Hillary Clinton Saves the Night
I brought my laptop to the Pepsi Center tonight in the hopes I might have a chance to write a bit -- at least before things get too crowded.
Those of you following my Twitter feed noticed my concern early last night that the speeches were not as strong as I had hoped.
The night, truly, was saved late by Senator Hillary Clinton. Governor Brian Schweitzer (D-Mont.) began to fire up the Convention a few minutes earlier, but you probably did not notice since the cable networks had their pundits talking rather than allowing viewers to watch the speeches from the floor. (Atrios is right: why do the networks spend all of this money to bring people to the Conventions when they seem to go out of their way not to cover the event?)
The best speech of the night was delivered by Senator Clinton. The expectations and stakes could not have been higher -- and she exceeded them. It is always something special to see a candidate connecting with an audience and with a moment.
I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible
There is no way Senator Clinton could have made the case more poignantly. As Rachel Maddow said last night on MSNBC, "Anybody who could be persuaded would be persuaded by that speech...She nailed it."
Just how many of the impossible-to-persuade exist? It does not appear to be as many as the media reports to suggest. Reporters seem to be looking for any signs of discord.
Which is why I am so worried about the choice to hold a modified roll call vote today. State delegations started voting this morning, and the results are going to be released on the Convention Floor. But, there is confusion about whether Clinton delegates had been released to support Barack Obama. There are hard feelings about the odd, compromise process.
Managing this type of activity with political activists has great risks. I do not see why they could not have had a standard roll call. Let each state chair have their 90 seconds of fame. Start the day at noon to get things done and keep to the schedule.
My concern is that if Clinton delegates feel slighted about the vote process, then calls for unity will fall on increasingly deaf ears.
I hope I am wrong. I hope things will go smoothly. But I fear a demonstration against the vote process will give the pundits all the ammunition they need to feed the narrative of a divided party.
Process issues can bring down a political group. Such slights can create hard feelings that make the problems intractable.
Is the risk worth it?