Democratic National Convention 2008

"It's not about me, it's about you" is the statement that best encapsulates the underlying message of Barack Obama's acceptance speech as well as his presidential campaign. He developed this idea at first last night to suggest that Americans are "stirring," that we are worried economically, frustrated by our foreign policy, and angered that our governing decisions seem to respond more to the specific interests of the few than to the general benefit of us all. We stir as we watch competing interests restrict our government's ability to get things done.

Obama gave three examples to demonstrate how his call for change could be applied. He suggested that groups with diametrically opposed views can work constructively to find areas of overlapping interests. In the context of the longstanding debate about abortion and a woman's right to choose, both pro-choice and pro-life proponents share the desire to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. Within the context of the debate about gun control, there must be a way to restrict the availability of assault weapons without undermining our Constitutional right to bear arms. And in the context of gay rights, our compassion must allow gay and lesbian life partners to be present in hospitals to provide emotional support at critical times.

The electorate stirs because we fail not only to take these small steps but because we also fail to tackle larger questions that affect all of us. Social Security, universal health care, tax policies, educational reforms, and environmental concerns including climate change, oil drilling, and the reliance on foreign sources of oil are domestic policy topics that have been debated for years if not decades. The call for change suggests that it is time to take action and to make decisions.

In the weeks of the campaign that follow, there will be many opportunities for Barack Obama to more fully lay out what he will do in each of these areas. We're a democracy, however, not an autocracy. If elected president, Obama's success will hinge on whether he can influence and shape the actions and decisions of Congress. This in turn is a function of whether Congress perceives that a president articulates concerns that are on the minds of a majority of Americans.

And because a president's influence depends upon his or her ability both to shape and reflect public opinion, Obama's acceptance speech needed to connect with individual voters as ordinary people and ordinary Americans. If it did, and if he continues to strengthen his connection with individual voters over the final weeks of this campaign, he'll be elected. Then we'll watch to see if he can translate that appeal to influence Congress.

In Massachusetts, Governor Deval Patrick's experience has revealed just how difficult this is to accomplish. Change may be desired, but implementing change is not easy. Doing so calls upon each of us to recast our own practices and to open our own minds to the concerns and needs of others.

Obama called for each of us to be our brother's keeper and our sister's keeper. It's the reason why this election is about us and not about him.

—Allen Larson

August 28, 2008, Denver, Colorado

Back to the Future

Barack Obama's message of hope and concern for the everyday problems that face ordinary Americans is a political prescription that worked well for Bill Clinton in the campaign season of 1992 and again in 1996. Keeping to one side the nationally draining impeachment proceedings that were the result of Clinton's personal actions, there are many similarities between this earlier era and the current election campaign.

Then, as now, ordinary people were concerned about their economic circumstances. Clinton campaign advisor James Carville focused the tactics of the campaign by reminding operatives, "It's the economy, stupid." And it's the economy today that is again a major concern.

Then, as now, the inability of Washington's elected leaders to work together was a focus of the presidential campaign. Clinton was a youthful governor of a small state, Arkansas, who promised to bring energy and new ideas to a federal governing process that many saw to have calcified. Like Obama today, Clinton rested his campaign on the promise of hope.

Where the comparison of the two political eras has yet to be clearly outlined has to do with each candidate's ability to connect. Clinton conveyed the idea that he "felt your pain." He highlighted the fact that he had grown up in modest financial circumstances as the son of a single parent. He earned his educational achievements such as his Rhodes scholarship to Oxford. He learned political lessons as a young attorney general who lost his first reelection campaign.

And it's these kinds of experiences in his own life that Barack Obama will recount tonight. The key to the success of his speech and to the campaign that follows will be whether in highlighting his past, Barack Obama will also be able to convince us that he understands our circumstances, different as they may be from his own. Bill Clinton proved to be a master of this. It remains unclear whether Obama's oratorical skills and personal story of earned achievement provide a backdrop to the question that lingers in voters' minds and that he must answer tonight: Does Barack Obama understand me.

—Allen Larson

August 26, 2008, Denver, Colorado

It Was Incredible

On the first night of the Democratic National Convention, Senator Ted Kennedy demonstrated what Michelle Obama talked about. In her remarks climaxing the evening, Michelle Obama imagined what people in the future might say about the time in which we now live: They'll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears.

Throughout the campaign, Barack Obama has been criticized for this platitude. To some, it's devoid of substance. But last night, in his highly emotional remarks, Senator Ted Kennedy demonstrated the point exactly.

Standing before the delegates and his family, Senator Kennedy did not dwell on the grave health concerns he faces. He did not dwell on the fear that his medical condition spurs. He did not talk about the draining aspects of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. He did not focus on the uncertainties.

Instead, he projected with a strong and powerful voice the hopes he holds for our future. He recommitted to helping Barack Obama win the presidential election, and he vowed to be present in Congress in January to work with President Obama to define legislative details. In his words and in his presence at the convention last night, Senator Kennedy demonstrated the reasons why he is the lion of the Senate.

We all know the turbulence of his public and private life. And no one has had a more turbulent one. Yet, as he has done at difficult times in the past, Ted Kennedy demonstrated what it means to listen to the voice of hope instead of whispering fear.

—Allen Larson

August 25, 2008, Denver Colorado

In the same way that a botched baton pass bounced the American men's relay team as well as both the American and the Jamaican women's relay teams, a poor baton pass from Hillary to Barack could stop the Obama campaign in its tracks. This DNC will not "re-create '68" as is the wish of some. But there are cracks starting to appear.

The indicator to watch is the process by which the party will place names in nomination and then tally the votes of each state delegation. While the details of how this is done are mind-numbing to be sure, the effect of placing Hillary Clinton's name in nomination and then tallying each state is to focus the first three days of this week's convention on Clinton as much as on Obama. And the question is whether Hillary has again changed the calculus by which the outcome is to be decided.

At the core of this conundrum is the question whether Hillary may have moved the finish line from 2008 to 2012. If she has, the worry to Obama supporters is the idea that Hillary may be looking more to 2012 than to the success of Barack in 2008. And in this context, a dropped baton would be a good result.

Unlike the Olympics, we'll never see the drop. We'll see a convention in which the votes of each delegation count. As a result, we'll see repeated and enthusiastic encomiums to the barrier-breaking campaign that Hillary ran as a woman. We'll hear from the press that sexism exists in this country today, and we'll also hear the press ask how its coverage of the Democratic primary campaign may have reflected this sexism.

We'll never see the dropped baton because along with sexism we'll hear about racism. The convention will honor Barack Obama for the unimaginable political feat he has accomplished in rising from the state senate of Illinois to the threshold of the presidency of the United States. In political terms, the speed of Barack Obama's ascent is comparable to the otherworldliness of Jamaica's Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt. In both cases, we can observe it, but we cannot yet really understand and explain it.

This lack of clarity extends in wider circles as well. The press has yet to understand the meteoric rise of the Internet other than to recognize that old business models no longer work. No longer is it an era in which nightly news anchors can suggest that they have a whit of an idea why specific aspects of our daily lives are in such flux.

The analytical techniques that political reporters have long applied are no longer applicable. One example is the practice of exit polling. For years, the press has relied on exit polls to help it give meaning to the results of an election. From the findings of these polls, it was possible to understand what motivated voters and thereby defined an election's result. And for a news organization, clarifying motivations helps to understand whether an outcome resulted from concern about a war, a softening economy, a question of values, or some other factor related to a candidate's personal strengths or foibles.

Making things more difficult for the press today are state election practices that allow voters to vote ahead of an election by pulling absentee ballots. Thus, these voters to not "exit" polls. they are hard to contact, a problem that is compounded by the enormous growth in the use of cell phones. Cell phone numbers are not listed in a telephone book. And even if a pollster can find a working number, caller ID makes it easy for the voter to disregard the call. |

All of which is simply to say that we won't likely see the re-creation of 1968. Rather, what we may well find if Obama should ultimately lose the campaign is that the nomination of the Democrat Party for the next race in 2012 has already been decided. That nomination will start by making it clear to a national audience this time that the female candidate came within a whisker of winning the nomination this time. And the next time, the die will be cast.

Pass the baton.

—Allen Larson

August 24, 2008, Denver, Colorado

Relative to Boston, the city that hosted the last Democratic National Convention (DNC) in 2004, Denver is an expansive city with a slower pace.

There are many local volunteers working to welcome arriving delegates and to help people with directions and information. The baseball team that played the Red Sox in last year's World Series has a homestand that is overlapping the start of the DNC. Coors Field employees greet arriving fans too. They'll tell you that "service is important."

The city blocks where the DNC events will be held are a blend of old and new. Lots of work has gone into renovation as well as new construction. It's an easy city in which to get around.

And in a few hours, this may all change. The local community has prepared for protests, anarchists, and ne'er-do-wells. Some city streets will be closed at the end of the day. Lock-down plans have been developed in case things start to get out of hand.

Police in riot gear patrol the streets already. They have more gear than they can carry, including helmets, clubs, and shields. It seems out of place at this point in such a friendly city. And local residents wonder just what issue it is that disgruntles and gives rise to the threats. The one I've heard expressed most often so far relates to abortion.

Credentials are all the concern among the delegates and others interested to attend the political events, but hotels are also giving their guests "credentials" that are to be worn in order to access and move around within the hotel. It's a little amusing to those visiting the city for other than political reasons.

There's not much "buzz" as yet about Biden as the VP choice. The Queen Bee, Hillary, has not communicated her reactions clearly enough as yet. Her supporters seem to be looking for her direction.

We'll get a sense of that in the next few days. But activists do wonder whether an opening has been given to McCain to pick a VP candidate that is either a woman or from the South. Obama looks to have bet that there is no candidate like that from which McCain can make his choice. Among the males, Lieberman is from Connecticut. Romney from points West, Midwest, and Northeast, Pawlenty is from the Midwest, and Ridge is from Pennsylvania. Among the women possibilities, Condoleeza Rice seems an unlikely choice at this point. Maine's senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe are also considered Republican in name only. The politician whose stock may be rising is Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison from Texas.

—Allen Larson

Democratic National Convention Headline Speeches
via demconvention.com

Senator Barack Obama, August 28

President Bill Clinton, August 27

Senator John Kerry, August 27

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, August 26

Governor Deval Patrick, August 26

Representative Dennis Kucinich, August 26

Michele Obama, August 25

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, August 25

Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, August 25