So I was listening to Obama's 2004 DNC speech yesterday. (Mrs. Serious Black does the spoken word show on KTRU and she played a bunch of presidential speeches.) Damn, that was a hell of a speech. Don't mind admitting that I got misty listening to it. It got me thinking about the 2008 convention. Assuming that Obama gets the nomination, and it is safe to assume that he will, what do the Clintons say at the convention? I specifically wonder about Bill. How does he stump for the nominee after everything he has said about his unpreparedness over the last several months?
Texas and Ohio needs to take care of business on March 4th! Then we'll talk about convention speeches. BTW serious, you wouldn't happen to have a son named Jett?
I doubt it will be much of a problem. There have been plenty of nasty primary fights yet everyone has still made nice by the convention. Consider that it was GH Bush that called Reaganomics "Voodoo Economics" during the 1980 primary yet still ended up on the same ticket with him and praising him in the convention. GW Bush's campaign through all sorts of mud at McCain in 2000 but that still didn't keep McCain from cheering him on at the Convention.
Bill will say how he was wrong and that seeing Obama through-out the course of the campaign convinced that he is indeed ready and in fact reminds him of himself. Obama is experienced enough. Bill's bashing is all political maneuving....everyone understands that - it's politics!
The Clintons will be gracious and forward looking. It might end up being Hillary's finest hour. You're not gonna have Ted Kennedy vs Jimmy Carter again.
Funny you should mention Ted. IMHO Hillary will probably become the democratic standard barer for democrats in the Senate after Kennedy retires. Senate majority leader is not without the realm of possibility.
Really? Please tell of the supposed wealth of experience Mr. Obama has. 8 years as a state senator and 3 years as a US Senator does not give him what I would call a lot of experience trying to run something as large as the US government. It is one thing to be a legislator, and something very different to try to run the executive branch. I'm not saying that he is completely unqualified, but to call him experienced is a joke.
How much time do you believe the President spends running the organization of the US government? Experienced civil servants run the vast majority of it - the President's role is primarily using good judgment in putting together an experienced, qualified team to lead those civil servants. And of the three remaining candidates, each is currently running the largest operation of their lives - their campaign. None has managed a larger organization. And one of those campaigns has been run far more effectively, efficiently, and fiscally responsibility than the other two.
Barack and Hillary have for the most part been extremely easy on one another -- differences highlighted in the primaries will be very easy for Bill to maneuver around during his speech (If Obama wins the nom).
You think that politicians don't need to amass capital of some sort...and more importantly...not needlessly waste it?
In regards to Hillary, that's certainly true now - but not true through the middle of January, and that's where her problems started. Hillary and Obama had raised equal amounts of money to that point. Hillary's campaign wasted boatloads of it, thinking the campaign would be done Feb 5 (staying at the Bellagio in Vegas, for example, or $100,000 on snacks and party food for Iowa on the night of the caucuses, or $20 million on campaign consultants). Obama started building Super-Tuesday infrastructure *last year* that Hillary didn't even attempt. None of that can be attributed to a lack of money on Hillary's part. Certainly true in McCain's case though. But fundraising is part of the goal of the campaign organization. McCain and his people didn't build any grassroots infrastructure or anything of the sort. He didn't come up with a compelling message to attract supporters or money. He was outraised by his GOP rivals as well, despite starting 2007 at the top of the polls. The fact that he couldn't turn that into financing is, again, a sign of bad management - bad message, bad infrastrucutre, bad grassroots, etc. Obama used his experience at community organizing to organize a nationwide community unparalleled in modern politics. And he surrounded himself with a phenomenal campaign team. Good judgment and good decision-making - isn't that what you want in a President?
