Hillary Bumped at Convention

[Pangloss]

So the Dems finally made a decision on the most important issue facing Americans today: Whether to give Bill or Hillary the most prominent speaking positions at the convention. Hillary was given the less prestigious 2nd-night spotlight, and Bill gets the third-night spotlight, ahead of the vice presidential nominee. Neither is likely to get more than mere excerpt coverage by the networks, who will likely only live-broadcast Obama's acceptance speech on the 4th night.

 

Now perhaps Dems will press on to more urgent matters, like how to convince the president to release a little more oil from the national reserve which we all know will instantly cut $3.99/gallon off the price of gas as well as solving global warming and instantly rejuvenating several species currently on the endangered list.

 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0798195c-65ab-11dd-a352-0000779fd18c.html

[Sisyphus]

It's really the only arrangement that makes sense. Yes, it was a very close primary, and yes, Hillary still has a very important role to play in unifying the party, but that doesn't change the fact that most recent former President obviously trumps runner-up primary candidate. Bill, being the former President and Hillary's spouse and huge presence in her campaign, has perhaps an even bigger role in unifying the party than Hillary herself. If he makes a convincing and inspiring argument at the convention, that could be tremendously important for the Democrats. And if he really wanted to, I think he could do just that, because what is Bill Clinton better at than smoothing things over?

 

That said, the fact that he has yet to really make more than perfunctory gestures to that effect should probably make Obama nervous. Frankly, I would be more worried about how Bill will behave than Hillary. She, at least, appears to be genuinely trying to calm down the "party unity my ass" types.

[Pangloss]

She does seem to be making that effort, even though it bit her back a couple times this past week where reporting made it look like she was stirring up more trouble. And there's a very ugly misogynist aspect to the story circulating amongst some of the less mature blogger types, revolving around the idea of "women needing to be calmed down" (the implication being that women are less mature in general, or less experienced in politics than men). That sort of thing can't help Dems in November.

[Sisyphus]

The gender issues do tend to make things touchy. But Hillary supporters do need to calm down (as do we all), and they are being irrational. Saying so is probably counterproductive towards the cause of reunification, but it's not a (necessarily) misogynist opinion. Are all Hillary supporters women? Does the PUMA movement speak for all women? The answer to both is "of course not," but you would never know it listening to some commentators. And that's coming from both critics and supporters! It seriously makes me wonder how much of this stuff is really just undercover Republicans, intentionally sowing chaos.