The Democrats launched their attack Tuesday, presenting some of their biggest guns to go after John McCain and the Bush administration on the second night of their national convention, but for hours the attacks lagged as scores of minute speeches repeated a handful of talking points.
The party began with a legend — the speechwriter for John F. Kennedy — Ted Sorenson. It ended with Hillary Rodham Clinton, arguably the toughest Democrat alive. Throughout the night, the speakers sought to remind Americans of the past eight years, of a struggling economy they laid at the feet of President Bush and the unpopular war in Iraq.
But until the final two speakers, the night held a long lull that mystified some political observers.
“Watching grapes ferment would be much more interesting,” said Robert Eisinger, a political scientist from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., after the keynote speech by Virginia Gov. Mark Warner.
“They think these pithy little phrases are interesting, but they’re not,” Eisinger said. “It sounds like they’re so eager to cram so many people on stage that they’re not giving them enough time. They’re not saying anything.”
Eisinger’s comments came before Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer brought the hall to its feet, imploring the delegates to get out of their seats in time for Clinton’s big moment.
“Get up, get up!” he shouted, departing from prepared remarks and driving the delegates, including former President Bill Clinton, into a frenzy.
The Democrats’ attacks came even as the party’s presumptive nominee, Barack Obama, wants to present himself as the “change” candidate, perhaps complicating the strategy.
Earlier, the night’s “more of the same” messages took on a “more of the same” repetition, as the speakers repeated the scripted lines. The lull lasted until much later into the schedule, beyond the keynote.
But that may not translate into much, however, as most of the networks and cable channels waited until Schweitzer to focus on the speakers, said Ken Bickers, chair of political science at the University of Colorado.
“It was the talking heads,” Bickers said. “And the talking heads were all about what Hillary was going to do.”
The Democratic leaders hammered the Republicans for ushering in an era they characterized as one of enrichment and empowerment of Big Oil and Big Business and Big Brother national security at the expense of workers trying to make ends meet.
They featured a laid-off textile worker from North Carolina, the AFL-CIO’s John Sweeney, an Iowa flood victim along with the party elite.
It seemed the night would sizzle when Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich brought the delegates to their feet with a “Wake up, America!” refrain.
“They can track our every move, but they’ve lost track of the economy,” Kucinich said.
But the wake-up call fizzled; even the likes of Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell’s and Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel’s attacks faded into a distracted sea of delegates. One sat reading a book.
Politicos say going on the attack is just good politics — and just the medicine Obama needs as McCain has pummeled him over the past weeks.
“They need to define the playing field,” said Lonna Rae Atkeson, a political scientist at the University of New Mexico, before she boarded a plane to Denver. “A campaign is about reminding voters who they are and bringing them back to the fold. If (Obama) doesn’t get a bump from the convention, that is not good” for the party.
The day’s festivities were accompanied by news that, for the first time, McCain had moved ahead of Obama by 2 percentage points in a Gallup Poll.
The slip comes after Obama’s decision to name Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate. And it suggests that McCain has been successful in running ads that feature old video clips of Biden and Clinton speaking critically of Obama.
Chuck Plunkett: 303-954-1333 or cplunkett@denverpost.com
