Democratic Convention Recap

Ted Kennedy: No one can argue that this was not the most emotional moment of the convention. When the Democratic icon, suffering from brain cancer, walked out onto the stage and gave his impassioned speech he set the tone for the convention. Plus, he and his niece Caroline were once again able to present Sen. Obama as the successor to his slain brothers’ message of hope, peace, and justice.

Michelle Obama: Mrs. Obama has not been the stereotypical candidate’s wife. Perhaps because her husband was running against a woman until three months ago, she was not a very visible presence on the campaign. For that reason, no one really knew much about her and Republicans were somehow able to float a rumor that she was unpatriotic. She masterfully portrayed her and Senator Obama a happily married couple and ‘true American’ family (whatever that is). With help of the video narrated by her mother and the introduction buy her NCAA basketball coach brother, she portrayed her story as a true American success story—the story of the ever elusive American Dream.

Bob Casey, Jr.: Not really a media highlight but it was a big deal for me to see the DNC let a fellow Pro-Life Democrat speak in primetime at the convention. It was a good speech too.

Brian Schweitzer: Gov. Schweitzer gave a great speech on the need for energy independence. His speech is seen as energizing (no pun intended) western, moderate Democrats like himself.

Mark Warner: This was not exactly a highlight of the convention. His story really didn’t have much credibility a night after Mrs. Obama told her story. People didn’t want to hear about how he got rich by investing in one of the first cell phones right after they hear about a woman from the South Side of Chicago who got through college and law school only to leave a high paying corporate law job to do community work. In short, the speech was missable.

Hillary Clinton: Senator Clinton took her message of party unity to the next level. She went from telling her supporters that she supports Sen. Obama and they should too, to telling them why she supports Sen. Obama. In addition, she explained why McCain cannot be the president. Furthermore, she came off as sincere. It was not the half-hearted speech we have come to expect from Sen. Clinton since her appearance with Sen. Obama in Unity, NH.

The Roll Call Vote: A great display of both democracy and party unity. Sen. Clinton followed her show-stealing speech up with an even more profound call for party unity by ending the roll call and calling for the nomination nominate Sen. Obama by acclamation.

Bill Clinton: President Clinton finally publicly endorsed Sen. Obama and made it clear that he feels Sen. Obama is ready to be the president. He effectively explained that Sen. Obama was qualified to be a world leader. It was good speech and he, like his wife the night before, did a good job of attacking John McCain’s record.

John Kerry: To be honest, I was surprised that the DNC gave him a primetime slot--especially between the two speakers that he was between. However, he did a great job of doing what the GOP did to him so masterfully four years ago—pointing out every time John McCain reversed his position on a major issue. He also told the story of Sen. Obama’s great uncle who helped to liberate a concentration camp in WWII. On this point, I just have to quote Jon Stewart: "Are you fucking kidding me?! Barack Obama has an adorable, white, war hero uncle. Why is this the first time we're seeing this?! If I'm Obama, every time I campaign down South, I'm having that guy strapped into a Baby Bjorn and walking around!"

Joe Biden: Joe Biden did his job and did it pretty well. First through the video and introduction by his son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden (who is shipping out to Iraq as a member of the JAG Corps in a few weeks) the DNC portrayed Joe Biden exactly as they want the public to perceive him. He was portrayed as blue collared man of faith who holds close to him traditional family values and has overcome incredible tragedy in his life. Second, he assured voters of his foreign policy experience and finally he masterfully tied Sen. McCain to President Bush (especially through his now famous ‘Freudian slip’). Bonus Points: In case they didn't pound the fact that Sen. Biden comes from a big, blue collar Catholic family down everyone's throats enough, his whole extended family (his mother, wife, children, in-laws, grandchildren, brothers' families, and his sisters' family) came out on stage to close the night reight before a Catholic Sister of St. Jospeh offered the Benediction.

Bill Richardson: I just had to mention him because Gov. Richardson was the first one to use the term “Flip Flop” in reference to Sen. McCain reversing his views on several issue since declaring his candidacy.

Tim Kaine: Gov. Kaine’s role was similar to that of Gov. Schweitzer. Whereas Gov. Schweitzer energized moderate and conservative, western Democrats over Sen. Obama’s energy credentials, Gov. Kaine’s job was to energize moderate and conservative, southern Democrats over Sen. Obama’s work as a community organizer. Furthermore, he portrayed both Sens. Obama and Biden as men guided by their faith. He, like Sens. Casey and Biden, also made several references to his Catholic so as to help draw in undecided voters (who in this election, according to a NBC/WSJ poll are overwhelmingly Catholic women).

Al Gore: While the substance of his speech on the importance of this year’s election in light of Global Warming was good, his delivery left something to be desired. As Pat Buchanan said, “It seemed like he thought he was talking to a group of 20 people not a stadium of 80,000.” I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Pat Buchanan on anything but he really is right; Vice President Gore didn’t even pause to acknowledge the crowd’s applause most of the time. To be honest, I was disappointed.

Barack Obama: What can I say about the speech? I really think that the speech said it all. The video and introduction by Sen. Dick Durbin told his story and it worked perfectly as a bookend to Michelle Obama’s presentation of their story as the American story. His speech was specific about what he means by “change” and he finally took off the gloves and went after Sen. McCain’s record. What’s more is that he completed what Pres. Clinton, Sen. Kerry, and Sen. Biden has done the night before and tied Sen. McCain to Pres. Bush. The speech has been called one of the best convention speeches ever and I think that it was. Even Pat Buchanan was impressed. But what’s more, Sen. Obama was able to show that a McCain presidency would be disastrous not just for liberals or Democrats but for the whole country.

Barack Kennedy?

This election cycle, many people seem to be obsessed with the notion of comparing Sen. Barack Obama to President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy, including the Kennedys. While comparisons of the Democratic nominee and the late Kennedy brothers are nothing new, what is new is that they are being made by the Kennedy’s rather than the candidate’s top aides.

President Bill Clinton and his campaign communications team presented him as the natural heir to President Kennedy during both the 1992 and 1996 campaigns. It made since at the time as well; Clinton was youngest and arguably most charismatic nominee either party had seen since Kennedy. George Stephanopoulos made sure that there was no media outlet without a copy of the picture of a young Bill Clinton shaking the hand of then-President Kennedy. Clinton said often that Kennedy was his political hero as a young man. Once in office, Clinton prided himself on his work with Sen. Ted Kennedy, the late president’s youngest brother (former First Lady and Sen. Hillary Clinton did the same once she took office in the Senate).

While Al Gore never tried to position himself as a successor to Kennedy, he did cast himself as Clinton’s hand-picked successor. However, in many ways this worked to his advantage as many had already associated Clinton with Kennedy.

In 2004, John Kerry’s campaign began making Kennedy connections to their candidate as well. However, they focused on biographical connections rather than drawing connections between the two men’s age and perceived charisma. This was most likely because Kerry was not young at the time of his candidacy (and rumors of Botox injections also through out any hope of him being perceived as young) nor was he perceived as charismatic (he in fact was perceived by many as an Ivy League snob). The Kerry campaign aides had plenty to work with though. Both men were of Irish-Catholic descent with fathers who served in the diplomatic CORE. Both were graduated of Ivy League schools and had distinguished, wartime military records as naval officers. Finally, both men were senators from the state of Massachusetts (Kerry also serves as a senator with Ted Kennedy) and both men had the initials JFK.

Now again in 2008 parallels are being drawn between the Democratic nominee and the late President Kennedy. This time however, Obama’s campaign staff hardly has to lift a finger, the Kennedy family is doing most of the work. Ted Kennedy has served as the family patriarch since the assassination of his brother, Robert, in 1968 and Caroline Kennedy is the sole surviving child of John. So when the two of them took the stage with Rep. Patrick Kennedy (Ted’s son) back in January to endorse Obama, Obama’s top campaign aides had to be doing cartwheels.

A day before the endorsement event, Caroline Kennedy had written an op-ed for the New York Times titled “A President Like My Father” in which she stated that Obama was the only candidate since her father that she felt could inspire people the way her father did. What’s more is that she credited Obama with inspiring her children who in turn inspired her to be a part of Obama’s campaign.

At the endorsement event, the Kennedy’s constantly drew parallels between the late president and Obama. However one theme was constant throughout the entire event: that both President Kennedy and Sen. Obama have the capacity to inspire people of all ages. With two generations present on stage and numerous references to an inspired generation of “young people” the Kennedy’s made it clear that in their opinion Obama, like their father and brother, is a candidate for people of every age.

Not mentioned as much as the endorsements of Caroline, Patrick, and Ted are the endorsements of Robert Kennedy’s children and widow. Robert Kennedy Jr., Kerry Kennedy, and Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend all originally endorsed Hillary Clinton and were frequent guests on cable news shows in her defense. However both Max Kennedy and Rory Kennedy Bailey (also children of Robert) endorsed Barack Obama. Most significant, and perhaps the least covered, however is the early endorsement of Ethel Kennedy for Barack Obama who said in her Huffington Post endorsement, “Barack is so like Bobby…With courage, caring, and charisma, Senator Obama is leading us toward a kinder, gentler world.”

For forty years a generation of progressive baby-boomers has been waiting for a presidential candidate to pick up the torch of hope and inspiration they felt was lost with the assassinations of Kennedy brothers. Now the Kennedy family (or most of them at least) has said that Barack Obama is the person to pick up that torch—in fact they all said he already has.

So what does all this mean now that we are in the general election and past the primary? Mobilization. While few people would have been drawn from the undecided center by a simple press release endorsement by Ted Kennedy, the Kennedys endorsing Obama brilliantly used the political capital of their fallen patriarchs. Undecideds are not voters who are looking for a polarizing figure, they are looking for a figure that can unite the country—they want a “rally around the flag” president without the tragedy of a “rally around the flag” event. Both John and Robert Kennedy were those figures (or at least that is how their folklore is remembered today). Undecideds looking for unity and people who stopped voting because are disenchanted by the polarizing political process of today now have a candidate to rally around. Young people who couldn’t get excited about a candidate in the past now have people telling them that this man is not just the John Kennedy of their generation or the Robert Kennedy of their generation but both the John and Robert Kennedy of their generation and that may just be the thing to get the youth vote out of the cave.