If the elections were held tomorrow Barack Obama would lose by a landslide. The festivities of the DNC last night were totally uninspiring. Tonight's focus was supposed to be geared toward the party's transition. But it sounded like more of the same in my opinion. They only wanted to talk about what Republicans have done and not what the Democrats are going to do. I'm not a veteran of these type affairs, but I've watched a few in my life. For all intents and purposes this one isn't very exciting. In the Pepsi Center with all those people there. It seems like it would be hard to keep it so quiet. Even if the people were just talking to each other. There should be a certain amount of noise in the air. There were times you could hear a single shout.I guess all the speakers must have got a printout, with all the talking points listed. Some of them got so little response from the crowd. I felt sorry for them. Every body's speech sounded the same. They all knew about the 5 million jobs, that if elected Obama is going to create. Much to me and my wife's surprise. We learned we had to buy a new car. They also knew about the electric hybrid cars we're all going to be driving. I heard about how many houses John McCain had just as many times. And they all mentioned the fact that John McCain would just be a continuation of George W. Bush. They also blamed him for every job that was lost in the last eight years. There were memorable moments here and there. Like Gov. Deval Patrick, Sen. Robert Casey and the tribute for Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones. Other than that it was largely dead air.
Finally the most anticipated speaker of the night, probably the whole convention came to the podium. We all sat with itching ears to see what Hillary Clinton was going to say. Though hurt was evident in her eyes she endorsed Obama. Now that it's over, I can't help but think to myself. What did we expect her to say? She was put in an awkward position. For the sake of the party and future aspirations. She put up a brave front. It sounded a lot like she was still campaigning.
Hillary has too much power for one woman to have. She was the spark last night.
ReplyDeleteConvention Notebook: Mississippi delegate determined to cast vote for Clinton
ReplyDeleteWednesday, August 27, 2008
DENVER – Kelly Jacobs of Hernando expects to vote for Hillary Clinton this evening for two simple reasons: She is a pledged Clinton delegate and “Mississippi” precedes “New York” in the alphabet.
Former Memphis Congressman Harold Ford Jr. and his wife, Emily, greet members of the Tennessee delegation Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Jacobs already knows the badly kept secret that when the roll call vote on the nominations of both Clinton and Barack Obama reach the New York delegation this evening, its spokesman, likely Clinton herself, will ask that Obama be nominated by acclamation.
“I think Hillary deserves to go out however she wants,” said Jacobs
But the Mississippi delegation will already have voted, and Jacobs, known around the convention as “the button lady” because of all the political buttons she wears, will have cast a symbolic vote for Clinton on the day after the 88th anniversary of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote.
Found in the swirl of delegates in the minutes after Clinton gave a rousing speech supporting Obama for president Tuesday night, Jacobs was a bit misty-eyed.
“She knows how to put a twist on that reaches out to voters, reaches out to Americans,” said Jacobs, tearing up. “And it just strums at our heart strings.”
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At the Women’s Caucus. Meeting Tuesday, a series of women leaders sang from the same song sheet about Obama while also expressing a clear appreciation for Clinton’s candidacy and the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling it has made for women’s equality. A woman is the CEO of the Democratic National Convention itself, one speaker noted, and there are more women in Congress than ever before.
Among speakers such as Mame Reiley, the chair of the caucus; Fran Drescher, an actress; Donna Brazile, Al Gore’s campaign manager and now a presence on CNN; Sheila Johnson, founder of BET; former Little Rock Mayor Lottie Shackelford; and Debbie Stabenow, the senator from Michigan, one speaker stood out for Jacobs and others. She was Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood and the daughter of the late, feisty incumbent Texas Gov. Ann Richards, defeated by George W. Bush.
“If you like George Bush, you’re going to love John McCain,” Richards told the massive crowd that gathered at the Denver Convention Center on the 88th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
Richards’ speech was interrupted by a video of John McCain being asked whether birth control for women should be covered by insurance (since Viagra is) and showing a clearly uncomfortable McCain saying he just didn’t know enough about this issue to respond.
Said Richards: “What he really means is `I don’t care.’ …My mom would say that women voting for John.McCain would be like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.”
Moderator Mame Reiley reminded the crowd of Richards’ keynote to the 1988 convention in which she noted that Ginger Rogers could do everything that Fred Astair did “but backwards and in high heels.”
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Delegate Gary Anderson, 52, a former candidate for Mississippi state treasurer and a native of Byhalia, said the evening’s theme, partly about the economic consequences of Bush Administration economic policies, rang true. “We’ve got to reclaim America. We’ve got to restore our promise…We’ve got a president who’s articulated conservative principles but he’s yet to do those type of things that would even justify conservatism on the budget,” Anderson said.
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Harold Ford Jr., the former congressman from Memphis, arrived at the Tennessee delegation’s seats in the Pepsi Center just as former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner ended his keynote speech Tuesday night. With him was his new wife, Emily.
“I hadn’t seen him in a long time but I was happy to see him,” said MLG&W spokesman and delegate Gale Jones Carson. “This is the first time I’ve seen her.”
Delegate Keith Norman, Shelby County’s Democratic Party chairman, said he’d met Ford’s wife before when she was his fiancée.
Ford, now the chairman of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, was to host an invitation-only event after the convention ended for the evening Tuesday night.
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Memphis president of the local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, Willie Ruth Davis, said Tuesday’s early-evening, non-prime time speeches about wage discrimination based on gender and fears of losing health insurance because of unemployment were a useful reminder of what real people are facing in the economic downturn.
“I heard that there are people without healthcare, that there’s still discrimination on the job between genders and also color and I think this convention is bringing it out among the common people,” she said.
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Briefly noted: The Tennessee delegation has a full bar, the Tuacha Chill Zone, directly up the stairs behind its seats in the Pepsi Center. It was doing a brisk business Tuesday, although no members of the delegation were seen bellying up.
Her speech sounded like a laundry list of to do things for Barack Obama.
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