LOS ANGELES -- Local residents of cities hosting political conventions can sometimes feel overwhelmed by the glitz, the plague of media representatives and surprise appearances by political and entertainment megastars. The tables may be turned at this year's Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. Convention attendees got their first taste of Hollywoodland as they flew in over the city and saw the words "Welcome to Los Angeles" spelled out in an aerial-view-only, using 50-foot cement columns with lights on top. The palm-tree lined highways and signs pointing to Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills seem more like the setting for a teen television series than a national political convention. Even veterans of political parties were surprised by the lavishness of the Saturday night welcoming party, which featured a slide show on a 50-story building and 15,000 person guest list.
The Democrats are counting on Hollywood's magic to do more than just impress their party regulars, delegates and elected representatives. The LA convention is essentially the Gore campaign's last chance to unify his core constituency and to convince voters in the rest of the country that he has the character and the charisma to be president. With this in mind, the Gore campaign staff has created a convention that is every bit as scripted and rehearsed as the Republican convention in Philadelphia. Departures from the script, like California Rep. Loretta Sanchez's scheduling of a fundraiser at the Playboy mansion, have been met with sanction (she lost the prime-time slot for her speech). Unfortunately for Gore, his biggest problem in this election couldn't be rescheduled -- the Clintons.
The country as a whole might be sick of the Clintons, but the party-regulars in LA still love them and showed it unabashedly on Monday. Hillary Clinton led off the evening with the most important congressional campaign speech of the week. After being welcomed out on stage by the six incumbent Democratic women senators, Hillary Clinton began her speech with praise for her husband's economic policies. Emphasizing the need to reduce child poverty she said, "the people with the biggest stakes in this election are the littlest among us."
The show was stolen (and some say the entire convention stolen) by Bill Clinton's farewell address. The majority of Bill Clinton's last convention speech as a sitting President focused on the country's record prosperity. Stealing a sound-byte from Harry Truman, Clinton told the roaring crowds that "if you want to live like a Republican, you should vote for a Democrat." Then to the cheers of "Thank you Bill," Clinton gave a laundry list of his administration's successes, such as lowering unemployment, improving education, cutting crime and fighting for human rights. One of the major bumps in the speech came when Clinton praised Sen. Joe Lieberman for being a "New Democrat," which received only light applause.
Around the time that Clinton's speech was drawing to a close, the only unpredictable element of the convention -- the protestors, clashed with police in a small riot a few hundred feet from the convention center. Earlier in the evening, some 5,000 protestors had gathered near the 14-foot fences surrounding the convention center in order to listen to a "Rage Against the Machine" concert. Although the concert hadn't finished, the police decided that they wanted the protestors gone by the time the delegates were ready to leave, and attempted to clear the area. The concert turned into chaos. "We were trapped between the fences and the police on horseback," a legal advisor to the protestors said. With several hundred people still in the area, the police opened fire with rubber bullets, injuring several protestors. Protestors representing a variety of groups have assembled outside of the convention area every day this week in order to demand an end to globalization, an end to the death penalty, and better environmental protections.
Although they aren't protesting as loudly as those outside the convention, at least a few convention attendees feel uneasy about Gore's Vice Presidential selection of the conservative Sen. Joe Lieberman. One union representative from New York state said she hoped Gore and Lieberman would work out their policy differences before the election, so that people would have a better understanding of what positions the Gore-Lieberman ticket really stands for. Sen. Lieberman has expressed his support for school vouchers, tort reform and less violence in movies. Vice President Gore supports charter schools. Sen. Lieberman arrived at the convention early last night to the sound of thunderous applause and people shouting, "Go Joe!"
A large number of Democrats have used their podium time to criticize this year's Republican convention for presenting a misleading picture of the Republican Party. Lydia Camarillo, CEO of the convention said, "We are what the other party pretended to be." In his presentation of the Democratic platform yesterday, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said, "This platform shows that we care about minorities more than just once every four years."
Unlike the Republican convention, Democratic members of Congress have received a generous amount of stage time over the past two days. On Monday night the six female Democratic Senators took turns speaking on policy issues that ranged from social security to gun control. During the presentation of the platform, a number of Democratic members of the House of Representatives were also given podium time. New Hampshire Democrats were pleased to see Gov. Jeanne Shaheen lead a talk-show style discussion with average Americans who have been affected by policies like the earned-income tax credit and the Family-Medical Leave Act.
Yesterday's speakers included Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, Sen. Evan Bayh and the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who warned Americans everywhere to, "stay out of the Bushes." Introduced by Caroline Kennedy, Sen. Ted Kennedy gave a powerful speech in which he called for universal health care and said that an America in which all Americans "advance together is our new frontier."
In a conciliatory convention speech, Bill Bradley called his campaign for the presidency against Al Gore, "a joy." His comment was surprising, given the rivalry and accusations of negative campaigning that occurred between himself and the Vice President during the primaries. Bradley also made a jab towards the Bush campaign when he said, "We've been acting compassionate for decades," and "Don't read my lips, watch what we do."
Harold Ford Jr. gave the keynote address of the convention in which he praised young Americans for making a difference in communities all across America. He said that this election is all about children and that the choice is not what kind of America we will have for the next four years, but rather the kind of America we will have for the next forty. Ford, a 30-year-old congressman from Tennessee was up until recently unknown within the party. Past keynote speakers at Democratic conventions have had mixed career successes. Bill Clinton delivered the keynote address in 1988 and Sen. Evan Bayh delivered the keynote address in 1996.
