A lot of interesting and amusing things have been happening at this convention, both on and off the floor. Gore’s acceptance speech is on for tonight and is eagerly awaited here. You have seen all the speeches and floor demonstratons and probably more of the stuff outside the hall than I have. But here are some observations that I have gathered on the spot.
I’ve tried to find out what the outside demonstrators are trying to get across at a Democratic Party convention, but neither the press nor the demonstrators seem to know. All of their slogans about political prisoners, choice, corporate power and other weighty issues resonate with already won Democratic policy. Why hassle the Democrats with Republican sins? This same irrationality is displayed by Ralph Nader’s candidacy on the Green party ticket. How to elect a Republican President!
One thing I’ve noticed about almost all of the inside speeches at this convention is the use of the word “choice” or the phrase “a woman’s right to choose.’ The speakers must have been asked to include that idea along with all their other input and most have complied – a good message to show the difference between Al Gore and George W. Bush.
Another piece of strategy that impressed me was having the roll call yesterday pull out Florida from the regular sequence of voting and then put Florida back in when the count for Lieberman was about to go over the top. That draws good attention to Florida, where the Democrats have a much better chance now to win in November.
An extracurricular thing that the Maine delegation did yesterday was to visit the Parents of Watts center in a poor district of L.A. Parents of Watts was founded several years ago by Sweet Alice Harris, a remarkable black woman who refused to accept the terrible conditions of pollution, poverty, crack cocaine use and so on. She did something about it and now has a wonderful example of child care, post-jail education for young mothers and all sorts of services to babies and young mothers most in need. Sweet Alice is a strong, forceful woman, bordering on sainthood for what she is doing for the inner city here. We Maine people went to help a little, but Alice Harris helped us more by her example.
Some of the best comments to come from the floor: California’s Gov. Gray Davis on Bush: “If you’re going to apply the character test, you’d better be prepared to pass the character test.”
Joe Lieberman’s remark on the Republican tax plan in Congress (borrowed from LBJ?): “The best way to feed the birds is to give more oats to the horse.”
Bill Bradley: “Our compassion is not conservative.”
Joe Lieberman on affirmative action: “Mend it, but don’t end it.”
We were all moved by the two wonderful speeches by the Kennedys – Caroline Schlossberg and Senator Ted. They showed once again that Kennedy spirit and style.
Also impressive is what Maine’s U.S. Rep. Tom Allen said at the Maine delegation’s caucus this morning. He explained how Gov. Bush set up his Department of Environmental Protection in Texas by appointing only industry members and not one environmentalist. “That’s why Texas has the worst air in the country,” Tom said.
This convention really does have a purpose. It is to energize the troops for a successful election campaign going into November. At this point—and Al Gore hasn’t even made his acceptance speech yet—we feel that the election of Al Gore and Joe Lieberman is so logical, reasonable and best for the country (not just Democrats) that if we could have the vote now, we could eliminate the campaigning and send the nation into a bright future.
