We’re already well into day 2, but I wanted to post a couple of quick thoughts on day 1 before it slips too far from our collective (and my particular) recollection.
First: Bernie Sanders gave a fantastic speech last night. The cheers for him in the hall were extraordinary – hard to describe without being in there. And, as you saw on TV if you watched, there were more a few of his delegates in the hall with tears in their eyes as he spoke. My take is that he did everything he could possibly do to persuade his supporters to vote for Hillary Clinton this fall. He spoke at length, and passionately, about why he ran and what his campaign is about; he acknowledged their (and his) disappointment; and he made a very strong case for the importance of not sitting the election out. Kudos to him.
Second: protesters, many of them wearing Bernie stickers and buttons, were all over the city yesterday. I do love this photo I took of one of them (click for larger), who has found a way to merge the Sanders campaign with Game of Thrones. (She’s from Nashville.) Whether they will be persuaded by Sanders’ truly full-throated endorsement last night remains to be seen; reportedly, he was booed yesterday afternoon as he spoke to a group of his supporters and ask them to back Clinton. I’ll be interested to see if the energy from the protesters and from Sanders delegates inside the hall is at all different today, post-speech, from what it was yesterday.
Your thoughts and takeaways?
That ad-libbed line from Sarah Silverman at the end of her speech directed at the Bernie or Bust crowd was hands down my favorite of the night. I am out of patience at this point with certain Bernie delegates who seem to have blocked out any and all attempts to get them on board with the nominee. Sanders himself was saying and doing all the right things. Yes, I watched him get booed on C-SPAN when addressing his delegates earlier in the day which just goes to show they have really jumped the shark.
MSNBC found three Sanders delegates to interview after his speech who not only still weren’t ready to support Clinton, but betrayed ignorance of her record and how things work. One thought there was still a realistic chance that either could be the nominee and was horrified at what she saw as the Clinton love-fest. First of all, there were plenty of Sanders surrogates on stage and secondly many conventions in fact completely ignore anyone else who might have sought the nomination. Outside the convention earlier an MSNBC reporter interviewed a Sanders delegate who suggested Trump was less dangerous than Clinton and said reporter also pointed out signs that said “Hillary for Prison” and “Lock her up!” What is this, Cleveland? Politics in our system is not supposed to be about cults of personality and frankly the behavior of some of these people with no care for the party leaves me even less inclined to allow non-party members to participate in our nomination process.
First, he is pulling her to the left, which is all to the good from my policy perspective. Second, and perhaps more important as a practical matter, he has added great stores of energy and excitement to the primary and, now, the convention. Third, he is supporting the nominee unlike the many third-party candidates in our history who have helped to elect their political enemies because they couldn’t control their own egos (for example, Teddy Roosevelt and Ralph Nader). Net: a big win for Democrats and for the Clinton campaign. As to the Sanders die-hards, they are indeed being ridiculous, as Sanders himself said in as many words. The whole country can see the absurdity of their position: heckling Senator Warren, for example. Over time, however, their immaturity will become a memory but Sanders’ endorsement will have continuing weight. Separately, Michelle Obama was amazing!! I’d vote for her for president!
This is what you always say you want Christopher. Folks who have never been involved in the party before from outside the system working their asses off to campaign for a candidate within the system, to get elected as delegates, and to stay involved after their campaign is done. This is the future of the party, a grassroots organized party from the bottom up. So they are a little raw from the campaign and are booing tonight, they probably regret it today when they see the damage it has done.
And even if they don’t, they won’t act like that in future conventions. That’s what you always tell me, it’s a big tent and it’s a place where progressives should devote their energy instead of to third parties and outside groups. Well if you believe that suck it up and welcome the Sanders supporters, they are following your path.
…AND I want them as Democrats. I’m more than happy to invite you into my house, as long as you don’t destroy the furniture. Everybody has a first time being involved. When I started here I learned how to get into and participate in the system, not overturn it. The booing was real unfortunately, though I hope you prove to be right.
My (uninformed) instinct is that Debbie WS got a bit of a bad rap. From what I read the staff was the problem. She said a couple of things, but didn’t take any action, and discouraged bad behavior by DNC staff. Apparently she didn’t discourage enough of it.
But, whoever made sure that all happened at the outset, perhaps DWS herself, deserves our thanks. The episode will be a distant memory by Thursday afternoon.
I was really surprised that we in teevee land could hear the booing and chanting so well. Heck, even when they were showing a pre-recorded video, they kept the mics recording on the convention floor.
I’d bet that the DNC production team spends today figuring out how to better minimize the disruptions from the floor, and that tonight’s events will have audio more focused on the speaker.
Repeated reports trace almost all the noise to a couple dozen Californians. I would reckon you move a mic or two, problem solved. Some people their personal passion gives them care blanche to do anything they want anytime they want it.
…which surprised me since I thought it was a majority Clinton delegation. They did finally count all the votes in that state, right?
from my vantage point inside, there was FAR less in the hall tonight than last night. No idea if they moved the mics also, but there was really almost none (although maybe that’s because a number of Bernie delegates walked out after the roll call).