"D" is for Democrats. "E" is for energetic. "N" is for not-Bush. "V" is for victory. "E" is for endless, oops, environment. "R" is for reunited. (Or maybe "R" should be red, white, and on view.)
However you imagine the galvanizing idea threaded through the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, you just might be right. If you dream it, they will do it, or say it, or show it--on a placard, in the faces of those lined up for speaking parts, in a made-for-TV video during four evenings of programming, or during Barack Obama's acceptance rally on the closing night.
Democrats are nothing if not self-consciously inclusive--and always somewhat rebellious about message focus. Some of the 2008 ideas kicking around: change, unity, a bluer West, new politics, no-more-Bush, anti-poverty, economic rescue, going green, ending racism, ending a war, remembering New Orleans.
The convention is really a TV series that aims to create and hold a "bounce" of support for the ticket just 10 weeks before the November 4 elections. Paul Begala, who helped lead Bill Clinton to victory in 1992, recalled that Clinton gained 24 points after his New York City convention with running mate Al Gore. John Kerry was a convention-bounce flop, coming into Boston in 2004 with running mate John Edwards about 4 points ahead of President Bush and leaving with no uptick to speak of.
"The convention is very important, but if you try to convey too many messages, you'll end up communicating nothing," Begala said. "Linking John McCain to Bush is perhaps the single most important strategic objective of the Obama campaign," he contended. "Clearly, the Obama brand is 'change,' and he should hammer that home.... I would like to see the convention define Obama as 'Change,' and McCain as 'Bush.' "
Wellington Webb, who was Denver's first black mayor, serving from 1991 to 2003, said he hoped that the convention "is going to be a great moment in history" to showcase "the remarkable achievement of people who came to these shores, not under their own desire, and were written into the U.S. Constitution as three-fifths of a person."
Federico Pena, a former Clinton Cabinet secretary and the first Hispanic mayor of Denver, wants the thousands of U.S. and international visitors in August to experience "the New West, and by that I mean Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada. We are part of the country that is booming. And politically, this is a changing part of the United States. That's what I hope the Democratic Party will recognize."
This article appeared in the Saturday, August 2, 2008 edition of National Journal.
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