DENVER// The Democratic National Convention opens here today with the aim of showcasing a united party that has survived a protracted and divisive primary, all standing behind the man whose remarkably rapid rise to the national political scene is centred on what he calls a new kind of politics borne of hope and change.
The four-day gathering, culminating on Thursday evening with the expected acceptance speech of Barack Obama before a massive crowd at an open-air sports stadium, will be at once a pep rally for the party faithful and an appeal to a broader national audience that is still very much getting to know the candidate. Mr Obama, whose national political career was effectively catapulted at the last Democratic convention, in 2004, when he gave a rousing keynote speech, was not supposed to be here. By almost all accounts, it was Hillary Clinton, the former first lady turned senator from New York, who was to have been the party's nominee. And that upended reality has left Mr Obama with one of his tallest charges as he prepares to officially take the helm of his party this week.
Mr Obama will have to begin to patch together the Democrats' splintered factions after the heated campaign against Mrs Clinton, many of whose supporters are in town to stage rallies on her behalf - not his. Moreover, he must portray himself as someone who is not, as his detractors claim, a political celebrity but who despite his sometimes high-flown rhetoric and what he calls his "funny name" relates to everyday American concerns and shares small-town values.
"What I think he needs to do is establish some kind of personal, affective bonds with the electorate that 'I'm really one of you'," said Gerald Pomper, of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at New Jersey's Rutgers University, who attended his first political convention in 1964 and is expected in Denver for this one. "He can do that through his vision, he can do it through his words, he can do it through his passion."
Michelle Obama, Mr Obama's wife and arguably his most trusted adviser, will be among the first to make his case when she delivers a prime-time address tonight. In between flashy parties and non-stop networking, dozens of politicians and Democratic Party standard bearers, who began flooding into Denver yesterday, will also deliver remarks pegged to such broad daily themes as the economy and national security. But one of the most anticipated performances, aside from Mr Obama's, will be that of Mrs Clinton, who is in the scheduled line-up tomorrow night.
Her mere inclusion as a headline speaker is as important as what she will say: her presence is a direct plea to the 18 million voters who supported her in the primaries to now get behind Mr Obama, something many have vowed not to do. In a deal struck between the Obama and Clinton campaigns, Mrs Clinton's name will be put forth in nomination, alongside his, for a roll-call vote, so delegates "pledged" to her based on the outcome of the primaries may still, if even symbolically, support her (she has referred to this as a "catharsis"). But while Mrs Clinton intends effectively to turn over those delegates to her former rival and cast her own vote for Mr Obama, some are likely to resist doing the same, which could make for some interesting political theatre.
There is little of that type of theatre at political conventions anymore. They have become heavily scripted affairs, devoid, by design of the respective parties, of the suspense and drama that once defined them (in 1852, for example, it took 49 ballots before Franklin Pierce secured the Democratic nomination). Indeed, one of the most dramatic moments at the last Democratic convention came when the balloons and confetti suspended in the rafters failed to fall after John Kerry's acceptance speech, and a convention producer was heard on live television swearing about it.
"In the modern convention, all the decisions have been made" already, said L Sandy Maisel, director of the Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Colby College in Maine, referring both to the nominee and the party platform, which is written ahead of time. "Now it really is all about ceremony. It is about coming together. 'Convention' means coming together, from the Latin." Garrett M Graff, an editor-at-large at Washingtonian magazine who is covering the convention, said if the assemblies used to be about selecting a nominee, they are now about packaging - and launching - the person who for months has been the nominee-in-waiting. "The way to think of the political conventions is similar to the way that a modern company launches a new product: you put together the best possible graphics-intensive multimedia package that you can," Mr Graff said. "People may know the product is coming, but it's not until the official product launch that people pay attention." Some 20m Americans tuned in to some part of the Democratic convention in 2004, and a recent poll showed that 70 per cent of voters are planning to watch Mr Obama's acceptance speech. But, in many ways, what will unfold in Denver is a stage show designed to pump up the Democratic delegates and activists in attendance. As the official launch of the general election campaign, it is a time for the nominee to stoke an enthusiasm the party hopes will fuel effective and sustained grassroots operations in all 50 states. Mr Obama, who has attracted enormous crowds on the campaign stump and is known for his inspirational speaking style, is clearly trying to stir Democratic sentiment in ever grander ways. While the nominee's acceptance speech is normally delivered inside a convention hall before the several thousand voting delegates and members of the media, he plans to deliver his remarks before a crowd of 75,000 at the stadium where the Denver Broncos play American football (one Republican response has been to pray for rain). Jason Rae, who, at age 21, is one of the youngest Democratic delegates, attended the last Democratic convention in Boston and knows what to expect. "When you're out there, it's a thriving environment. Everyone's electrified with energy and enthusiasm," Mr Rae said. "I'm not going to get much sleep" this week. @Email:eniedowski@thenational.ae
