When Hillary came on the conference phone line last night, she thanked everyone for supporting her candidacy and said she knew how hard it was to be elected a delegate, and she was appreciative, but she was also enthusiastic at what "we had achieved," and discussed her efforts campaigning with Obama, to see that these causes became a reality.
She confirmed that her name would be placed in nomination and Harold Ickes explained how the roll call vote would be conducted.
She made a point of underscoring how the platform reflected so many issues that had been the centerpiece of her campaign.
She enjoyed the irony that she would speak to the convention on Tuesday evening on the anniversary of the constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote, and Senator Obama would speak on Thursday evening on the 25th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech."
When Virginian activists convened at the Jefferson Jackson Day in Richmond, now months ago, and heard from Hillary and Obama, in turn, speaking of their vision for the nation, no one could imagine the political journey that has brought us to the threshold of this historic political convention.
When there were questions by some delegates on the conference call about proposed demonstrations outside the convention hall in Denver, Colorado, Hillary's campaign staff said that they were not in communication with those efforts and were doing everything they could so that the convention would run smoothly. When asked, they said they did not know nor expect any floor flights over credentials or the platform.
One and all delegates were invited to a meeting with Hillary Clinton next Wednesday at 1:30 pm at the convention center when more directions would be provided for the conduct of the roll-call.
There are those who eschew the democratic convention as a mere backdrop, particularly if there are no anticipated fights over rules or platform but those folk miss the point.
It is the convention, as deadline and as public event, that has compelled so many people who care about their nation to come to agreement about how they may best serve the goal we share for a better America.
By contrast, the Republicans will have their president speak the first night of their convention, and spirit him out of town. Cheney, the outgoing Vice President, is not attending. Nor are several Republican Senators who are afraid of losing their phony baloney jobs attending - as the association with this outgoing Administration is harmful to their job security.
Nor is the symbolism of our convention meaningless or empty - as some pundits might suggest.
It is about nothing less than equal rights before law without regard to sex or race or any other incident of birth or station in life.
It is evident by the nature of the principals, Hillary and Obama, from their sex and race, incidental and central, to their accomplishment, and thus to ours as a people.
When the shifting sands of policy confound our belief in a political system or its candidates, we have to consider the mid-point of the shifts and decide if these views, by vector, trend and emphasis, truly reflect our own vision of America.
Are we joined as one in our support to end this wrong-headed war in Iraq, and having peace?
Are we seeking to restore sanity to a damaged blood-let economy and are we about assuring health care and jobs and retirement security to a nervous nation?
Those who support Senator Obama this year including Hillary are supporting an idea of America that our citizens embrace and have long demanded and it's about nothing less than peace and security, something that has eluded us for too long.
This convention is a bringing together of those who have differed, in the margins and details, about how to cure a compromised nation and, by the fact of convening, we have set a deadline, by which we have deigned to restore this nation's good name and a means to redress the inequities and incompetence that we have suffered the last eight years of the accidental president, George Bush.
On to the Convention!
J. Flannery
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