Scot Lehigh wrote ……
My response:
Any miscues present at the Dem Convention pale in comparison to the absolute disaster called the Republican Convention. Maybe the Democrats took too long to count the votes, but the speeches and cajoling among delegates and candidate campaign supporters proceeded as it should. The final vote was a true reflection of the wishes of active party participants. Mr. Avellone was an executive in a health insurance company and a pharmaceutical company. This was not someone the attendees wanted to be directing health care reform. Insurers are a major part of the problem, not a solution. Federal and state laws are dampening their excesses, not their own initiatives. As for Juliet Kayem her speech was lackluster, and she broke Regan’s rule of politics about denigrating fellow Party members. She also had nothing new to offer, and her campaign contained few specifics(boldness is not a program) how she was going to tackle the State’s problems. Each of the candidates for nomination has a substantial resume, but experience at getting things done with some showing of political expertise is what won the day. AG Coakley has long been a member of the Party and is seen by the public as doing a more than adequate job in her post, but those attending felt politically that some of her decision making was shaky. This allowed Dr. Berwick to challenge her with a clear vision and a solid lifetime of achievement in the public arena. If you want to criticize the vote counting mechanisms, that is reasonable. If you want to argue that little was accomplished at the Convention, that is false. The people who attended the Convention and those they represent will be the street soldiers to get their nominee elected in Sept and in November. The process on Saturday will organize and bolster their efforts. Is Mr. Lehigh saying that there should be no parties at all? This is a belief that harks back to the conflict between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Today’s political scene, unfortunately, has not favored independent candidates. Maybe some day that will happen, but not likely for some time. By the way nothing is stopping Dr. Avellone or Juliette Kayem from being write in candidates. They did get the required number of signatures. Sen Angus King and Sen Bernie Sanders won as independents in their state, and Sen Lisa Murkowski won by write in.
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Slightly Better than a Party than the Nearly Defunct Republicans
I can’t even begin to imagine how much worse the GOP convention would have been if there were 5 candidates dealing with whether blanks count blanks and if they do count were the blanks delegates who voted or delegates who were absent. The MassGOP would be looking at multiple lawsuits.
I had a good time. After some years in politics, I now have friends that I look forward to seeing and met new people who were fun to talk to. It was a logistical disaster, two hours late in starting. The counting may have taken a while, but there were districts that didn’t get their tallies in.
Roll call in my district began 10:00 on the nose as per the rules. The roll call itself took longer than it should have in some districts, which I don’t know why.
I wasn’t in the nosebleed section, but across from the door where people entered. They streamed in forever.
The DCU Center sucks. The aisles are narrow and very steep.
Were there districts that didn’t get their tallies counted in the total? I know that the sergeant-at-arms took some of the books after all had voted, but before final tallies were entered in, but from what I saw in my district, the correct tallies and alternate switches were then made behind the curtain. It would be interesting to know if some votes really didn’t make it into the total.
The first sentence was
That’s how a seventh grader responds to the question What chores did you do this weekend?”. It’s decidedly not an opening that should have made it past an editor.
For many it was a real experience unfortunately being in the nose bleed seats with steep narrow Aisles and many people having difficulty moving up and down them made for a truly extreme experience. Ad in the lack of real food after 2 PM popcorn and pretzels were not many delegates go to food. Ad in the concessions were running out of even water and later when more came in it was warm. Granted the long wait was real part of the process but, the party missed a real opportunity to put up on the screens things like past speeches even the Friday night speeches for those unable to attend would have made the wait far more tolerable. Yet as contested Conventions go it could have been worse. It also could have been a lot better.
to fill in the time during the loooong vote tallying process. Even in the nose bleed section people were up and dancing in the aisles when there was some music piped in late in the day. I do like the idea I heard that the jumbo tron should show which delegations hadn’t turned in their books yet…so their people would be pressured to get a move on. And why not give them the prize of the worst seating at the next convention!
can give you quick, wrong numbers.
Campbell’s law, dude.
and think the party has some real work to do in shortening it, but I wouldn’t want music. I really enjoy the chance to socialize with other delegates with whom I don’t otherwise have the opportunity to have extended conversations.
Is Scott Lehigh’s column the weekly joke review?
I would like to take a poll and go and ask people who pass by the Park St. Station to name the candidates who were on the ballot for governor at the convention on Saturday. What percentage of people even care about a race that will not take place until September 9th? And when the vote actually happens, what percentage of people will vote. People who attend the conventions are invested in the political process, they listen and they vote, (except for those who worked for campaigns and were told to abstain from every race except for the one their candidate was in). Forget the bellyaching about the 15% rule and focus on educating our children and citizens about the importance of the democratic process.