  We're not going to take any nice person's guns.  We're for civil rights for gays, not gay marriage.  I happen to agree Obama on these issues, but they hardly represent a "full-throated defense of progressive principles."  In fact, they are precisely "centrist crap."

Unlike Bill Clinton's and Biden's, it didn't unnecessarily praise John McCain. It drew sharp distinctions between Democrats and Republicans.

Um, actually it did.  Obama repeated the mantra previously echoed by Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and many others, that John McCain is a "good man."

It came from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.

Yes, and that was indeed reassuring.

Tomorrow, the McCain campaign will try to "steal Obama's thunder" by announcing Pawlenty. Or Mittens.

Oops.

Denver shines

It's a strange experience to be in your own town as a tourist.  I'm downtown about once a week for something or other, and we go to dinner or a ballgame there a few times a year. 

Mostly, my awareness of the 16th St. Mall is to remind myself that you can't drive on it, and you have to go over to 17th if you want to get anywhere, and try not to wind up at that funky intersection at the Brown Palace because you never can figure out where you want to go from there.

The tourist experience is much different.  You see the place in a new way, and, by golly, Denver looks really good.  I talked to several delegates from other states.  They all loved the place.  Some of them want to move here (and I think, "Welcome to Colorado.  Now go home.")

Each night after the convention, I walked back to the hotel, which is only about a twenty minute walk--who knew?--and a thoroughly pleasant experience, especially with our cool summer nights.

The Pepsi Center looked good, much classier than the Fleet Center in Boston, though just as crowded on the inside.  The only real glitch was transportation.  One delegate griped about this, at great length, in one conversation I had.  I only took the bus to the Pepsi Center one time, and it got there through no known route.  (I thought at the time:  "Why are we driving through Elitch's to get to the Pepsi Center?") 

Transportation was a bit of a hassle, which is why I walked back each night.  Walking was faster.  In fact, the whole downtown area is very walkable.  From our hotel, Coors Field was four blocks, the convention center was five blocks, Larimer Square six blocks.  Even Invesco Field, which looks a really long ways away, is only about a 20 minute walk from from my favorite bar in the world, the Cruise Room at the Oxford Hotel.

The new convention center looked really good, especially when approaching from the north on California.  The new renovation of the Hyatt is sleek and moderne and juxataposes nicely with the convention center's angled roof.  The late 19th century buildings in LoDo and downtown, now chocked full of hipster joints and fancy restaurants, must look especially attractive to those coming from cities whose downtowns are empty at night.  I loved Boston in 2004, but Denver really shines.

   

"The Clinton Bounce"

In Gallup's daily tracking poll, Sen. Obama went from being two points down before Hillary's speech to six points up after her speech. 

The roll call vote

Ever wanting to fan the flames of the Clinton-Obama rivalry, the media seemed obsessed with this question.  Except for Kathy Walsh, whom I like, I generally tried to avoid the press. 

After Hillary's speech Tuesday night, however, local reporter John Ferugia stuck a microphone in my face and, after asking my reaction to Hillary's speech, asked what effect her speech would have on the on-going controversy regarding the roll call vote.  I said, "The mechanics of the roll call vote are being worked out between the Clinton campaign and the Obama campaign.  That's not the issue.  The issue is that Hillary Clinton laid out the first substantive argument against John McCain at this convention."  Which, by golly, was pretty darned astute, but not what the reporter really wanted.

The Obama campaign at first resisted even having a roll call vote.  Apparently, they saw it as reminding people of how close the primary contest really was.  This was an unsustainable position for two reasons:  (1)  We've nearly always had roll call votes, and (2)  the rules say that a roll call vote shall be conducted.

Thereupon followed several days of negotiation between the two camps which resulted in the managed--some would say contrived--roll call vote on Wednesday evening.  (The actual vote had been taken at the morning's delegation breakfast.)  They wanted to work it so that several states could have their moment in the limelight, e.g. "The great state of Idaho, home of the world's largest potato, proudly casts..." 

They managed to jiggle the call of states by having California and Illinois pass.  (I don't know what was behind California passing.)  Then, New Mexico passed to Illinois, which then passed to New York so that Hillary Clinton could move to make the nomination unanimous.

Even though Hillary had already suspended her campaign, she continued to hold a large chunk of delegates, just under 50% of them, in fact.  Hillary held a reception for her delegates on Wednesday afternoon--the large meeting room was standing-room-only--and formally "released" her delegates.  They were free to vote for Obama if they wished. 

She said she understood that some felt honor-bound to vote for her and could do so if they wanted.  This was exactly my position.  Each delegate is the fruit of a process which involved hundreds if not thousands of people.  In my own case, I was quite aware that these people had supported me because they knew my support for Sen. Clinton was absolutely stalwart.  To cast my vote for anyone but Sen. Clinton would, I felt, be breaking faith with the people who sent me here.

Incidentally, when Hillary entered the reception hall to speak to her delegates, the first thing she said was, "Gee, if I'd known I had this many delegates..."

Favorite moments from the convention

1.  I've been teasing my fellow Clinton delegates, Rebecca McMillan and Jessica Clark, about their strategy of getting their picture taken with the various celebs.  They have a very effective strategy which I will not reveal since I don't quite understand it, but it certainly works!

Imagine my pleasure when, wandering the halls, I happened to run into Harold Ickes, a major strategist for the Clinton campaign.  Ickes is legendary in Democratic politics.  His dad was a key member of the FDR administration. 

I stuck out my hand and said, "I'm a Clinton delegate from Colorado."  He put his arm around me, said, "God bless you brother," to which I said, "I wish Hillary had fired Mark Penn and put you in charge earlier.  If she had, she'd be the nominee."  He launched into a good-natured but profane tirade on the proportional representation system of the caucuses, which I enjoyed immensely and completely agreed with. 

Upon returning to the delegation, I asked Rebecca to guess with whom I'd just shared a moment.  I wish I had a photograph of Rebecca's face when I said, "Harold Ickes."

She topped me this morning though.  Last night at the Brown Palace, Bill Clinton had a small party for members of his administration who now live in Denver.  How Rebecca and Jessica managed to finagle their way into that one was a true work of sneaky art.

2.  A picture of my friend, Daniel Kagan, wound up on the David Letterman show.  It was taken while delegates were dancing and he was in an awkward pose.  Everybody looks a little weird in a freeze-frame pic taken while dancing, which resulted in him being awarded "goofiest delegate of the day" by Letterman.

3.  A Clinton delegate from Indiana and I were interviewed by a European television crew.  They were filming a fictional story about a woman candidate running for president in the United States.  Since the film would be shown only in Europe, we could ham it up as much as we wanted, secure in the knowledge that no one in the US would see it, which we then did.

   

DNC: Wednesday after Bill Clinton

Hillary's speech late Tuesday night marks the point when this convention shifted gears.  The case against John McCain was made only occasionally, and fleetingly, on Monday and early Tuesday.  By mid-Tuesday evening, the convention struck me as listless, if not soporific.  Hillary's dramatic speech late Tuesday in which she both endorsed Obama and opened the case against John McCain put some spark into this convention.

The thunderous reception for Bill Clinton and his subsequent speech accelerated the momentum Hillary had generated.  John Kerry followed with a sharp attack on John McCain.  (Some wondered where this aggressive John Kerry had been in 2004.)  Joe Biden's speech fell a little flat, I thought.  Sen. Biden seemed "reined in" by the teleprompter and was wanting to break out from it.  When he did, however, he sometimes flubbed his lines.

Wednesday's three major speakers all took the same tack.  First, they smothered him with kindness.  Each one acknowledged John McCain as a "good man" and personal friend.  Then, taking a page from Karl Rove, they each went after McCain's supposed strength on national security.  Coupled with the remarks of lesser-known speakers, such as Sgt. Tammy Duckworth and Rear Admiral John Hutson, the attack on John McCain's national security credentials was sustained and well-made.  (Incidentally, the strategy of attacking an opponent's supposed electoral strength did not originate with Karl Rove.  Jeff Greenfield made that argument back in the 1970's in his book Playing to Win:  An Insider's Guide to Politics.)

The surprise appearance of Senator Obama capped the night.  He made some brief remarks--RE:  Hillary, she "rocked the house last night"--and then wisely left the stage so that Joe Biden and his family could enjoy the limelight.

All eyes will be on Invesco Field tonight.  (Incidentally, to his credit, Sen. Obama referred to Invesco by its rightful name, "Mile High.")  It will be an extravaganza, featuring not only Sen. Obama but also fireworks, Bruce Springsteen, and--I hear via rumor--an appearance by Muhammed Ali.  Politically, I worry that this, plus the Greek columns which will frame the dais, only taps into the "celebrity" theme that the McCain has recently been pushing.