Submerged hate
“I’ve been to a lot of conventions, and there’s always something gratifyingly weird that happens,” New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd writes.
“Dan Quayle acting like a Dancing Hamster. Teresa Heinz Kerry reprising Blanche DuBois. Dick Morris getting nabbed triangulating between a hooker and toes,” Miss Dowd said.
“But this Democratic convention has a vibe so weird and jittery, so at odds with the early thrilling fairy-dust feel of the Obama revolution, that I had to consult with Mike Murphy, the peppery Republican strategist and former McCain guru.
“’What is that feeling in the air?’ I asked him.
“’Submerged hate,’ he promptly replied.
“There were a lot of bitter Clinton associates, fundraisers and supporters wandering the halls, spewing vindictiveness, complaining of slights, scheming about Hillary’s roll call and plotting trouble, with some in the Clinton coterie dissing Obama by planning early departures, before the nominee even speaks.”
Hillary’s speech
“Hillary Clinton gave the best speech of her career [Tuesday] night. What many people expected would be a generous concession speech turned out in the eyes of many to be the first address of a 2016 presidential bid or 2012 should Barack Obama lose this fall,” John Fund writes at www.opinionjournal.com.
“Obama supporters couldn’t have any complaints about her call to arms on behalf of the Democratic nominee or her zinger lines against John McCain. The biggest cheers came with her line that it was no surprise that Mr. McCain and President Bush were going to be together next week in the Twin Cities, because they were so much alike. —
“The audience’s reaction was such that some Democratic delegates on the floor no doubt felt much the same way that Republican delegates felt after Reagan’s memorable remarks at the 1976 convention. Many delegates left that gathering convinced they had just nominated the wrong person. They corrected that mistake four years later. No doubt some of Ms. Clinton’s aides are privately hoping that some delegates leave Denver feeling the same way.”
Boredom battle
“About midway through the schedule at the Democratic convention Tuesday night, I ran into a British friend in the hallway that runs outside the main arena of the Pepsi Center,” Byron York writes at National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com).
“He, like me, had ducked out of the big room for a few minutes’ relief from the overwhelming tedium of the convention program,” Mr. York said.
“He had an idea. ’There ought to be a rule at conventions that no speaker can say anything that’s already been said,’ he told me. All the points would be made, but just once. ’The whole thing wouldn’t last a night,’ I said. ’Twenty minutes,’ he responded.
“And even then it might be boring. The truth is, from the standpoint of style and oratory, this Democratic convention has been a bust. From Virginia Senate candidate Mark Warner’s poorly received keynote address — with lines like ’You know, America has never been afraid of the future, and we shouldn’t start now’ — to Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s inspiring declaration that ’We’re pursuing coal gasification with carbon sequestration,’ the Democratic delegates who pay any attention to the podium have been forced to wage a constant battle against boredom.
“The only truly rousing speech at this convention has come from a man who had to get out of a hospital bed to deliver it [Sen. Edward M. Kennedy]. Yes, Michelle Obama’s address on Monday was popular, and, yes, Hillary Clinton’s speech [Tuesday] night was widely praised, but in those cases the crowd inside the Pepsi Center seemed to be celebrating the speakers’ presence as much as what they had to say. For every ’No way, no how, no McCain’ that Sen. Clinton spoke, there was an equal and opposite clunker, like ’This will not be easy. Progress never is.’
“This is a convention starved for a good show.”
The anti-Clinton
“History, we are told, often repeats itself. That’s why it’s fitting that the Democrats will nominate Barack Obama for president in Denver [Thursday] night, and not Hillary Clinton,” Peter Brown writes in the Rocky Mountain News.
“Exactly 100 years ago the Democrats last met in the Mile High City and nominated the Barack Obama of that era for president,” said Mr. Brown, who is the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
“His name was William Jennings Bryan and he moved the Democratic Party from a more conservative post-Civil War bent into a populist direction that eventually led to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.
“Obama’s nomination over Clinton represents more than a personal rejection of her and her husband by the party they brought out of the presidential wilderness in 1992.
“It is a repudiation of how Bill Clinton remade the Democratic Party.
“And, it shows just how fleeting success can be in politics.”
Man from St. Paul
“It seems as if the Democratic convention planners missed out on a chance for a little fun,” Paul Bedard writes in the Washington Whispers column at www.usnews.com.
“Chris Coleman, the popular Democratic mayor of his native St. Paul, which next week will host the Republican National Convention, has been roaming the halls of the Pepsi Center this week as a guest — checking out how the Mile High City has handled its party, and hanging out with his own state delegation, which includes his brother, Pat.
“But when our Liz Halloran asked why he wasn’t among the parade of podium speakers, Coleman — no relation to Minnesota’s GOP Sen. Norm Coleman — said he wasn’t offered a slot. Seems it should have been a no-brainer, no? Coleman, 46, is considered a rising star — the former public defender and prosecutor has been mentioned as a potential future candidate for governor. ’I guess they have no idea how funny I am,’ Coleman deadpanned. ’I could have delivered five points for sure.’”
• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com.
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