CSBJ @ the conventions

Last night’s spectacle at Invesco Field was unprecedented in American politics, as nearly 80,000 people gathered for hours to listen to…a political speech??!! You can attribute this to the historic nomination of an African-American by one of the two major parties, or to the enthusiasm of Obama’s youthful supporters, or to the American affection for stadium-size events. In any case, it’s a hard act to follow-and it’s tempting to believe that McCain’s choice for VP, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, was driven by the perceived need to for celebrity stroke. Palin’s youthful, energetic, and female-she’ll make a nice contrast with silver-haired Joe Biden.

It seems clear that, to prevail on November 4th, Obama’s campaign will have to turn out young voters, especially those between 18-25, in unprecedented numbers. Polls have consistently shown that Obama leads this age group by even greater margins than McCain leads the 65+ demographic. But McCain won’t have to do a thing to turn out his voters-they’re already registered, and they already vote. Younger voters have historically had abysmally low turnout ratios.

In retrospect, the security surrounding the convention was bizarrely thorough, perhaps unnecessarily so. For obscure reasons of “security’”, I-25 was closed for neqarly four hours at the height of rush hour, and Denver’s multi-billion dollar light rail system was essentially shut down, meaning that convention delegates and media alike could choose between walking, taking slow, smelly chartered buses, hailing a pedicab, or renting a bike. The latter sounded ok-but even though I’m an inveterate bike rider, the downtown traffic was scary-as was the prospect of riding with all the media parphernalia attached (camera, laptop, everything else).

So we walked. And it lifted our spirits some what to think that we werre just as transportation-deprived as were the delegates and press at Denver during 1908-the only difference being that they had trolleys, horse-drawn carriages, no security closures, and the convention was held in one venue…sounds great!

And, of course, you can bet that drink flowed freely, and a convivial time was had by all, in the absence of cell phone cameras and “gotcha” journalism. Remember the famous political slogan, coined by a big-city politician of the day, who wanted people to understand his proposals clearly and unmistakeably?

“Free beer-and no jobs for Democrats!”

As the week goes on, the slams against the Republicans are getting more clever, more pointed and well, uglier.
From Hillary Clinton telling her delegates that the Republicans should be “too embarrassed to even nominate a presidential candidate,” to Howard Dean’s pointed comments about John McCain and Viagra — McCain voted against bills that would allow birth control to be considered a covered prescription medicine by insurance companies, a status that is given to Viagra — Democrats are pulling few punches as their moment in the public eye draws nearer to a close.

As the convention approaches its end, and the various caucuses are more sparsely attended, today’s women’s caucus was a relatively intimate event compared to previous iterations, so speakers seemed less bombastic, less devoted to talking points and more factual and direct.
Lily Ledbetter spoke. She was the plaintiff in a workplace discrimination lawsuit in which she claimed that her employer of 20 years, Goodyear Tire and Rubber, had knowingly paid her less than men doing the same job for the entire time of her employment.
The lower courts consistently found in Ledbetter’s favor, but when the case reached the Supreme Court, it ruled against her.
The court did not dispute that Ledbetter had been discriminated against, but held that she had not filed her claim within the 180 days of the first discrimatory act, as the statute requires. Of course, there was no way that Ledbetter could have known about the discrimatory act at that point.
She talked about her lawsuit, and about her efforts to change the law to prevent future workers from suffering the same fate.
Ledbetter was credible, plain-spoken and direct.
If the Democrats hope to prevail this fall, they’d do well to rely upon the Lily Ledbetters of this country to make their case — not the slick, bloviating pols whose concern for the middle class sometimes seems, well, less than sincere.

While slamming John McCain and occasionally talking about Republican election “shenanigans,” Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic Party, told the attendees at the Women’s Caucus how the Democrats plan to win the election.
“We’re asking people to sign up, and we’ll send them 25 address. We’re asking people to knock on 25 doors three times, make personal contacts,” he said. “And then we’re asking them to make sure people are registered, make sure they vote. And make sure they vote early. Twenty-five houses, that’s fewer than what John McCain owns.”
Democrats hope to have 30 percent of the vote sewn up before election day, encouraging loyal footsoldiers to get people to vote early — “before Republicans start their smear campaign in the last week, when they’re behind.”
The party tried the strategy in Virginia, and found that it increased Democratic votes by 12 percent, while other methods such as direct mail, only increased votes by 2 percent.
In battleground states, the party is counting on people knocking on doors and getting the word out, Dean said.
“It’s the only way we’re going to win,” he said.

Women make up 51 percent of the delegates at the conference, and are four out of five caucus chairwomen — but only 6 percent of the members of Congress are women.
So it’s little wonder that family planning and other women’s issues were the highlight of the Women’s caucus on the final day of the convention.
New York Rep. Louise Slaughter discussed pro-choice issues with a crowd, which was wholeheartedly in favor of family planning. She said that the issue was “in more danger today than when we started.”
Slaughter cited Secretary Michael Leavitt of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who issued an edict last week that forbids health care professionals from mentioning family planning of any kind, including birth control, to patients who receive Medicare.
Slaughter also mentioned John McCain’s rating with Planned Parenthood — 0 percent; Obama’s is 100 percent.
And she said that McCain voted against every single family planning bill before Congress, including one that would have required insurance companies to treat birth control pills — used by 98 percent of women at some point during their lives — as regular prescription medicine.
“We have to fight for this issue, just as we did in the ’70s,” she said. “Some of you don’t remember what it was like. Pregnant women — married or not — couldn’t work, and their families sent them away saying, ‘they got themselves in trouble.’ All I can say is that it must have been a case of spontaneous generation, because no man was ever mentioned.”

Hillary Clinton’s speech to end the voting was another great moment of political theater in a week filled with political theater.
And the delegates loved it — just as they loved her speech yesterday. On the floor, one woman was gushing that Clinton was the most amazing person ever — and she was so overwhelmed that she might cry or faint.
The move was clearly orchestrated with the “great state” of New Mexico yielding to the “great state” of Illinois, Barack Obama’s home state. And then Illinois yielded to New York.
Clinton herself was there to suggest acclaimation — and the crowd went wild.
This is Clinton manuevering to continue her political career where she is and where she’s most comfortable — in the Senate. Her gracious, masterful performance is one that will guarantee her election as senator for years to come.
And she will be able to wield a powerful force in that body. She’ll fight during 2009 for her pet project — universal health care. And she’ll become what other failed presidential candidates have become — senior senators.
Clinton is the most effective communicator when she is surrounded by her biggest fans, which is one of the reasons she lost the nomination to Obama. She is gracious, lighthearted, interesting — there is no way anyone could criticize her for being “shrill” this week.
Her weakness — to react abrasively when confronted by differing opinions — is not one shared by Obama.

One thing I’ve noticed about this week: people pretty much go where they are told.
Tens of thousands of people obediently line up when told, move when told and obey everyone in authority without question.
Much, much time is spent standing in line at events.
Even the press — there are rotating floor passes, the only way for some of us to get to the delegates — and they have to be turned in every half hour. I asked, and no one had turned one in late.
Things have gone pretty smoothly this week (although there are reports of another demonstration and police clash downtown tonight) and mostly its because people do what they’re asked to do.