convention's end: slam dunk !

What did we tell you?

John Kerry’s nomination acceptance speech did everything the media bobbleheads demanded---and most of them (according to a salon survey) admitted it. A few technical but somewhat important matters: the speech was almost exactly an hour long as delivered, fitting neatly into the single hour 10 to 11 pm network slot—and using EVERY LAST MINUTE OF IT. Plus, as political insider Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out, it was a speech filled with sound bites, which is how most voters will hear it---on the Today show, on local newscasts. And GREAT sound bites at that.

That’s even before we bother saying that this speech was: personal and presidential, subtle and forthright, scathing and idealistic. It was solidly Democratic, yet it reclaimed issues like family values and faith, that Republicans consider their own. AND it’s emphasis on unity, on a positive campaign (but waged just not on issues but on values), on picking an administration of the best people including Republicans, on the American dream, spoke directly to independents.

It was also a damn good speech. In different times, JFK gave a rousing nomination acceptance speech, that had only one memorable section, on the New Frontier. He saved his economical eloquence for the Inaugural. Bill Clinton set the TV age standard with his nomination acceptance speech in 1992. But John Kerry surpassed it (a judgment rendered by none other than a Clinton press secretary.) It may turn out to be a speech of historical significance.

In terms of the convention, Kerry drew themes from previous speakers on previous evenings. He took Obama’s red states/blue states theme (Obama said “United States”; Kerry: red, white and blue states.) He echoed Edwards on middle class plight, using Edwards-like examples. He used a bit of Teresa Heinz Kerry’s “we can and we will” rhetoric, and like her, very effectively quoted Abraham Lincoln. (She read a long passage, very movingly, that contains both the” mystic chords of memory “ and “better angels of our nature” phrases. John Kerry’s quote was in this context:
"And let me say it plainly: In that cause and in this campaign, we welcome people of faith. America is not us and them. I think of what Ron Reagan said of his father a few weeks ago and I want to say this to you tonight: I don’t wear my religion on my sleeve. But faith has given me values and hope to live by, from Vietnam to this day, from Sunday to Sunday. I don’t want to claim that God is on our side. As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God’s side.”

Speaking of Ron Reagan, Kerry picked up from his speech by making stem cell research a priority in this one.” What if we have a president who believes in science so we can unleash the wonders of discovery like stem-cell research and treat illness for millions of lives?”

There were also the themes of optimism and strength from many previous speakers, the metaphor of the boat and references to battlefield experience. But where other speakers might have been cautious, Kerry was forthright. After hoodwinking the media into believing he was going to tamp down any criticism of the administration he seeks to oust, there was stuff like this:

“ I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead us into war. I will have a vice president who will not conduct secret meetings with polluters to rewrite our environmental laws. I will have a secretary of defense who will listen to the advice of the military leaders. And I will appoint an attorney general who will uphold the Constitution of the United States.”

He deftly turned one of the dumber criticisms: “Now I know that there are those who criticize me for seeing complexities, and I do, because some issues just aren't all that simple. Saying there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq doesn't make it so. Saying we can fight a war on the cheap doesn't make it so. And proclaiming mission accomplished certainly doesn't make it so.”

Though he claims not to have seen Michael Moore’s film, he talked about American energy independence with this zinger: “I want an America that relies on its ingenuity and innovation, not the Saudi royal family.”

For those who thought he would drop issues he emphasized in the primaries, he said this in an echo of his stump speech, but in even stronger terms: “And when I am president, we will stop being the only advanced nation in the world which fails to understand that health care is not a privilege for the wealthy and the connected and the elected - it is a right for all Americans. And we will make it so.” (Star Trek reference there? Captain Kerry to the bridge!)

How deft is this? He talks tough on terrorism as he draws a subtle but real distinction in his approach, which again echoes and strengthens a theme that runs throughout the convention:

" We need a strong military. And we need to lead strong alliances. And then, with confidence and determination, we will be able to tell the terrorists: You will lose and we will win. The future doesn't belong to fear; it belongs to freedom. “

He took the values theme away from the Bushie attacker, sharpened it, and stuck it to the assailant:

“We believe that what matters most is not narrow appeals masquerading as values, but the shared values that show the true face of America. Not narrow values that divide us, but the shared values that unite us - family, faith, hard work, opportunity and responsibility for all - so that every child, every adult, every parent, every worker in America has an equal shot at living up to their God-given potential. That is the American dream and the American value.”

On Iraq he said the magic words the left needed to hear: bring the troops home. He actually mentioned peace, which had just about disappeared with all the strength talk. He deftly combined his own experience with what it means on the issue of war:

“And as president, I will bring back this nation's time-honored tradition: The United States of America never goes to war because we want to, we only go to war because we have to. That is the standard of our nation.
I know what kids go through when they are carrying an M-16 in a dangerous place and they can't tell friend from foe. I know what they go through when they're out on patrol at night and they don't know what's coming around the next bend. I know what it's like to write letters home telling your family that everything's all right when you're just not sure that that's true.
As president, I will wage this war with the lessons I learned in war. Before you go to battle, you have to be able to look a parent in the eye and truthfully say: "I tried everything possible to avoid sending your son or daughter into harm's way. But we had no choice. We had to protect the American people, fundamental American values against a threat that was real and imminent." So lesson number one, this is the only justification for going to war.

And on my first day in office, I will send a message to every man and woman in our armed forces: You will never be asked to fight a war without a plan to win the peace.”

But just as Kerry the war hero brings valuable lessons to the presidency, so does Kerry the anti-war hero:
“Our purpose now is to reclaim our democracy itself. We are here to affirm that when Americans stand up and speak their minds and say America can do better, that is not a challenge to patriotism, it is the heart and soul of patriotism.”

Finally, something that was personally meaningful to the Baby Boomers among us. John Kerry first attracted our attention as a possible presidential candidate a couple of years ago, when he talked about fulfilling the promise of the 60s and the 60s generation. It was an idea we didn’t hear again and had forgotten. Mostly we thought Kerry had forgotten it, but he hadn’t:

“And when I was in high school, a junior, John Kennedy called my generation to service. It was the beginning of a great journey - a time to march for civil rights, for voting rights, for the environment, for women, for peace. We believed we could change the world. And you know what? We did.

But we're not finished. The journey isn't complete. The march isn't over. The promise isn't perfected. Tonight, we're setting out again. And together, we're going to write the next great chapter of America's story.”

convention glances, third day

Notice there is none of this Convention: Day III around here. Some of us are old enough to remember when we weren't so pretentious. What changed the style? Briefly: a combination of Super Bowl hype (with their roman numerals) and the Iranian hostage crisis at the end of the Carter era, when Ted Koeppel hosted the pre-Nightline update every late night, with portentous theme music, big banner and pretentious title: Hostage Crisis, Day 21, or whatever. Ain't been the same since.

Okay, this is maybe a cover for not very much to say about today in Boston, as we did not watch real assiduously. Life goes on, you know? Anyway, the big deal was the John Edwards speech, which was his well-tested stump speech with some notable extras. The delivery was a bit shaky, a combination perhaps of dry mouth from decongestants (Edwards was said to be fighting a cold) and unfamiliarity with speaking---especially hearing yourself speak---in such a large arena with upwards of five thousand people screaming at your every pause.

But Edwards did what he needed to, and those extras were important: like voicing support for the 9-11 commission while the Bushies still dither, and pointedly saying it won't take three years for John Kerry to fix the intelligence system. He connected well on his middle class and "two Americas" issues; his strength in biography backing his words made even stronger by the presence of his parents---his references to them were skillfully done. His "I'm sick of negative campaigning, aren't you?" should play well with independents. It was also important for a white southerner to take Obama's point against identity politics and show another facet by saying, where should we talk about problems of race? Everywhere.

The only other speech we caught (on replay) was Al Sharpton's, and it was a great speech. It was the rouser the conventioneers were waiting for, and it made some very good points on Bush, and his pathetic attempts to charm away black voters. Yet Sharpton also made strong arguments in favor of Kerry, not only on policy but on character.

We haven't mentioned much so far in these reports about media coverage, and that's partly because we haven't been watching much of it. We've stayed with C-Span for most of the time, getting all convention and nothing but the convention in full. But since we missed stuff earlier we did check in with cable and network a little. What crap! But then you knew that. We just loved the CNN bobbleheads sounding like a bunch of schoolmarms after Sharpton spoke. He went way over time! Oh dear! He improvised and drove the poor teleprompter guy nuts! Tsk tsk. And shame shame, the Kerry people can't be happy that he wasn't just positive and on message. We sincerely doubt that the Kerry people thought they could put Al Sharpton on in early prime time and expect a soporific speech. We think they're smarter than that, and they were just fine with this.

Jesse Jackson spoke earlier (one we missed) but as Sharpton left the stage, when he must have known he'd just had the political moment of his life, we figured he knew exactly what he was doing---he was taking another necessary step. Martin Luther King took one at the March on Washington. Jesse Jackson took a big one in his speeches to Democratic conventions in the late 80s and early 90s, and his candidacies. Jackson was often criticised for alienating other Democrats and dividing the party by essentially being too black for prime time. Notice however that by the time Sharpton spoke at this convention, that no longer was an issue: an absolutely united party loved his speech. What the CNN folks were worried about were the swing voters, the independents and Republicans watching at home. Too black for them, supposedly.

Maybe, but it was a necessary step. ML King knew it--he said "I may not get there with you." Jesse Jackson must have known it. We suspect Sharpton knew it as he left the stage---he wasn't making the speech for his career, he's very unlikely to be a presidential candidate again, he probably knows he won't get there. But it was a necessary step. Maybe for Obama. Who might get there.

For blacks, Sharpton's bio is at least as compelling as Edward's---raised by a single mother who worked as a cleaning woman. He spoke truths that black people know quite well, even if white people aren't around to hear them much. His evocation of the cost in blood of the civil rights won for racial minorities was eloquent. And he was the only speaker we heard so far to bring up the importance of Supreme Court appointments by the next president, as a reason to take this election seriously. His comment was as astute and true as it was funny: "If George Bush had appointed the Supreme Court in 1954, Clarence Thomas would have never gotten into law school."

We know that journalists have to ask dumb questions just to evoke perhaps interesting answers, but come on, Charlie Rose. He asked some Democratic party official, what do you say to people who say they don't know what John Kerry is going to do, on education, on trade, on the environment.... Well, what we'd say (which is possibly why we are not party officials) is: you can try reading his positions on his website, or listen to a speech. What do you expect us to do, inject the information through feeding tubes while these people are watching American Idol?

Edwards talked perhaps more than expected about specific policies and programs, which may suggest that Kerry is preparing to be less programmatic, in both senses. The bobbleheads are debating the expectations they are themselves creating--will Kerry's speech measure up to Obama's or Clinton's? First, it won't have to, because few people outside the hall heard them, and absolutely every speaker in the hall has been talking about what a great guy Kerry is. Second, it will anyway. We expect him to blow all the expectations out of the water. But who cares about speculation? Wait a few hours and find out.

The third night ended with an extended and largely symbolic roll-call of the states. Since this used to be our favorite part of conventions we watched too much of it anyway, but our impatient persistence was rewarded by Pennsylvania. State after state prefaced the announcements of their votes with silly bits of hype for their tourist attractions and politicians. Then PA Governor Ed Rendell stepped up: "Pennsylvania, which will do its talking on election day, gives all of its votes to John Kerry."

convention impressions, second day
 
The night of transition, from elders to the future of the party, from Ted Kennedy (speaking) and Jesse Jackson (watching) to Barak Obama, Janet Napalitano and  maybe even Ron Reagan---before settling down to the party of the present with Teresa Heinz Kerry, and continuing for the rest of the convention.   

After probably the first Star Spangled Banner ever to be sung at a national convention in an American Indian language, historian and best selling author Robert Caro introduced Ted Kennedy in an unusual but fitting and long overdue way: by calling him historically a great U.S. Senator, on a par with the 19th century icons.  Edward Kennedy has been in the Senate continuously since 1962, when he was a young man even his brothers John and Robert thought might not be ready for prime time.  Through thick and mostly thin, and triumph usually wrung from tragedy or at least misfortune, he has been as skilled and internally popular a Senator as the last half of the twentieth century produced.  Though Republicans vilify him on the stump---and he cleary relishes giving them the needle as stylishly as possible---behind the scenes, Republican Senators generally enjoy working with him, and find him a skilled legislator, ready to find or create common ground.  But he deserves most praise for what Caro praised him: for steadfastly championing issues he believes in, whether they are fashionable or not any longer.  They are generally the issues his brothers championed, but he has been willing to both stand up to countertrends and to adapt his proposals to new information and better ways of doing things.  For example, he has been a longstanding advocate for health care reform with the goal of coverage for all Americans, and health care as a right.  He's done this when others supported it, and adapted his ideas when bills might actually pass, but he has also done this when it was not a fashionable issue.  It's about time Ted Kennedy was recognized for his years of service and achievement.  In any case, it's getting harder for Republicans to get much of a rise out of people by holding him up as an example of devilish liberalism.  He's just too much a fixture of American political life.
 
Kennedy's speech to the convention wasn't his best.  His voice broke, and he committed one great howler, when he referred to the "shirt heard round the world."  But his theme of similiarities between Boston during the American Revolution and American political choices today was reasonably effective, and yielded one of the better jokes of the evening: "But today our struggle is not with some monarch named George who inherited the throne, though sometimes it seems that way."  He also smoothly linked "the excesses of Enron" to the "abuses of Halliburton."
 
Kennedy set the theme of Kerry representing hope, against the Bush politics of fear.  Barak Obama picked it up in the keynote address.  Billed as the rising star of the party, this 40 year old multiracial candidate for the Senate from Illinois, met high expectations with the clear language, apt comparisons and economical but memorable rhetorical flourishes, and especially a superior delivery and presence. 
 
Obama referred to the "politics of hope," a specifically Kennedyesque phrase (adapted by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. in a JFK era book of the same title) and varied it to the phrase most quickly picked up by the pundits, the "audacity of hope."  He also echoed and expanded a theme of Bill Clinton last night, who pointed out that because Democrats are inclusive and Republicans depend on narrow constituencies of the rich and the far right, that Democrats don't need division, but Republicans do.  Obama scored big with the audience in the hall, and if anyone was watching, probably on TV, by challenging the idea of a divided nation: we worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't want government snooping at what library books we read in the red states; we coach Little League in the blue states, and we have gay friends in the red states.  But most importantly he addressed the Republican stereotype of the Democrats as the party of special interests, that is, of identity politics, by saying directly: we are not black America, Latino America, etc.  We are the United States of America.  
 
He scored in smaller ways, too, as in his description of an idealistic young Marine named Shamus who (paraphrasing) believed in his country and its leaders, and who was on his way to Iraq.  I wondered, Obama said, "are we serving Shamus as well as he is serving us?"  In addition to questioning the Iraq debacle, he recited a quick litany of all that Americans owe the troops and their families that shamefully they are not getting from the Bushies.  We think this is particularly important because we believe that there are going to be groups of voters who will tell pollsters they are voting for Bush, but in the privacy of voting will cast their ballot for Kerry---and highest on that list will be military families.  These days that means reservists and National Guard families as well, and maybe in particular.   
 
Obama also scored with a line that we imagine goes over well on his campaign stops, when he referred to America as the land of opportunity, even for "a skinny kid with a funny name" like him.  
 
Other highlights of the night: Ron Reagan's clear and compelling (and very well received) case for stem cell research, and the winningly cute presentation of the 12 year old representative of Kids for Kerry, who suggested that vp Cheney should be given a very long time out for his bad language, and "To summarize: Kerry---American hero, next President."
 
Howard Dean received a rousing reception in the hall, but we missed most of his speech, and Dick Gephardt's.
 
The finale was Teresa Heinz Kerry, introduced by one of her sons and a pretty good but too careful short film (Candy Crowley's bio on CNN, which seemed to use outtakes from this one, was better: it portrayed Teresa as depressed after the sudden death of her husband, Senator John Heinz, who was brought to life again by her relationship with John Kerry. )
 
But while this shed some light on John Kerry and their relationship, the idea of the film was to stress Teresa as her own person.  She does have a compelling biography: brought up under a dictatorship in Mosambique, demonstrating against apartheid in South Africa in the late 1950s, a UN translator who began her speech with greetings in five languages, and an award-winning philanthopist. 
 
It will be interesting to gauge press and public reaction in the next few days, but we could certainly see why many observers say she is a tremendous asset on the campaign trail.  She is especially effective making direct contact in small groups, but she showed here that she can handle speaking to a huge crowd and the television camera with confidence, personality and style.   We imagine most viewers were at least reassured, and possibly charmed or at least had their curiosity piqued.  Various racial constituencies and women, both on domestic and international levels, should be especially impressed.  Her appearance and her speech might let the world know that at last America might be growing up enough to actually elect a man who doesn't have to hide his wife's intelligence and views.
 
The lines likely to be quoted will be those about her outspokenness, but a line that jumped out at us was: we "reject thoughtless and greedy choices in favor of thoughtful and generous actions."
 
                

convention chatter, first day
 
Like traditional societies that begin political councils by reciting their history and the names of their ancestors, the Democrats begin with evocations of their past, relating it to the theme of the future.
 
Quotes resound through the hall from Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy.  The first featured speakers were Al Gore, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.  
  
An early refrain, that could be a slogan: We can do better.
"voices of HMOs and Halliburtons."
 
Al Gore looked relaxed, perfecting his deadpan delivery of jokes on himself.
"You win some, you lose some, and then there's that little known 3rd category."
Tones down his rhetoric, but gets in a few zingers:
  "Let's make sure the Supreme Court doesn't pick the next president, and this president isn't the one picking the next Supreme Court."
The key to his relaxation?  Among the few people he thanks is Bill Clinton, as he associates himself again--- as well as the Democrats---with an administration of peace and prosperity, jobs and budget surpluses. 
He accuses Bush of ignoring "the climate crisis."  An interesting article advocating that politicans use this phrase can be found here:  
 
Jimmy Carter, showing both his kindly and stern sides, praises Kerry's military service in the context of past presidents who saw the horrors of war and therefore sought peace, like Eisenhower and Kennedy.  Says in this election, nothing less than America's soul is at stake.
 
A speaker concentrates on the health care crisis; a showcase for the nine Democratic women U.S. Senators; Representative Bob Menendez discusses foreign policy towards Latin America in Spanish, and possibly the most powerful moment: one of the crew on Kerry's Vietnam "fast boat"--a black man now a minister---describes exactly what Kerry did and under what conditions to get his medals and purple hearts, in one case by returning under fire to personally pull a shipmate out of the water.
 
Several people---a couple of steelworkers, a Latina, a college student---address the convention from remote locations in Ohio, Wisconsin, CA.  Several taped presentations: one the story of an infant with severe respiratory problems whose parents ran into difficulties which Kerry and his Senate office solved so the boy could receive care at home; another the story of Kerry championing a Massachusetts little league team for disabled kids, that blossomed into a national movement.  Both highlight an often forgotten feature of political office-holders: their services to constituents, to individuals and families that make real differences in their lives, sometimes small but sometimes quite large.
 
Now in prime time, Glenn Close uses her star power to keep the TV attention on the podium for a powerful presentation on 9-11 that is emotional and pointed, without in itself being political.  But it sets a theme---how we were united as a nation and as a world on Sept. 12, both as a model for how things could be and ought to be, and as an example of what the Bushies squandered.
 
Hillary Clinton in a yellow pants suit, jokes upon her reception: I'm almost speechless, a reference to the fact that she was a last minute addition, by popular demand.  She delivers a strong and tough ten minutes, emphasizing that John Kerry is a serious man for serious times.
 
Bill Clinton in a trim black suit with silvery tie, delivers a polished speech for which he had a lot of practice, as it uses themes he's honed on the speaker and book signing circuits.  He makes the case very well, and sets a high standard for following nights.  His zinger, which dovetails nicely with Hillary's speech: " Strength and wisdom are not opposing values."               
 
 
    
Style notes
Is this the first political convention to be run by a multimedia DJ?  Video quotes and short films, and a mix of recorded and live music.  Today heavy on the Motown sound: We Are Family, Dancing in the Street, What's Going On?, Bebe Winans version of the national anthem (Al Gore said it was the best he ever heard, and in our more limited experience we agree), the much-maligned "singing stewardesses" version of Proud Mary done by professional singers, and the night capped by Patti Labelle, a change is gonna come...   The first---but not the last---airing of Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode, and Bill Clinton greeted by Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow. 
 
The format did look like the Oscars or Emmys, and apparently it's organized by a producer who did the Emmys on TV.

One of the short films, early on, about the Democratic party used those stylish quick shots of cameras focusing or jerking past the picture.  It reminds us of the style a few years ago for typography:when for the first time word processors gave everyone the ability to use all kinds of professional looking print fonts and produce error-free copy, it became fashionable to use word processors to create ragged lines with mistakes that looked like the work of dirty typewriter keys.  Now that all kinds of video effects and editing are available to pretty much everyone, the fashion is to turn what used to be seen only as amateurish mistakes (camera in the act of zooming or getting the subject in frame) into high style.      

 

pre-convention chatter

If you missed the Conventional Wisdom Commentators over the weekend---their ranks swelled by the Hey, we're in Boston! format pre-convention babble--here is what each and every one of them said:  Kerry must define himself, connect with viewers so they will feel comfortable inviting him to a barbeque, and must leave the convention with a compelling slogan that even TV news anchors can remember.

You've just saved yourself about 18 hours of viewing and reading time.  Don't mention it---the Dash Brothers are here to serve.

The media has talked itself into a common and absolute judgment that Kerry cannot connect on an emotional level.   This apparently is how he won Senatorial elections, including a very tough one against Bill Weld, and won over Iowans in that primary after trailing badly in the polls there for months: by not connecting?  Here the expectations game the GOPers and media play together just might backfire.  Sure, Kerry's campaign speeches to audiences don't come across as well on TV as Bush's relaxed pablum: short declarative sentence (usually an outrageous assertion), grin and long pause, smirk, short declarative sentence (often repeating key words from the sentence before), etc.  But Kerry is well aware that in his nomination acceptance speech he will be addressing millions watching on TV, not so much the convention.   Against these limited expectations, expect him to do well.
 
As the convention came closer, polls seemed to tighten.  While according to AP estimates and a few other polls, the electoral numbers are still extremely close or favor Bush, there are a few analysts---including at least one Republican---who seem to be assuming that Kerry will win the presidency. 

Republicans are saying that if Kerry doesn't get a 15 point bounce from the convention, it's evidence he failed.  This is the Expectations Game, otherwise known as Spin, otherwise known as Bullshit.  A 15 point rise among an electorate that is  less than 15% undecided is very unlikely. 
 
Watch for what GOPers say and do about the 9-11 Report in the next few days.  If they're smart they'll try to preempt Kerry getting a lot of attention for calling for swift action on the Commission's recommendations by taking the lead themselves.  If they don't, Kerry may make this a major element in his speech Thursday.