A parade of present and former Democratic governors (most from traditionally Republican states) – Kathleen Sibelius of Kansas, Mark Warner of Virginia, Ted Strickland of Ohio, and Brian Schweitzer of Montana – all warmed up the crowd at last night’s Democratic National Convention (with the night's focus on the economy) for Senator Hillary Clinton. Warner (pictured above speaking and afterwards with his wife, Lisa Collis, whom Penny has interviewed), the official keynote speaker (a slot whose most memorable occupants were New York Governor Mario Cuomo in 1984 and then Illinois state Senator Barack Obama in 2004) and a former cell phone company executive, gave an intelligent speech about the economy. Strickland (a former Clinton backer) and especially Schweitzer gave more anti-Senator McCain and anti-GOP speeches, with pithy quotes.
Senator Clinton (pictured below) started out well. The video about her and her candidacy – done by the Obama people??? – was quite gracious, though it pushed more her first serious female candidate for president status more than her economic populist message at the end of her campaign and of course left off the 3 a.m. phone call-type anti-Obama arguments. Clinton delivered an endorsement of Senator Obama in her first paragraph, spoke powerfully, and shifted in the middle of the speech to a trademark of her and her husband’s speech-making – giving examples of three real people/families hurt by Bush-Cheney-McCain economic changes and today’s mediocre health care coverage for Americans.
(The stories – some of which I’d heard before, partly in person when Clinton was campaigning prior to the Kentucky prior – apparently stemmed from that most Clinton-esque of activities: Hillary hanging back – sometimes with Bill – after campaign events and greeting people in the crowd, who came forward with personal stories. Included in these – and I teared up as much as anyone – not only for the people whose stories she told, but also for what might have been with a Hillary Clinton candidacy and presidency – when she talked about a woman who adopted three disabled children and now faces cancer herself with no health insurance or the injured Iraq war Marine veteran who asks her first to do something to held his comrades back in Iraq and, only then, help him out with health care for veterans back at home.)
Two troubles with her speech: The convention schedule was running 7 minutes behind by the time her video rolled – when the Obama people had been so good about giving Michelle Obama her entire allotted time. This meant that – by the end of her speech – trying to close out soon after 11:00 p.m. so the networks and local news would broadcast her whole speech (most networks apparently started broadcasting at 10:00 p.m. after Warner’s official keynote speech – but in time for Strickland and Schweitzer – Of course, I was watching CSPAN, CNN, and PBS). So she reverted to bad form when she rushed through the end of speech – complete with long, punctuated lists with no breathing or applause room, and then doing something she had not done earlier in the speech – talking through applause – a la Al Gore. This made the speech as a whole less effective.
Republicans quickly pointed out that there was no Ah ha moment where Clinton said: You know we ran those 3 a.m. phone call ads and I really believed them. But I have seen Senator Obama up close more in the past few months, and I have also watched him learn and grow, and I now believe he is really “Ready to Lead.” Nothing like that. (Instead, she argued that his domestic policy agenda was pretty close to hers. In fact, she was pretty tough on this. Were you active in my campaign, she asked supporters, merely because of me, or because of the families whose tough economic and health-care situations I have just so passionately outlined those situation – like your own – you want to improve? Here, Clinton seemed to try to lower the cult of personality around her (although during the primaries – as she implicitly pointed out – there was quite a culture of personality around Senator Obama – and that’s probably a fixed feature of modern campaigning.) The Democrats who had been criticizing the convention most harshly were Clintonistas such as Paul Begala and James Carville. And of course they said they loved the speech. So it was hard to get a neutral opinion about this. I thought she could have said more about this, at least if she was sincere. Of course, it was supposed to be the economy night. President Clinton is supposed to address the convention tonight, which is supposed to be foreign policy night. As Senator Obama apparently quipped, however: No one is going to tell President Clinton want to talk about. But this should give the Clintons a chance to comment on how they now view Senator Obama as a statesman, foreign policy leader, and commander in chief. President Clinton himself, of course, had no foreign policy experience when he took office in 1993 (nor had a man named George W. Bush when he took office in 2001) (although Clinton had ran a state off and on for a dozen years) (Hillary Clinton – as first lady and as a U.S. senator – has more foreign policy experience than Obama or then her husband and W. had when they were running for president).
Part of the Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama problem is that the contest was so long and so tense that it’s not easy for Clinton supporters – who somehow feel the media or the Democratic Party or someone robbed her of the nomination – or Obama supporters to let by-gones be by-gones. A study in contrast was the 2004 Democratic primary contest between Senator John Kerry and Senator John Edwards. Even when he was trailing, Senator Edwards refused to go negative against Senator Kerry. And after he dropped out – rather quickly – Edwards quietly began raising money for the Kerry campaign among fellow trial lawyers. That’s why Kerry picked Edwards as his running mate. When the convention started, the Republican Party couldn’t haul out on TV a bunch of instances of Edwards bad-mouthing Kerry, but there were none. He simply hadn’t done it. And Kerry and Edwards supporters and aides – although they never got along great – did not have six months worth of hostility from the primary elections pent up inside them.
Senator Clinton (pictured below) started out well. The video about her and her candidacy – done by the Obama people??? – was quite gracious, though it pushed more her first serious female candidate for president status more than her economic populist message at the end of her campaign and of course left off the 3 a.m. phone call-type anti-Obama arguments. Clinton delivered an endorsement of Senator Obama in her first paragraph, spoke powerfully, and shifted in the middle of the speech to a trademark of her and her husband’s speech-making – giving examples of three real people/families hurt by Bush-Cheney-McCain economic changes and today’s mediocre health care coverage for Americans.
(The stories – some of which I’d heard before, partly in person when Clinton was campaigning prior to the Kentucky prior – apparently stemmed from that most Clinton-esque of activities: Hillary hanging back – sometimes with Bill – after campaign events and greeting people in the crowd, who came forward with personal stories. Included in these – and I teared up as much as anyone – not only for the people whose stories she told, but also for what might have been with a Hillary Clinton candidacy and presidency – when she talked about a woman who adopted three disabled children and now faces cancer herself with no health insurance or the injured Iraq war Marine veteran who asks her first to do something to held his comrades back in Iraq and, only then, help him out with health care for veterans back at home.)
Two troubles with her speech: The convention schedule was running 7 minutes behind by the time her video rolled – when the Obama people had been so good about giving Michelle Obama her entire allotted time. This meant that – by the end of her speech – trying to close out soon after 11:00 p.m. so the networks and local news would broadcast her whole speech (most networks apparently started broadcasting at 10:00 p.m. after Warner’s official keynote speech – but in time for Strickland and Schweitzer – Of course, I was watching CSPAN, CNN, and PBS). So she reverted to bad form when she rushed through the end of speech – complete with long, punctuated lists with no breathing or applause room, and then doing something she had not done earlier in the speech – talking through applause – a la Al Gore. This made the speech as a whole less effective.
Republicans quickly pointed out that there was no Ah ha moment where Clinton said: You know we ran those 3 a.m. phone call ads and I really believed them. But I have seen Senator Obama up close more in the past few months, and I have also watched him learn and grow, and I now believe he is really “Ready to Lead.” Nothing like that. (Instead, she argued that his domestic policy agenda was pretty close to hers. In fact, she was pretty tough on this. Were you active in my campaign, she asked supporters, merely because of me, or because of the families whose tough economic and health-care situations I have just so passionately outlined those situation – like your own – you want to improve? Here, Clinton seemed to try to lower the cult of personality around her (although during the primaries – as she implicitly pointed out – there was quite a culture of personality around Senator Obama – and that’s probably a fixed feature of modern campaigning.) The Democrats who had been criticizing the convention most harshly were Clintonistas such as Paul Begala and James Carville. And of course they said they loved the speech. So it was hard to get a neutral opinion about this. I thought she could have said more about this, at least if she was sincere. Of course, it was supposed to be the economy night. President Clinton is supposed to address the convention tonight, which is supposed to be foreign policy night. As Senator Obama apparently quipped, however: No one is going to tell President Clinton want to talk about. But this should give the Clintons a chance to comment on how they now view Senator Obama as a statesman, foreign policy leader, and commander in chief. President Clinton himself, of course, had no foreign policy experience when he took office in 1993 (nor had a man named George W. Bush when he took office in 2001) (although Clinton had ran a state off and on for a dozen years) (Hillary Clinton – as first lady and as a U.S. senator – has more foreign policy experience than Obama or then her husband and W. had when they were running for president).
Part of the Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama problem is that the contest was so long and so tense that it’s not easy for Clinton supporters – who somehow feel the media or the Democratic Party or someone robbed her of the nomination – or Obama supporters to let by-gones be by-gones. A study in contrast was the 2004 Democratic primary contest between Senator John Kerry and Senator John Edwards. Even when he was trailing, Senator Edwards refused to go negative against Senator Kerry. And after he dropped out – rather quickly – Edwards quietly began raising money for the Kerry campaign among fellow trial lawyers. That’s why Kerry picked Edwards as his running mate. When the convention started, the Republican Party couldn’t haul out on TV a bunch of instances of Edwards bad-mouthing Kerry, but there were none. He simply hadn’t done it. And Kerry and Edwards supporters and aides – although they never got along great – did not have six months worth of hostility from the primary elections pent up inside them.
-- Perry
1 comment:
I finally got to watch the beginning of President Clinton's remarks last night, complete with the rockin' house band's version of Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" (the Clintons' theme song at the 1992 convention) (see also "Rumours"), the crowd going wild and President Clinton trying somewhat to stick with the schedule eventually saying "We've got to get on with the show," and Clinton declaring forcefully "Barack Obama is ready to lead." What Clinton - who spoke masterfully - did not do is say how and why he came to believe this - after suggesting otherwise earlier in the campaign. In the past day I also read through some e-mail going back to Tuesday, when an e-mail (the last one? - we also got one from Senator Kerry's old campaign organization in the past day) had Senator Clinton graciously telling us (as former Clinton supporters) that she felt like we were up there at the convention Tuesday night "standing with her." -- Perry
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