By MARSHA MERCER
Both political parties are scrambling to put together national political conventions virtually, on the spur of the moment, after throwing out long-developed plans for the usual in-person gatherings.
What could go wrong?
The way 2020 is going, it’s not hard to imagine the conventions as more trial and tribulation.
Democrats will celebrate at a social distance Aug. 17 through 20, and Republicans with a hybrid of in-person and remote events, Aug. 24 through 27.
Democrats and Republicans each initially expected upwards of 50,000 delegates, media, elected officials and celebrities to converge as they formally nominate their candidates for president and vice president.
But the novel coronavirus upended the coronations. As few as a couple hundred people may attend each convention in person. There could be more protesters than conventioneers.
The only smidgen of suspense is who Joe Biden’s running mate will be, and he’s likely to announce his choice beforehand.
President Donald Trump yanked the Republican convention from Charlotte when North Carolina’s sensible Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper refused to say Trump could fill up the convention hall.
Trump moved the shindig to Jacksonville, then canceled that “celebration” when COVID-19 cases surged in Florida.
Republican officials still plan to formally nominate Trump in Charlotte but are considering other cities for parts of their spectacle. Trump may deliver his acceptance speech from the White House South Lawn, in a huge break from tradition.
Congressional Democrats and even some Republicans say it’s possibly illegal and at least unethical to use the White House for political gatherings, though Democrats grumble Trump gives campaign speeches masquerading as news conferences at the White House nearly every day.
The pandemic has kept Biden close to home, but he was expected to break out and travel to Milwaukee to give his acceptance speech. He announced Wednesday he won’t even go to his own convention.
After consulting with health advisers, Biden decided the safe and responsible move was to give the most important speech of his life from Delaware. Other top Democratic speakers also will speak remotely.
The convention will still be “exciting,” Biden promised, offering no details.
Since COVID-19 has made 2020 one long root canal, it’s not surprising the national conventions would be strange. How strange? Even the police bailed.
In Milwaukee, more than 100 police agencies from Wisconsin and around the country that had planned to provide security quit after the Milwaukee police chief said they could not use tear gas or pepper spray to subdue protesters at the Democratic convention.
Before Trump pulled the plug on Jacksonville, the mayor as well as the local sheriff said Republicans lacked an adequate security plan for the convention and they couldn’t guarantee security.
So, what will the conventions look like? A few details are trickling out.
The GOP plans to rebrand as “the party of real, hardworking Americans.” A “nightly surprise” at 10 will feature guests and themes around “the forgotten men and women of America,” Axios reported, citing two senior Trump campaign officials.
Monday’s theme is America as “a land of heroes,” Tuesday “land of promise,” Wednesday “land of opportunity” and Thursday “land of greatness” with Trump’s plans for “the great American comeback,” Axios reported.
Democrats say they will have a “custom virtual video control room” designed to take in hundreds of live and recorded feeds from around the country at their Convention Across America that now will be “anchored” in Milwaukee.
Unlike previous conventions when speakers drone on day and night, Democrats plan only two hours of programming a night.
For decades, the value of the conventions has dwindled. Candidates clinch their nomination early, and the thousands of delegates and alternates in funny hats are little more than props for prime-time infomercials. That will be especially true for this year’s shrinking conventions.
But during the pandemic, with most of us stuck at home, Americans may enjoy watching makeshift political performances. Typically, voters watch only the party they already support, so no minds are likely to be changed.
What ultimately will be important is that the conventions signal the start of the fall campaign. No matter how jerry-rigged the conventions are, once they end it will be time to get serious.
©2020 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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Showing posts with label Democratic National Convention. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Democratic National Convention. Show all posts
Thursday, August 6, 2020
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Here come the conventions -- again -- July 7, 2016 column
By MARSHA MERCER
In a year of voter anger and disgust, we’re about to see
the coronations of two presidential candidates most Americans don’t like in a
spectacle of speeches paid for by fat cats and lobbyists.
National political conventions we will have – Republicans
July 18 to 21 in Cleveland and Democrats July 25 to 28 in Philadelphia – but why?
Because that’s the way we’ve always done it, since the
1830s anyway. Conventions are a relic of the 19th century, like
getting ice from a horse-drawn wagon.
Not even shiny new convention apps or 360-degree
cameras can save the conventions from their retro feel. Their original purpose was
to select each party’s presidential nominee and platform, but they’ve evolved
into four days of infomercials.
A few months ago, there was talk of a brokered or contested
convention, which would make the occasion both newsworthy and significant. Then
Donald Trump shocked the world by nailing the GOP nomination before Hillary
Clinton clinched the Democratic one. Anti-Trump forces still hope to derail his
train by changing convention rules, but don’t count on it.
And most people – especially the nominees -- don’t
care about party platforms. Sorry, Bernie.
The vice presidential candidates likely will be
announced before the conventions, so there goes another shred of news. You could go on vacation off the grid for a couple of weeks
and miss nothing, politically.
To be fair, some political scientists argue that having
national political conventions every four years is good for our democracy.
Conventions give the parties the opportunity, unfiltered by the news media, to reintroduce
themselves and their values to voters, they say.
But convention viewership on television has been sliding
since 1960. An exception came in 2008 when nearly two-thirds of all U.S.
households – a record -- watched at least one convention, an analysis by the
Nielsen TV ratings firm found. The numbers dropped in 2012.
Drawing the most convention viewers does not translate
into more votes for the party in November, however. Studies show most voters
watch only the convention of the party they already favor.
“It’s safe to say that ratings have little to no
electoral meaning,” University of Virginia professor Larry J. Sabato’s Crystal
Ball blog said in an analysis of the numbers.
This summer’s conventions may draw the curious. What
will Trump’s family say? What will Bernie Sanders’ supporters do? And if,
heaven forbid, the protests outside turn violent, people will watch.
Trump’s wife Melania, daughter Ivanka and sons Eric
and Donald Junior will speak in prime time, along with famous sports and
entertainment figures. No one ever knows what Trump himself will say.
President Obama previewed his role at the Democratic convention
Tuesday in his first joint appearance with Clinton. He still has the power to
energize the Democratic faithful in ways Hillary Clinton can only dream of.
Speaking at a national convention can be a career
boost, as Obama demonstrated in 2004, so expect a parade of Democrats hoping to
make a connection.
Many Republicans, though, are avoiding Trump’s party. Among
those staying home: both Presidents Bush, 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and 2008 nominee
John McCain. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will not attend, nor will boxer
Mike Tyson. Trump tweeted that Tyson wasn’t asked to speak.
Beginning in 1976, taxpayers paid for the national
political conventions. The post-Watergate idea was to avoid corruption by using
public funds from the tax return checkoff for presidential campaigns. In 2012,
the Democratic and Republican parties each received about $18.2 million for
their conventions. Not this year.
Congress turned off the spigot in 2014 – except for
$100 million in security grants to law enforcement agencies in the two host
cities. The security money has been allocated separately since 9/11.
So, this year, lobbyists, labor unions and
corporations that have supported conventions in the past are bearing more costs
and having even more influence. This is progress?
Anachronistic though they are, conventions live on. So,
enjoy the spectacle of balloons and funny hats, but don’t take the speeches too
seriously.
©2016 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
30
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Economy: Impossible? -- Can any president fix it? -- Sept. 6, 2012 column
By MARSHA MERCER
On the Food Network’s hit show “Restaurant: Impossible,” Chef Robert Irvine sweeps in and transforms a failing restaurant in just two days with $10,000.
He installs new décor, menu and image, diners flock to the place, the grateful owner beams in amazement, credits roll. Viewers eat all this up; the show is in its fourth season.
We Americans love turnarounds – especially when the miracles come quickly and under budget.
Alas, there’s no TV show called “Economy: Impossible.” Nobody has invented the formula to turn around the economy quickly. Unemployment is stuck above 8 percent, consumer confidence is down, and the presidential race is neck and neck.
The key question in 2012: Will voters fire President Barack Obama and hire former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to engineer the country’s economic makeover?
And that leads to another question: Does who’s in the White House affect the economy? You’d certainly think so, to hear the politicians.
Romney insists that he has the business savvy to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, although he hasn’t spelled out details. Obama blames Republicans in Congress for thwarting his plans to rebuild the economy.
Presidents are praised when the economy is going well and blamed when it’s not. Many economists think the world picture is more complicated and that the president actually has little control over economic success or failure.
Here’s Austan Goolsbee, Obama’s former top economic adviser and a University of Chicago Booth Business School professor: “I think the world vests too much power – certainly in the president, probably in Washington in general – for its influence on the economy, because most all of the economy has nothing to do with the government.”
Romney does have business experience, but most presidents don’t. Bill Clinton had none but George W. Bush did – and yet the economy thrived under Clinton and fell under Bush into the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Still, since James Carville tacked up the sign that read “the economy, stupid” in Clinton’s presidential campaign headquarters in 1992, candidates have tried to persuade voters they can work economic miracles.
At the GOP national convention in Tampa, Republicans urged disappointed Obama voters to jump ship. Romney conceded Obama’s popularity four years ago but said, “You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.”
His running mate, Paul Ryan, evoked the image of young, jobless Obama voters living in their parents’ basements, staring at fading Obama posters.
In Charlotte, the Democrats tried to put to rest the nagging question of whether we’re better off than we were four years ago. Clinton emphatically said the country is better off with Obama, although nobody is satisfied with the current economy.
Obama “has laid the foundation for a new, modern, successful economy of shared prosperity. And if you will renew the president’s contract, you will feel it. You will feel it,” Clinton promised, adding, “whether the American people believe what I just said or not may be the whole election.”
Affable Clinton rebutted Republican charges one by one, including the frequent knock that Obama doesn’t believe in free enterprise and despises individual success.
“This Republican narrative – this alternative universe – says that every one of us in this room who amounts to anything, we’re all completely self-made,” Clinton said.
He quoted one of the all-time great lines in American politics, from Bob Strauss, Democratic Party chairman in the 1970s, “Every politician wants every voter to believe he was born in a log cabin he built himself.”
Clinton insisted that Obama has the values, ideas and direction we need to build a stronger, 21st century economy – “a nation of shared opportunities, shared responsibilities, shared prosperity, a shared sense of community.”
But he also served up a cautionary note. In 1994, although he and his advisers felt their policies were bringing the economy around, voters couldn’t feel it, Clinton said. The result was the Republican takeover of the House for the first time in decades.
As we move through the fall, both campaigns will target the very few voters who are still undecided. Much will depend on whether these voters feel that the economy is moving in the right direction.
© 2012 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
On the Food Network’s hit show “Restaurant: Impossible,” Chef Robert Irvine sweeps in and transforms a failing restaurant in just two days with $10,000.
He installs new décor, menu and image, diners flock to the place, the grateful owner beams in amazement, credits roll. Viewers eat all this up; the show is in its fourth season.
We Americans love turnarounds – especially when the miracles come quickly and under budget.
Alas, there’s no TV show called “Economy: Impossible.” Nobody has invented the formula to turn around the economy quickly. Unemployment is stuck above 8 percent, consumer confidence is down, and the presidential race is neck and neck.
The key question in 2012: Will voters fire President Barack Obama and hire former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to engineer the country’s economic makeover?
And that leads to another question: Does who’s in the White House affect the economy? You’d certainly think so, to hear the politicians.
Romney insists that he has the business savvy to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, although he hasn’t spelled out details. Obama blames Republicans in Congress for thwarting his plans to rebuild the economy.
Presidents are praised when the economy is going well and blamed when it’s not. Many economists think the world picture is more complicated and that the president actually has little control over economic success or failure.
Here’s Austan Goolsbee, Obama’s former top economic adviser and a University of Chicago Booth Business School professor: “I think the world vests too much power – certainly in the president, probably in Washington in general – for its influence on the economy, because most all of the economy has nothing to do with the government.”
Romney does have business experience, but most presidents don’t. Bill Clinton had none but George W. Bush did – and yet the economy thrived under Clinton and fell under Bush into the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Still, since James Carville tacked up the sign that read “the economy, stupid” in Clinton’s presidential campaign headquarters in 1992, candidates have tried to persuade voters they can work economic miracles.
At the GOP national convention in Tampa, Republicans urged disappointed Obama voters to jump ship. Romney conceded Obama’s popularity four years ago but said, “You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.”
His running mate, Paul Ryan, evoked the image of young, jobless Obama voters living in their parents’ basements, staring at fading Obama posters.
In Charlotte, the Democrats tried to put to rest the nagging question of whether we’re better off than we were four years ago. Clinton emphatically said the country is better off with Obama, although nobody is satisfied with the current economy.
Obama “has laid the foundation for a new, modern, successful economy of shared prosperity. And if you will renew the president’s contract, you will feel it. You will feel it,” Clinton promised, adding, “whether the American people believe what I just said or not may be the whole election.”
Affable Clinton rebutted Republican charges one by one, including the frequent knock that Obama doesn’t believe in free enterprise and despises individual success.
“This Republican narrative – this alternative universe – says that every one of us in this room who amounts to anything, we’re all completely self-made,” Clinton said.
He quoted one of the all-time great lines in American politics, from Bob Strauss, Democratic Party chairman in the 1970s, “Every politician wants every voter to believe he was born in a log cabin he built himself.”
Clinton insisted that Obama has the values, ideas and direction we need to build a stronger, 21st century economy – “a nation of shared opportunities, shared responsibilities, shared prosperity, a shared sense of community.”
But he also served up a cautionary note. In 1994, although he and his advisers felt their policies were bringing the economy around, voters couldn’t feel it, Clinton said. The result was the Republican takeover of the House for the first time in decades.
As we move through the fall, both campaigns will target the very few voters who are still undecided. Much will depend on whether these voters feel that the economy is moving in the right direction.
© 2012 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
How much do you really know about Obama and Biden? -- Aug. 29, 2012 column
The Democratic National Convention opens Tuesday in Charlotte for three days of celebrating -- and selling -- President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for a second term.
Even though the Democratic Duo is always in the news, how much do you really know about the men asking for four more years? Test your political trivia savvy with our bio quiz on Obama and Biden.
Ten questions and answers are below. You know the rules: No peeking, no Googling and no consulting your favorite Super PAC.
If you missed last week’s quiz on Team Double-R -- Romney and Ryan – take it here.
Here we go.
1. What did Barry Obama, as he was known then, NOT do during his two years at Occidental College in California?
A. Wear stupid hats
B. Captain the cheerleading squad
C. Impersonate Mick Jagger
D. Listen to Billie Holiday
2. Who or what are Beau and Bo?
A. Nicknames Barack Obama uses when signing notes to Michelle
B. Logins Obama has used
C. Middle names of Malia and Sasha Obama, respectively
D. Biden’s oldest son and the Obama dog, respectively
3. A plaque now marks the ice cream shop where Michelle Robinson and Barack Obama first kissed in 1989. How did they meet?
A. Barack bumped into Michelle’s car accidentally on purpose in a parking lot.
B. Michelle spilled champagne on Barack at a wedding.
C. Young attorney Michelle was assigned to mentor Barack at her Chicago law firm.
D. A blind date after Michelle answered a personals ad in the local alternative weekly paper.
4. In third grade, Obama wrote a paper saying he wanted to become … what?
A. Astronaut
B. President
C. Veterinarian
D. Basketball star
5. True or false: Jill Biden, wife of Joe, wrote the book, “Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops.”
6. What does Barack Obama have in common with Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush?
A. Skydiving
B. Degrees from Harvard or Yale
C. Left handed
D. Foes of broccoli
7. More voters say Obama is a Muslim and fewer that he’s a Christian now than before his election. What percentage believes Obama is a Muslim?
A. 30 percent
B. 17 percent
C. 10 percent
D. 5 percent
8. Obama played his 100th round of golf as president in June. Has he played more golf than any other president?
A. You betcha.
B. Not by a long shot.
9. Winning the presidency was his second-toughest election, Obama says. What was his toughest win?
A. Harvard Law Review presidency
B. Grammy
C. Michelle’s “vote” as her husband
D. Academy Award
10. Who described then-Senator Obama in 2007 as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” adding, “That’s storybook, man.”
A. George W. Bush
B. Bill Clinton
C. Hillary Clinton
D. Joe Biden
BONUS QUESTION: In how many languages besides English has Obama’s “Dreams from My Father” been published?
A. 10
B. 18
C. 26
D. Who can count that high?
ANSWERS
1. B. Hats, Jagger, Holiday – yes, yes, yes. Cheerleader? Nope.
2. D. Joseph Robinette “Beau” Biden III is attorney general of Delaware. Bo is the Obamas’ Portuguese water dog.
3. C. Harvard law grad Michelle, 25, had completed her first year at the firm when she was assigned to mentor Barack, 27, a Harvard law student hired for the summer. “So we had lunch…and I thought, ‘Oh here you go. Here’s this good-looking, smooth-talking guy. I’ve been down this road before,’” she told author David Mendell.
4. B. Young Barry wrote that his mom was his idol and he hoped to be president someday.
5. True. The children’s book tells the story of a family’s experience with military deployment through the eyes of the Bidens’ granddaughter during the year her dad was deployed to Iraq.
6. C. Lefties are only 10 percent of the population, but eight of our 44 presidents have been left handed.
7. B. In October 2008, just 12 percent of voters thought Obama was a Muslim, the Pew Research Center reported last month. About half those surveyed now say he’s a Christian, down from 55 percent in 2008.
8. B. While he has played far more golf than George W. Bush’s 24 games, Obama isn’t close to Woodrow Wilson’s reported record of 1,200 or Dwight Eisenhower’s 800 presidential golf games.
9. A. In 1990, when Obama became the first black student elected president of the Harvard Law Review, the Review's 80 editors deliberated 17 hours.
10. D. Gaffe-prone Biden issued a statement, saying, "I deeply regret any offense my remark…might have caused anyone. That was not my intent.”
BONUS: C. You can read “Dreams” in Arabic to Vietnamese, including Marathi, Tamil and Urdu.
SCORING -- 10 points for each correct answer and five points for bonus.
85 to 100 – Congratulations! You’re so savvy you could be family.
70 to 85 – Political pro. Angling for a job in the second Obama administration?
55 to 70 – Author, author. You could write a book.
40 to 55 – No slacker, your knowledge exceeds that of most bloggers.
25 to 40 – Tweet away. You certainly have 140 characters’ worth of insight.
Below 25 – Too busy leading your own life for politics? You have time to brush up.
--Compiled by Marsha Mercer
SOURCES: ABC News, “Barack Obama: The Making of the Man” by David Maraniss, biography.com, CNN, www.indiana.edu, New York Times, “Obama: From Promise to Power” by David Mendell, Pew Research Center, Washington Post, whitehouse.gov, WorldCat.org.
(c) 2012 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
30
Even though the Democratic Duo is always in the news, how much do you really know about the men asking for four more years? Test your political trivia savvy with our bio quiz on Obama and Biden.
Ten questions and answers are below. You know the rules: No peeking, no Googling and no consulting your favorite Super PAC.
If you missed last week’s quiz on Team Double-R -- Romney and Ryan – take it here.
Here we go.
1. What did Barry Obama, as he was known then, NOT do during his two years at Occidental College in California?
A. Wear stupid hats
B. Captain the cheerleading squad
C. Impersonate Mick Jagger
D. Listen to Billie Holiday
2. Who or what are Beau and Bo?
A. Nicknames Barack Obama uses when signing notes to Michelle
B. Logins Obama has used
C. Middle names of Malia and Sasha Obama, respectively
D. Biden’s oldest son and the Obama dog, respectively
3. A plaque now marks the ice cream shop where Michelle Robinson and Barack Obama first kissed in 1989. How did they meet?
A. Barack bumped into Michelle’s car accidentally on purpose in a parking lot.
B. Michelle spilled champagne on Barack at a wedding.
C. Young attorney Michelle was assigned to mentor Barack at her Chicago law firm.
D. A blind date after Michelle answered a personals ad in the local alternative weekly paper.
4. In third grade, Obama wrote a paper saying he wanted to become … what?
A. Astronaut
B. President
C. Veterinarian
D. Basketball star
5. True or false: Jill Biden, wife of Joe, wrote the book, “Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops.”
6. What does Barack Obama have in common with Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush?
A. Skydiving
B. Degrees from Harvard or Yale
C. Left handed
D. Foes of broccoli
7. More voters say Obama is a Muslim and fewer that he’s a Christian now than before his election. What percentage believes Obama is a Muslim?
A. 30 percent
B. 17 percent
C. 10 percent
D. 5 percent
8. Obama played his 100th round of golf as president in June. Has he played more golf than any other president?
A. You betcha.
B. Not by a long shot.
9. Winning the presidency was his second-toughest election, Obama says. What was his toughest win?
A. Harvard Law Review presidency
B. Grammy
C. Michelle’s “vote” as her husband
D. Academy Award
10. Who described then-Senator Obama in 2007 as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” adding, “That’s storybook, man.”
A. George W. Bush
B. Bill Clinton
C. Hillary Clinton
D. Joe Biden
BONUS QUESTION: In how many languages besides English has Obama’s “Dreams from My Father” been published?
A. 10
B. 18
C. 26
D. Who can count that high?
ANSWERS
1. B. Hats, Jagger, Holiday – yes, yes, yes. Cheerleader? Nope.
2. D. Joseph Robinette “Beau” Biden III is attorney general of Delaware. Bo is the Obamas’ Portuguese water dog.
3. C. Harvard law grad Michelle, 25, had completed her first year at the firm when she was assigned to mentor Barack, 27, a Harvard law student hired for the summer. “So we had lunch…and I thought, ‘Oh here you go. Here’s this good-looking, smooth-talking guy. I’ve been down this road before,’” she told author David Mendell.
4. B. Young Barry wrote that his mom was his idol and he hoped to be president someday.
5. True. The children’s book tells the story of a family’s experience with military deployment through the eyes of the Bidens’ granddaughter during the year her dad was deployed to Iraq.
6. C. Lefties are only 10 percent of the population, but eight of our 44 presidents have been left handed.
7. B. In October 2008, just 12 percent of voters thought Obama was a Muslim, the Pew Research Center reported last month. About half those surveyed now say he’s a Christian, down from 55 percent in 2008.
8. B. While he has played far more golf than George W. Bush’s 24 games, Obama isn’t close to Woodrow Wilson’s reported record of 1,200 or Dwight Eisenhower’s 800 presidential golf games.
9. A. In 1990, when Obama became the first black student elected president of the Harvard Law Review, the Review's 80 editors deliberated 17 hours.
10. D. Gaffe-prone Biden issued a statement, saying, "I deeply regret any offense my remark…might have caused anyone. That was not my intent.”
BONUS: C. You can read “Dreams” in Arabic to Vietnamese, including Marathi, Tamil and Urdu.
SCORING -- 10 points for each correct answer and five points for bonus.
85 to 100 – Congratulations! You’re so savvy you could be family.
70 to 85 – Political pro. Angling for a job in the second Obama administration?
55 to 70 – Author, author. You could write a book.
40 to 55 – No slacker, your knowledge exceeds that of most bloggers.
25 to 40 – Tweet away. You certainly have 140 characters’ worth of insight.
Below 25 – Too busy leading your own life for politics? You have time to brush up.
--Compiled by Marsha Mercer
SOURCES: ABC News, “Barack Obama: The Making of the Man” by David Maraniss, biography.com, CNN, www.indiana.edu, New York Times, “Obama: From Promise to Power” by David Mendell, Pew Research Center, Washington Post, whitehouse.gov, WorldCat.org.
(c) 2012 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
30
Friday, August 3, 2012
Obama's Clinton gamble -- Aug. 2, 2012 column
By MARSHA MERCER
As his adoring fans cheer, the country’s most beloved Democrat strides onstage at the Democratic National Convention and delivers a prime-time speech that makes all the difference come Election Day.
Nah, I’m not imagining Barack Obama’s big night in Charlotte.
It’s Bill Clinton I see. Clinton is more popular and potentially more powerful in motivating Democrats this fall, something Obama conceded when he tapped Clinton for the high-profile role of formally nominating Obama for a second term.
Two in three Americans now have a favorable opinion of Bill Clinton, about the same as at his first presidential inauguration in 1993. Even the haters have mellowed. Only 28 percent of people have an unfavorable opinion of Clinton, an all-time low.
Obama, who desperately needs goodwill, had a respectable 54 percent favorable rating in the same Gallup poll, released July 30.
Bill Clinton has triumphed. A dozen years after Al Gore treated him like a bad smell throughout the 2000 campaign, Clinton is the go-to guy for Obama. The Clintons must love that. Hillary Clinton – whose favorable rating is the same 66 percent as her husband’s – will be a no-show at the Democratic convention. As secretary of state, she is not in campaign mode. Not this year.
If anyone can breathe life into flagging Democrats, Bill Clinton can. And yet, his words can and will be held against Obama. Four years ago Clinton compared voting for Obama to a roll of the dice, and he recently said Romney had a “sterling” business career and was qualified to be president.
Even if Clinton curbs his independent streak and speaks persuasively for Obama, his presence inevitably invites comparisons. Newt Gingrich, hardly an impartial judge, predicted Clinton’s convention speech would “shrink” Obama.
Putting Clinton front and center reminds voters that he worked successfully with a Republican Congress. The rejoinder of course is that Clinton did not have a Senate majority leader who said from Day One that holding the president to one term was his top priority. Would Clinton have found a way to work around that obstacle? No one knows.
A few weeks before Clinton was nominated for a second presidential term. he signed into law bipartisan welfare reform, a minimum wage increase and health insurance portability. Clinton didn’t get everything he wanted, but he was a pragmatist. He infuriated liberals, but at the convention and into the fall he could point to fresh accomplishments on behalf of the middle class.
At the August 1996 signing ceremony for the welfare reform law, Clinton said welfare would no longer be a political issue and politicians would not be able to attack each other or the poor. At the time, many thought that wishful thinking. But he was right.
Welfare stayed largely off the table for many years. A disturbing report by the General Accountability Office in 2005 riled Democrats and Republicans with its finding that some states were counting toward the work requirements such activities as getting a massage and writing in a journal.
Overall, welfare rolls declined, though, until the recession hit and the ranks of children living in poverty started to rise. And then last month the Obama administration sparked a Republican rebellion by announcing more flexibility for states in how they run their welfare programs. The administration said it would grant waivers to allow states to experiment with their welfare-to-work programs without filing paperwork.
Even though more than two dozen Republican governors had signed a letter asking for more flexibility, Republican leaders reacted angrily. They accused Obama of gutting the law’s work requirements and, in effect, killing welfare reform. House Speaker John Boehner called the change a “partisan disgrace.” Romney said it was “completely misdirected.”
Yes, these same Republicans usually want states to have more power to create programs that meet their residents’ needs – not less. And no state has to apply for a waiver. It’s voluntary.
An official in the federal agency that administers welfare said, “Many states report that their caseworkers are spending more time complying with federal documentation requirements that helping parents find jobs.” The White House press secretary called the complaints “hypocritical.”
Ah, but it’s campaign season. Politics overrides everything.
By putting Clinton onstage, Obama can remind voters that a Democratic president once got things done and gamble that they will think he can do the same. That’s Obama’s big gamble.
©2012 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
As his adoring fans cheer, the country’s most beloved Democrat strides onstage at the Democratic National Convention and delivers a prime-time speech that makes all the difference come Election Day.
Nah, I’m not imagining Barack Obama’s big night in Charlotte.
It’s Bill Clinton I see. Clinton is more popular and potentially more powerful in motivating Democrats this fall, something Obama conceded when he tapped Clinton for the high-profile role of formally nominating Obama for a second term.
Two in three Americans now have a favorable opinion of Bill Clinton, about the same as at his first presidential inauguration in 1993. Even the haters have mellowed. Only 28 percent of people have an unfavorable opinion of Clinton, an all-time low.
Obama, who desperately needs goodwill, had a respectable 54 percent favorable rating in the same Gallup poll, released July 30.
Bill Clinton has triumphed. A dozen years after Al Gore treated him like a bad smell throughout the 2000 campaign, Clinton is the go-to guy for Obama. The Clintons must love that. Hillary Clinton – whose favorable rating is the same 66 percent as her husband’s – will be a no-show at the Democratic convention. As secretary of state, she is not in campaign mode. Not this year.
If anyone can breathe life into flagging Democrats, Bill Clinton can. And yet, his words can and will be held against Obama. Four years ago Clinton compared voting for Obama to a roll of the dice, and he recently said Romney had a “sterling” business career and was qualified to be president.
Even if Clinton curbs his independent streak and speaks persuasively for Obama, his presence inevitably invites comparisons. Newt Gingrich, hardly an impartial judge, predicted Clinton’s convention speech would “shrink” Obama.
Putting Clinton front and center reminds voters that he worked successfully with a Republican Congress. The rejoinder of course is that Clinton did not have a Senate majority leader who said from Day One that holding the president to one term was his top priority. Would Clinton have found a way to work around that obstacle? No one knows.
A few weeks before Clinton was nominated for a second presidential term. he signed into law bipartisan welfare reform, a minimum wage increase and health insurance portability. Clinton didn’t get everything he wanted, but he was a pragmatist. He infuriated liberals, but at the convention and into the fall he could point to fresh accomplishments on behalf of the middle class.
At the August 1996 signing ceremony for the welfare reform law, Clinton said welfare would no longer be a political issue and politicians would not be able to attack each other or the poor. At the time, many thought that wishful thinking. But he was right.
Welfare stayed largely off the table for many years. A disturbing report by the General Accountability Office in 2005 riled Democrats and Republicans with its finding that some states were counting toward the work requirements such activities as getting a massage and writing in a journal.
Overall, welfare rolls declined, though, until the recession hit and the ranks of children living in poverty started to rise. And then last month the Obama administration sparked a Republican rebellion by announcing more flexibility for states in how they run their welfare programs. The administration said it would grant waivers to allow states to experiment with their welfare-to-work programs without filing paperwork.
Even though more than two dozen Republican governors had signed a letter asking for more flexibility, Republican leaders reacted angrily. They accused Obama of gutting the law’s work requirements and, in effect, killing welfare reform. House Speaker John Boehner called the change a “partisan disgrace.” Romney said it was “completely misdirected.”
Yes, these same Republicans usually want states to have more power to create programs that meet their residents’ needs – not less. And no state has to apply for a waiver. It’s voluntary.
An official in the federal agency that administers welfare said, “Many states report that their caseworkers are spending more time complying with federal documentation requirements that helping parents find jobs.” The White House press secretary called the complaints “hypocritical.”
Ah, but it’s campaign season. Politics overrides everything.
By putting Clinton onstage, Obama can remind voters that a Democratic president once got things done and gamble that they will think he can do the same. That’s Obama’s big gamble.
©2012 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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