The Democratic Convention--Day One

Gotta Love the Democrats--Not so much the politicians, but the everyday Democrats in the convention hall. It's not just the top of the ticket that's diverse. The Democratic convention has been a testament to American diversity since the 70's. White Democrats, Asian-American Democrats, Asian-American Democrats, and Hispanic Democrats could all be seen tonight. Fifty percent of the Democratic delegates are women and a lot of emotion and personality was shown on the faces of female delegates as Teddy Kennedy and Michelle Obama were speaking.

The Democrat Party has never done particularly well by women, African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans. For that matter, the Democrats haven't done very well by gays either and it's been awhile since they've done much for labor unions. One of the real disappointments of the Democratic Party is that the leadership has never been strong enough, principled enough, or clever enough to redeem the hopes of all their supporters.

But the willingness of active people from all of these groups to continue supporting the Democrats despite repeated disappointment is a testimony to the resilience of hope among the many groups that continue to be disadvantaged and discriminated against in American society.

All of these folks are a testimony to the human spirit.

Good Atmospherics. I like the design of the platform stage. It's largely a blue stage and backdrop, interspersed with red and pink color columns. It has a sweeping, dramatic kind of effect. There is some Republican commentary that the colors are "pastel" and "weak" compared to the colors of the official flag. I don't find that to be the case. The design strikes me as inspired by internet graphics and has a very kind of bright, optimistic, buoyant effect. It's consistent with Obama's message of America as a nation of hope, promise, and progress. The Republicans tend to view strength in terms of attacking and being under siege. For the Democrats, strength lies in a kind of bounding vitality and it's precisely this vitality that the cameras pick up in the faces of the delegates as they pan the crowd.

A Comment on Speeches. Michelle Obama's speech was by far the best speech that I saw this evening and far outshone Nancy Pelosi and Teddy Kennedy. What's interesting about that to me is that Michelle Obama is still a non-politician despite the fact that she's been on the campaign trail for almost 20 months.

One of the understated themes of the Democratic Party is the extent to which they've become the "family love" party. Once again, there's a big difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. When the Republicans say "family values," they mean a series of "no's"--no abortion, no pre-marital sex, no single mothers, no gay rights, and no to equality between men and women in the household. They might as well call them "frigid family values." To the contrary, the Democrats are all about love, energy, warmth, and nurturing whether its Nancy Pelosi talking about her grandchildren, Teddy Kennedy on his gigantic boat, or the on-stage enthusiasm of Barack Obama's daughter.

The person who was best at this was Michelle Obama. Michelle Obama's enthusiasm and happiness were almost as infectious as that of her seven-year old daughter's. She had a very effective way of grounding herself in motherhood and community while expressing her own aspirations as the aspirations of everyone. Michelle Obama even reached to the famous St. Crispin's Day speech in Shakespeare's Henry V to link all families to the Obama presidential campaign.

Here's Shakespeare:

This day is call'd the feast of Crispian. He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.' Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.' Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember, with advantages, What feats he did that day.

And Michelle Obama:

And as I tuck that little girl and her little sister into bed at night, I think about how one day, they'll have families of their own. And one day, they - and your sons and daughters - will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They'll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming. How this time, in this great country - where a girl from the South Side of Chicago can go to college and law school, and the son of a single mother from Hawaii can go all the way to the White House - we committed ourselves to building the world as it should be.

Just as Shakespeare portrayed "old men" as showing their wounds and telling the feats they did at Agincourt, Michelle Obama expects young mothers "to tell their own children about what we did together in this election."

It was a great touch.

Unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi and Ted Kennedy did not do nearly as well. Watching Pelosi speak was positively painful and made me wonder whether the Democratic leadership was going to fail at crunch time yet again.