As I reviewed the stories coming out of Denver I was struck by the cynical nature of the headlines about the Democratic Convention. Here is a sampling:
Edgy Dems await Clinton - Already defeated and now confused, delegates supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton pleaded Tuesday to know ...
Clinton Backers Confused - lead for same story as above
A convention comeuppance for Bill Clinton ...Bill Clinton was supposed to beam at the side of his wife at the Democratic convention as she was crowned their party's presidential nominee. Instead, he will have reason to wince ...
Tough crowd for Obama: Women Feel Robbed -Barack Obama faces no greater challenge this week than to unite disappointed women Democrats behind his candidacy...
Angry Clinton supporters toast McCain roast Obama...But the 54-year-old Democrat joined several other Hillary Clinton supporters, along with volunteers and officials from John McCain's campaign, at a Happy Hour for Hillary. The event, sponsored by the Republican National Committee ...
These were not the only headlines to show up in the past five hours, but they are representative of a significant number of stories from an assortment of news services ranging from AP to CNN.
There are plenty of positive and neutral headlines such as Previewing her speech, Clinton urges supporters to back Obama and Clinton's Night in Denver, but not the speech She Wanted to Give
It will be interesting to see if the Republican Convention gets similar coverage.
Frankly, I do not think the Democrats have much to complain about it since the problems are real, but they will have an axe to grind if similar Republican sores are not exposed in Minneapolis.
The convention is in St. Paul, the capital city of Minnesota.
Posted by: Curtis Goodson | August 27, 2008 at 06:00 AM
The GOP has its own unity problem, with the supporters of Ron Paul holding a parallel "convention" in the Twin Cities. Should we expect the coverage of that to surpass all the blathering about PUMAs and disaffected Hillary supporters? We'll see. Probably not.
Posted by: Joe R | August 27, 2008 at 10:02 AM
As an elected official in the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (chair of the Democratic Party of the 2nd Congressional District, on the Administrative Committee of the DPW), I can tell you that I run into very few Democrats that are "divided" or that our party and its supporters are in disarray. Quite the contrary from what you'll hear from the traditional media who have crafted and latched onto a narrative that cannot be broken by the simple facts of the truth.
And as someone who was not an Obama supporter during the primary season (I was very much a John Edwards person, spending most of my time working to help organize the campaign), I can tell you that our party is 100% behind electing Barack Obama as our next president. Sure, there are dead-enders out there, scattered here and there. But it is the instance of a servile media lapping up these cases few and far between that continues this faux "story line." I speak with hundreds of Democrats every week and I have yet to meet one of these people who are wholly unsatisfied with Barack Obama as a nominee. Even fewer are those that are the Clintonite dead-enders.
Bill and Hillary Clinton have been magnificent this week (and this is coming from someone who is of a generation where Bill and Hillary are not the end-all-and-be-all of the Democratic Party) and have been 100% there for Senator Obama. The traditional media need to get over this non-story and start reporting on the most out-of-touch and dead-wrong Republican nominee since Bob Dole - and no more of the fawning coverage that comes from a press that John McCain proudly declares his "base."
Republicans are the ones in disarray with their coalition fracturing after years of being held together because of tight discipline and a real conservative movement behind it, their leaders in their drive for power and an ideological crusade far out of line with the American people squandering any popular support they ever had.
If this election is won by John McCain, it will not be because of a Democratic Party in trouble but instead because of a traditional media unwilling and unable to confront the facts on the ground about John McCain and Barack Obama, and their competing visions for this country and their individual personhoods.
Posted by: Peter Rickman | August 29, 2008 at 12:46 AM