CAN YOU BE FREE IF YOU'RE IN A CAGE?

Jacob Paul & Macella Monney

Some of our citizens, young and old, had their protests muffled and contained, and I thought that was wrong.

Outside the covention center, there were "cages" designated for "protesting."

The name alone should give anyone pause.

What do you say to someone who wants to "protest"?

Would you please enter the "cage," sir, or madam, if you want to "protest"?

That plainly diminishes any one's dignity and coerces and chills what may be said.

A "cage" denotes and connotes restraint, captivity, control and containment and usually of an animal that we think is "dangerous" and/or "undeserving" of too much freedom.

It seems somewhat ironic to "contain" or "compromise a protest against the Iraq war outside the Pepsi Center when we were objecting to that same war inside the convention.

But the point is not whether the various 1st amendment exertions of speech in these parallel venues are congruent or not, whether they be comments on the war, or fluoridation, or the home heating plan of Senator McCain.

What's most important is that we allow our citizens to speak their mind and speech in the most robust manner for bromides may not be offensive at all.

I am encouraged, however, that the young instinctively know that this is wrong.

Students Jacob Paul and Macella Monney had a hand-written sign they carried down the Denver street after tonight's convention, the letters in Kelly green, stating, "The power of our voices may overcome your cages."

Jacob and Macella may not know the words in the relevant constitutional document, even though it is the First Amendment.

But they have demonstrated that instinctive objection to anyone curtailing their comments about anything.

And perhaps that's what we mean when we say "certain inalieanable rights."

J. Flannery

BILL CLOSES THE DEAL FOR OBAMA

Former President Bill Clinton reminded us tonight how he became President, and how he got re-elected, when he made the case for nominating Senator Barack Obama to become President of the United States.

When he came on stage the crowd rose to its feet, shouted Bill's name, and generally reacted without any concern except to welcome an old friend.

And that was despite the recent primary that had divided the party between Senator Hillary Clinton's supporters and Barack Obama's supporters.

We all clapped and rocked and, in some moments, Clinton appeared quite moved at the enthusiastic outpouring.

When he could finally stop us all cheering and demonstrating, and be heard above the crowd, as his time to speak ran by, President Clinton couldn't say enough good about Obama, including even what he said about the hotly contested primary with Hillary, namely, that "[t]he long, hard primary tested and strengthened" Obama.

Contrasting himself with Obama, he told the convention how "we prevailed in a [presidential] campaign in which the Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be Commander-in-Chief."

Referring favorably to Obama, he asked the convention if it: "Sound[ed] familiar?" In other words, isn't that what Senator McCain is doing now to Obama?

Bill was instructing not just the general public but the delegates as well about his rationale for supporting Obama and attacking McCain.

Bill told the convention that "[i]t didn’t work in 1992 [for Republicans to attack his inexperience] because we were on the right side of history."

He said similarly "it won’t work in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history."

"Barack Obama will lead us," he said, "away from [the] division and fear of the last eight years back to unity and hope."As he said so, Bill Clinton was leading the party away from division and perhaps fear as well - by persuading the delegates to do more than just vote for Obama on election day.

Bill knows what it takes to win a tough election, and he wanted a committment that all delegates would work together before election day, no matter who they had preferred in the primary, and lead their friends and neighbors to vote for Obama, and for Biden.

Clinton's intellectual heft, his facility to get things done, and his transparent passion for the business of government are why we listen to him.

Clinton did more than speak this evening.

He brought the party together.

The tipping point was manifest afterwards, as many delegates considered how to elect Obama, and that included Hillary supporters.

J. Flannery

HILLARY RELEASES; DELEGATES RESIST

At 1:45 pm this afternoon in Denver, before an assembly of her elected delegates, alternates, friends and staff, Senator Hillary Clinton announced "I'm now releasing you delegates."

The hundreds present shouted, "No."

Another said, "Don't do it."

Hillary explained that she was releasing her delegates and left to each delegate to vote his or her conscience, and to allow for anyone who was bound by those back home to vote for her if that's what they had to do.

Hillary made it clear, however, after the vote, that she expected everyone to support vigorously the nominee, Senator Barack Obama, as that's what she had already done, and planned to do.

There were various reactions but, in the category of moving on, one delegate summed up what a lot of others had to say, "All I want from Obama Thursday night is what he really stands for, and 'hope' and 'change' is not enough. I can't buy a pig in a poke. I want him to give a speech like Hillary did and tell us what he stands for and I want to know the specifics. So that's why I'm looking forward to Thursday's speech. I'm pulling for him to deliver. But he's got to deliver."

J. Flannery

TENNESSEE WALKERS - NO HORSING AROUND

When standing in line for Hillary Clinton's confab for all her delegates at about 1:30 pm this afternoon, we got to spend some time with Clinton delegates from Tennessee and to ask them if "all was well" in their neck of the woods, in rural Tennessee.

Barbara Brown, above, is from Clarksville, TN, and she had spent seven years in Blacksburg, VA.

Her breakfast cereal was ruined somewhat this morning when the Clinton caucus for her delegation met.

They were discussing voting for Hillary and one of the Clinton whips announced "after much soul-searching," that she was voting for Obama.

The Whip had been in Clinton meetings to discuss the roll call vote and the Whip decided it was "the right thing to do."

So I asked, "and how tempered was the delegation's response?"

"It was more like a firing squad," Barbara said. The whip was ousted in a parliamentary gallop.

Apparently, when the next whip climbed into the saddle, a male whip, he committed a gaffe as well. "He" overlooked and failed to recognize a female delegate who had her hand raised, " Barbara said. It was obvious to everyone. "The oversight was compounded by the fact," Barbara said, "that he recognized a male delegate to speak instead."

David Harper who was right there listening to Barbara and said, "That's why we were for Hillary, to stop that kind of bias against women."

David is from Lafayette (and don't say it like that famous frenchman's name, you know the one who has a square out in front of the White House, if you don't want to get slapped up side the head).

"We're going to have to try much harder," David said, "to carry down-ticket candidates this Fall." He said this was critical in his state's rural areas. "We have a strategy for that," David said, "and we're hopeful we'll be able to pull that off, but it's not going to be easy."

Barbara complained that Obama is "out of touch" and out of sight - as he hasn't been back to Tennessee. By comparison, Barbara said, former Rep. Harold Ford, takes on every redneck coffee shop; by the time Harold leaves, they want to support him and give him money. He can talk to the people. Obama has written off Tennessee. He has to do the same thing."

"Hillary had a lot of support," Barbara said, " and "it would have been different if Hillary had been the nominee or the VP."

J. Flannery

A Ballot with your Bagel - Early Happy Returns

Clinton supporters this morning had a ballot with their bagel.

Obama and Clinton conferees arranged for every delegate to get to vote in writing for the presidential nominee they prefer.

In the Virginia delegation, as elsewhere, you got to sign your name in support of your candidate as you picked up your credentials for tonight's session of the convention.

As indicated in an earlier posting, there were competing accounts of how the balloting would proceed.

Some who got wind of this process yesterday objected that this was a dilution somehow of the right to vote for Hillary.

While the approach may be unprecedented, that doesn't compromise the essential element of the franchise, to get to vote for the nominee you prefer and the one your friends and neighbors back home elected you to support.

If in truth and fact, this was a contested race, and not a foregone conclusion, then perhaps this process would be faux and not fair.

But there could hardly be any justification for stringing out the process unnecessarily, except to obstruct the convention's business this evening.

Eula Tate and I were elected in the 10th Congressional District Convention in Northern Virginia.

The other night each of us signed a petition to advance the balloting process, to put Hillary's name in nomination for president of the United States.

This morning when I signed in, I took my favorite pen and marked an "x" in the column next to Hillary's name, as others in our delegation did in support of Barack Obama.

Then I signed my name. I had voted for Hillary Clinton to become our nominee.

When I joined the breakfast in progress in the adjoining ball room, I found Eula and asked her if she had voted.

She said she thought that we were not to vote. I said she didn't have to vote but this was her opportunity. I confirmed I was sure it was all right.

As Eula and I had been elected together for this purpose, we walked out together to the table where the ballot was available to record Eula's vote.

She picked up the pen and registered her vote for Hillary Clinton.

I asked Eula, "How do you feel."

Eula said, "I voted. Now I'm happy."

She gave me that look out of her big eyes like, "So how about you."

I said, "I'm happy too."

In this delegate's opinion, and I'm sure this is shared by many Clinton supporters, we have crossed another obstacle and bound the convention tighter and closer thereby.

We have advanced again in the process of reconciliation toward genuine unity.

J. Flannery

HILL HEALS - OR HAS SHE?

On the second night of the convention, Hillary Clinton brought down the house when she endorsed Barack Obama as the democratic party's nominee. You can read what she said if you didn't see and hear it on any one of the media outlets. It was a great speech and it said everything that needed to be said. The question is what effect will it have going forward?

Most significantly, the question remains, if Hillary's delegates feel as she does, will they act as she suggested she should? In other words, are her supporters ready to go to work for Obama, and then cast their ballot for him in November? No question the trend is in that direction but there's still work to be done.

To all appearances, the reconciliation looked a done deal in the convention hall. The signs with Hillary's handwritten name waved above the heads of the delegates, and supporters of Obama and Clinton appeared as one in the celebration. The word "unity" filled the hall. It was emblazoned on long standing blue signs on cardboard poles that allowed you to thrust them into the air. There were cheers and laughing. But was this all authentic? Did the show conform to the reality? What's in the hearts of the delegates?

The conversations afterwards among the Clinton delegates, as they walked from the Hall, and made their way to the parking lot, to wait for busses to take them to celebrations afterwards or their hotel rooms, revealed there's still work to be done. We are at a tipping point and forecasts are favorable. We are inching toward unity and it's possible but we're not there yet. And this is not about sour grapes.

Obama supporters don't understand how that could be. Don't get me wrong. They are not uncivil. They don't say - get over it - even if they are thinking it. It's because they haven't stood in the shoes of the Hillary supporters.

As best I can understand the reservation, it is not so much about losing to anyone - even if it was at first. It is about whether Obama will truly embrace and advocate what Hillary fought to implement as her program of political action.

These activists were drawn to Hillary because of issues she espoused. She said it herself. This is not about her. It is about health care and women's rights and more. The devil is in the details and that's what's holding back the enthusiasm of some.

Obama served himself well when he spoke on the CBN that he would choose Supreme Court justices who would recognize a woman's right of privacy, and McCain disagreed. It helps when this Supreme Court has made many decisions that disfavor what we believe are our rights as individuals to be "let alone" and that McCain would make a bad situation worse for years to come.

The Clinton delegates are meeting today at 1:15 pm at the Convention Center with Hillary Clinton to confer about putting her name in nomination. That's the next important point of progression toward real unity.

There is talk that the nomination process will be more faux than fair.

Delegates believe that Hillary's name will be put in nomination and there will be a roll call that causes votes of delegations to be registered reflecting the support of voters for her nomination as our presidential nominee.

They believe that because that's what they were told - or at least were led to believe that's what's going to happen.

News reports and behind the scenes chatter suggests that will not happen.

It would be a big political mistake to have announced one thing and to do another, to have a bait and switch.

It's because the partisans are being knit together, moving toward unity, and it's a delicate process and it will work if it's done right.

This is no time for one side or the other to suffer buyer's remorse about this agreement - as it was announced and as it was understood.

Last nights floor demonstration may lead some to think they can dispense with the roll call vote, make it pro forma, less significant than it was originally understood.

I think that would be a mistake.

What is the downside risk of a less substantive show of putting Hillary's name in nomination? Will the failure to have a roll call cause a protest on the convention floor? I can't say. But it will stick in craw of those who thought that was going to occur and will affect the enthusiasm necessary to accomplish what we say we want - to elect Obama in November with the work of these partisans who know to lead others in their home communities.

In sports and life generally, we play many "games" where winner takes all. In the general election, that's an easier undertaking. You don't have to lose and then work together to fight a common opponent.

When you have a "family squabble," as we have here among the democratic activists, if you win, the question is how do you reconcile afterwards and move on, and work together.

It is hard to say what one thing will determine whether this convention process wins the hearts and minds of Hillary's supporters.

The failure to thread this needle today on the nomination process means the can gets kicked down the road to see if Obama himself has to close the deal on Thursday night when he gives his speech at the Invesco Center.

J. Flannery

FIRST KNIGHT - THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION IN DENVER

We are at the Democratic Convention in Denver, Colorado at the Pepsi Center and the opening gavel has sounded on the 45th gathering of 20,000 of the party faithful.

Virginia is seated in the first wave of folding chairs, located far forward of the other states on the floor of the convention only 50 feet from the podium with only one state more prominent, Illinois - Senator Barack Obama's home state.

Virginia is prominent because it is "in play" this November with 40 Obama campaign offices throughout the state, fighting to turn the Commonwealth blue, to garner 13 electoral votes, and to do so for the first time since 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson carried the Old Dominion over Senator Barry Goldwater.

The front wall of this expansive arena, the backdrop for the presenters, is a composite array of brilliant lights and projection elements, in the shape of an uplifting wave, seemingly crashing and splashing upward to spend its watery force in the hall's topmost rafters.

This grand hall is awash in delegates, going and coming, up and down the aisles, on stairs, between chairs, out by the concessions, and the principal objective of the delegates is to meet and talk with other delegates about this collective obsession they share for all matters political.

Of course, we delegates also want to talk to anyone with a camera, pad or microphone to explain and preserve the fine points of this historic undertaking.

"I can't believe I'm here," said one newly minted Virginia delegate, "not with these people around me that I've only seen on tv."

Stage and screen actor, Tony Goldwyn (who played the bad guy who schemed to betray and kill Patrick Swayze's character in "Ghost"), stood less menacingly in the aisle by the Virginia delegation and his picture was taken with an enthusiastic fan, Northern Virginia delegate, Charisse Espy Glassman. Charisse simply walked up to Tony, and said, "I heard you were a killer;" he answered, "I am" and then posed with a smile.

Senator George McGovern squeezed past but then paused to say hello and pose. CBS's Katy Couric was only feet away, prepping for the evening broadcast.

When singer John Legend stood astride that wave-like stage, he struck a convention theme when he sang: "We're the generation that can't afford to wait ..."

Singer Legend threaded the crowd's spirit, with his lively brassy beat, so irresistible, that the throng came to its feet for an extended foot-tapping, flag-waving, hip-swinging dance, and there was no division in the house when he finished singing.

I attended my first democratic convention at the Madison Square Garden in New York in 1980 when Senator Ted Kennedy gave a speech that concluded with a Tennyson passage that defined his life's view, that he was "a part of all that [he] ha[d] met, [and] though much is taken, much abides." He proposed this standard for us all.

Given the Senator's recent illness, Tennyson's tenet makes a nation anxious for what this illness may take and how it may compromise his abiding worth.

Tennyson spoke of "one equal temper of heroic hearts" that are "strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

The convention scheduled a film tribute to Senator Kenedy, prepared by Ken Burns, that was to be introduced by his niece, Caroline Kennedy, to celebrate his "heroic heart".

We presumed the Senator would be absent - because his doctors told him to stay home. But the rumors began to spread that he was coming anyhow.

No one thought he would speak if he came, even when he walked to the rostrum, imagining he would do no more than acknowledge, perhaps with a nod, the convention's kind gesture.

He said, "thank you" twice, and still no one expected more.

The Senator then took the rostrum in hand like he was grabbing an old friend by the shoulders, planted himself firmly, facing straight forward, his large white-maned head looking out at us all, and he spoke, in that deep bass, to an audience choked with emotion, that: "Nothing could keep me away." Wild cheers and waved signs greeted his double meaning.

He was still only warming up. With celtic thunder, he promised the next Administration will "break the old gridlock" that denied health care to many Americans, and make it "a fundamental right, not an expensive privilege."

Senator Kennedy promised that, in the new Administration, our "men and women in uniform shall never again be committed to a mistake."

Senator Kennedy challenged us to ground our government, in peace and war, on the "high principle and bold endeavor" that defined the american character. What would have happened, he asked, with a laugh, if his older brother, President Kennedy had not said, "we're going to the moon", but said instead, "it's too far to get there." President Kennedy's decision was the only right decision. "It's what we Americans do," he said, "We reach the moon."

Twenty eight years earlier I waved a blue-backed sign with the white lettered word "Kennedy" in Madison Square Garden with thousands of others who witnessed his earlier convention speech. Now here we were doing it again.

Years earlier, Senator Kennedy ended his remarks, saying: "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

This evening, he amended his coda, casting it for another generation, for another democratic candidate, to carry the torch he bore for so many years, saying, "the hope shall rise again, and the dream lives on."

It was a night for America to remember and to celebrate.


J. Flannery