Hell Hath No Fury… But Denver Does
August 26th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
As the Democratic National Convention enters its second day in Denver, party leaders are amping their message into overdrive: Unity, Unity, Unity. Sure, party leaders say, the conflict-obsessed media would prefer to sell you a narrative about the deep divisions between camps Obama and Clinton, but the party line — trumpeted everywhere from delegate breakfasts to front-page punditry — is one of former rivals coming together for the larger good, the larger good being defeating John McCain.
That focus is especially important here on Tuesday, with Clinton herself scheduled to close the night’s program of speeches at the Pepsi Center at 8:30. What will she say? And more important: Will the 30 percent of her supporters that polls claim would rather vote for McCain than Obama listen?
Some surely will, but others, not so likely. A feisty trio of the latter variety was walking down the sidewalk in front of the caucus-hosting Colorado Convention Center this morning when they apparently overheard a reporter asking for directions to a planned pro-Hillary march scheduled for near noon. The most assertive of the three Clinton-clad women grabbed the reporter’s sleeve and asked a favor.
“Are you with the press? I want you to tell your viewers, or readers, or whatever, that there are a lot of women here who are not going to get over it.” The media, she said, had given Obama a free ride, and were ignoring the real story of Hillary’s fight-to-the-end contingent.
Really? the reporter wondered aloud. The major narrative of the entire convention, the one party leaders insist is a media invention, is being underreported?
That’s right, the woman said, and the scorned Hillary-ites beside her nodded in agreement, scowling as if they’d found the one media member among the estimated 15,000 in Denver this week most personally responsible for the slight.
The reporter promised that he was on his way to a pro-Hillary march to gauge and convey exactly the sentiment the women apparently found so lacking in convention coverage. The march is planned for 11:45 on Colfax Avenue near the state capitol. The reporter is headed that direction now.
When he gets there, he expects to find more disgruntled Hillary supporters venting their anger, buttonholing presumptively dismissive (but present) reporters, and generally not getting over it. And if this is what he finds, and if he reports it as such, he fully expects to find himself blamed by party leaders on tomorrow’s news for concentrating too gleefully on intra-party dissent.
Such are the competing agendas on parade in Denver this week.
