I watched through the end of Bill’s speech last night (I had to then go pick up my wife in town), complete on C-Span.
I stayed off social media, simply to absorb fully what was happening, without the filter of commentators.
I found myself moved, time and time again.
Yes, it was moving to listen to Larry Sanders talk about their parents before voting for his brother.
Yes, full credit to Bernie for what he did at the end of the roll call.
But it was everything else to that point that really moved me.
Consider — Lena Dunham and America Ferrara, coming out arm in arm, two highly visible surrogates, offering a positive vision going forward
Consider — how many states casting their votes at roll call acknowledging how much Sanders had moved the agenda and brought energy to the Democratic party, but then saying they were casting ballots for the next President of the United States — that is certainly credit to the Clinton campaign to recognize the achievements of Sanders and his campaign, but some of those saying the “next President of the United States” were themselves strong Sanders supporters.
Consider — the strong support of so many those on the podium speaking to what Hillary Clinton had done during her life until this point, and how strongly almost the entire convention responded positively.
Consider — for all the concerns about Bernie or Bust, for all the media (especially on MS-NBC) of trying to find the most intransigent Bernie delegates to try to fan the flames of dissension, since the beginning of the convention Monday, when there was a lot of out of control and rude behavior, there has been almost none, clearly in large part because Bernie has spoken forcefully, even getting booed when he addressed his gathered delegates and to specific delegations.
I have since the end of the Republican convention watched carefully. I have seen campaign manager Jeff Weaver being very positive towards the then presumptive nominee, and despite the brouhaha of DWS and the emails not seek to fan flames — nor did Bernie.
I have heard from friends at the convention that the floor whips for the two campaigns have worked together, something seen also in the signage — signs for Bernie held up by Clinton supporters and then signs for Clinton held up by Sanders supporters.
Bernie Sanders cannot dictate to his followers. He made that clear some time ago. But he has been very forceful in doing what he can to bring his followers along.
I see polls that indicate something like 90% of the Sanders supporters have already moved to supporting Clinton. That is actually better than what we were seeing from Clinton supporters towards Obama in 2008.
Yesterday perhaps 150 Sanders delegates walked out after the roll call. That is less than 10% of his delegates, and that is reflective of where he supporters as a whole are. And for that we have to give credit to Bernie Sanders.
When I wrote about the first night, I wrote of Sanders’ speech that Bernie did what he had to do. I was not clear on what I meant. What I meant then is that by affirming Clinton on issues after issue, by repeating his support for her time and time again, he made clear to his supporters that it was time to come together given the stakes in this election. It took a while for some of his supporters to follow his lead, but he provided that lead.
So thank you Bernie Sanders, for all you did to push important issues, to bring people into the process, to try to bring the party back together after the primary, and to strongly encourage those you brought into the process to stay involved for the future of the issues, the party, and the country. Thank you for modeling how to accept getting part of what you sought and advocating forcefully that to affirm that the need to wholeheartedly commit to this election.
We have just over 100 days until election day. We are in this magnificent convention, after a somewhat rocky start, coming together for the hard effort, not only to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, but other Democrats up and down the ballot.
Let’s get it done.