Being nice to Clintonistas at my County Convention
Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 02:42:54 PM PDT
It's been a busy few weeks! but I wanted to share my [largely] positive experience at our Dem County Convention April 12 here in WA State. My county, Clallam, is rural, moderate [barely Red but trending Bluer each year], and went 70% for Obama in our caucuses.
At those caucuses, while I was in the bathroom, I was voted Obama delegate [w/ my Edwards button on!] since I spoke so emphatically for Barack and against the War. So there I was on the 12th, standing up for Obama again.
Obama's camp phoned me and asked if I'd call delegates and alternates to ensure that we'd have all slots filled, so I did. It was a lot of work, but a lot more fun than cold-calling anonymous voters on Obama's website--I mistakenly reached a few Clinton delegates, but I treated them no differently than Obama people, giving them any info they needed about time/place/what to expect, etc. I went out of my way to be nice.
My town, Port Angeles, is a beautiful, green paradise nestled between Olympic National Park and the Straits of Juan de Fuca, looking across on Victoria, BC. It is also the home of the dreaded SusanHu, who I worked with 4 years ago on the Dean campaign, so I cut her some slack. I warned the Obama organizers about her, but as it turned out she did not attend the convention, although her lovely daughter did, and we said hello, very friendly, as always.
I had to dust off my old wheelchair to get around in our high school auditorium--it is so huge and handicap-unfriendly--so I brought my son with me to push me around faster and bought his cooperation with ding-dongs and ham sandwiches. I also brought 5 dozen Krispy-Kreme donuts that my wife bought from a church fundraiser. The food people asked if I wanted them only for Obama folks and I scoffed and told them, "No! they're for anybody who wants to die from diabetes and heart disease! regardless of their politics."
Anyway, all Obama slots were filled by delegates or the occassional alternates. I had promised the alternates that they'd be free to leave should they not be called as delegates, which may have accounted for the huge turnout. After all delegates were seated we listened to speeches from our Democratic State representative, Kevin Van De Wege, who was in his 1st term having beaten the longest-serving, do-nothing repug, in the last election. I spoke briefly w/ Kevin before his speech, having worked for him in his 2 election runs. He is a nice, young father [40?] w/ good career prospects because our neighbor here is Lynn Kessler, leader of the Dems in the legislature, and we all love her here and she has helped Kevin push his bills through the legislature.
Steve Tharinger, one of 2 of our County Commissioners who are Dems, spoke next, and I spoke privately w/ him as well. Both he and Kevin were officially neutral between Obama and Clinton, but Kevin's little boy, Charlie, had an Obama button on his trousers, and Steve spoke privately and publicly about bridging the differences with our political opponents in order to get things done. In fact he spoke on behalf of our lone Republican Commissioner, who is the only repug I've ever voted for, and who is a good guy, Mike Chapman. Mike is being shunned by the repugs this year because he likes his 2 Democratic colleagues! and refuses to endorse the knuckle-dragging nutjobs they put up against the 2 Dem commissioners. Mike actually was applauded by our convention that day, and if he wins the repug nomination [he's not the endorsed candidate] we won't run anyone against him, since we all like and respect him so much.
After the delegate counts were added up in this second round, Obama picked up a few more seats, but not enough to change the state delegate allocation: 17 Obama, 7 Clinton. I PURPOSELY didn't go to the restroom when they chose delegates for the state convention, but I did hear speeches for both candidates prior to the voting. I put a tick in the ear of the official Obama speaker that, regardless of the virtues of each candidate, if Obama gets the nomination the meme for the rest of eternity [hyperbole] will be: Clinton voted for war and lost, whereas if she won the meme would be: a Dem can vote for an immoral, illegal war and not worry about losing support. In essence, a choice between the Wellstone and Lieberman wings of the Party.
I realize there are many other issues at stake, but the War is the reason I was there that day: I needed SOME WAY to fight back against the immoral war that has made me an old man 10 years too early, from worrying and mourning.
To finish, most of the delegate speeches employed the issues we have heard a million times. One funny moment came when an Obama guy said, if you voted him delegate to the State convention he'd wear an Obama bumper sticker on his face--and his picture made the paper here with the bumper sticker on it. The only really low moment came when a Clinton supporter tried to scare everybody with the doomsday scenario that if Obama gets elected Osama bin Laden will attack us w/ nukes and Barack will just stand there like a deer looking into the headlights! a fight almost erupted from that!
The one thing I wanted to say was this: the overwhelming sense was that we ALL were going to support the eventual nominee in November. Obama people applauded louder when this was stated [there were MANY more of us there], but Clinton people were on board as well. Enthusiasm for Obama was sky high even after Wright, after the kitchen sink, etc. Remember, I spoke to all these delegates before the convention, so I know how personal it was to them that Obama would win.
The Clinton folks were my neighbors here: I could not disdain them the way I feel about the people running the campaign. About 2/3 of the Clintonistas were female, but at least half of Obama supporters were female. Last note: I used to perform a lot of poetry in this county. I've stood before, collectively, thousands of Clallamites. The vast majority of my poetry audience that attended the convention were Obama people, few Clinton poetry lovers. Is it me or is it Clinton that doesn't inspire them to poetry?
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