Democrats, day 2
Jul. 28th, 2016 05:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacYes, day 2. I'm not caught up, and probably won't be. I watched part of Tuesday live and some more on tape, but I skipped Wednesday altogether and left it entirely on tape, and I probably won't watch much of today's live either. Urgent deadline awaits: not enough time to watch hours of speechifying. I may not get around to the rest for a couple of weeks, actually: time is that tight.
What I watched live on Tuesday was the roll call, because this was history-making. And now a woman - not any woman, but this particular woman - is a major-party presidential nominee. So I've changed the icon I use on political posts, and if you can't read the label because the print is too small, here's the full-sized original, which will show you why, given LJ content restrictions, it's probably a good thing that you can't read it.
Like the icon text, the speakers kept pointing to Hillary's knowledge and experience and willingness to work hard on issues. It made calls of corruption look petty, and was intended to. (So why didn't similar citations to experience work on me when it was Nixon? Well, you mean besides the fact that Nixon really was corrupt and always had been? How about how Nixon's experience, while extensive, was far more frequently unwise and, more obviously, ill-considered. I doubt you would catch Hillary Clinton saying something like "I don't give an [expletive deleted] abut the lira.")
But I do wish they'd stop calling her the most qualified presidential candidate of all time. First, anybody considering voting for Trump obviously doesn't care about qualifications at all. Second, the most on-paper qualified presidential candidate in American history was probably James Buchanan, which only goes to show that qualifications aren't everything.
Also not of particular help was the speaker pitching Hillary's diplomatic experience: something like "She's been at the table facing Russia. Facing China. Facing Canada." Yes, I thought: our three most traditional enemies.
The roll call is always amusing. Some states, usually the ones without many Democrats, were succinct, having nothing but their natural beauty to pitch. Others went on at such length as to make the secretary wonder if they were done. Some passed the microphone around so that everyone could have a say. But one of those provided the most moving moment of the convention: Larry Sanders invoking his parents' names as he cast his vote for his brother.
Bill's speech: He knows his role here, he's candidate's spouse, and he pulled it off. Biography of her achievements - mostly, it seems, reports written - interspersed with personal anecdotes to remind you this is a human being we're talking about. Did oversell a few points - I really don't recall that children's health thingie as following directly on the failure of HillaryCare - but as convention prevarications go, that was minor.
What I watched live on Tuesday was the roll call, because this was history-making. And now a woman - not any woman, but this particular woman - is a major-party presidential nominee. So I've changed the icon I use on political posts, and if you can't read the label because the print is too small, here's the full-sized original, which will show you why, given LJ content restrictions, it's probably a good thing that you can't read it.
Like the icon text, the speakers kept pointing to Hillary's knowledge and experience and willingness to work hard on issues. It made calls of corruption look petty, and was intended to. (So why didn't similar citations to experience work on me when it was Nixon? Well, you mean besides the fact that Nixon really was corrupt and always had been? How about how Nixon's experience, while extensive, was far more frequently unwise and, more obviously, ill-considered. I doubt you would catch Hillary Clinton saying something like "I don't give an [expletive deleted] abut the lira.")
But I do wish they'd stop calling her the most qualified presidential candidate of all time. First, anybody considering voting for Trump obviously doesn't care about qualifications at all. Second, the most on-paper qualified presidential candidate in American history was probably James Buchanan, which only goes to show that qualifications aren't everything.
Also not of particular help was the speaker pitching Hillary's diplomatic experience: something like "She's been at the table facing Russia. Facing China. Facing Canada." Yes, I thought: our three most traditional enemies.
The roll call is always amusing. Some states, usually the ones without many Democrats, were succinct, having nothing but their natural beauty to pitch. Others went on at such length as to make the secretary wonder if they were done. Some passed the microphone around so that everyone could have a say. But one of those provided the most moving moment of the convention: Larry Sanders invoking his parents' names as he cast his vote for his brother.
Bill's speech: He knows his role here, he's candidate's spouse, and he pulled it off. Biography of her achievements - mostly, it seems, reports written - interspersed with personal anecdotes to remind you this is a human being we're talking about. Did oversell a few points - I really don't recall that children's health thingie as following directly on the failure of HillaryCare - but as convention prevarications go, that was minor.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2016-07-28 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-07-28 07:12 pm (UTC)I watched the roll call as well. I was amused when Alabama led off by not reporting one of their votes and the Secretary looked perplexed and said, "Don't y'all have one more? I'll put it down as an abstention." It was an unscripted moment, and I like those. (Maybe that's why I like well-run WSFS Business Meetings. It's unscripted, but their are rules within which the unscripted actions must happen.)
Inasmuch as the official feed didn't give the running total, I had wondered why there hadn't been a point where a state deferred to the candidate's home state in order to deliver sufficient delegates to put them over the top, as often happens, followed by a big celebration. And then when Vermont passed, I realized something must be up. Wyoming must not have gotten the memo, because they went on about by the last state to vote, and then we got to Vermont, second call. They delivered their votes and then Sanders (who of course was a "superdelegate" himself as a member of their congressional delegation) put that suspend-the-rules-and-elect-by-acclamation motion. Finally I realized that the skids had been greased. Presumably the deal struck between the Clinton and Sanders campaigns was that Bernie's supporters would get their nominating and seconding speeches, and their delegates would be able to vote and cheer their guy, and then Sanders would wrap it up with a bow, saying, in effect, "Thank you, you were great, we did well, and we lost, so let's go out there and win the big election." Only the petulant among the "Bernie Bros" will ignore this, I hope.
On technical grounds, I recognized that the Secretary putting the question to Suspend the Rules was purely pro forma. You can't easily determine a two-thirds majority by a voice vote, and the only way you could have done a counted vote would have been by another roll call, and it (as I recall) takes six states to demand a roll call. That obviously was never going to happen and would have defeated the purpose of the feel-good motion. I'm glad that the actual vote was also reported.
The people calling for votes for third-party candidates are ignoring the reality. Yes, I'd like a better selection system too, like maybe IRV so people could vote the Green or Libertarian as their first choice and then the major-party candidate second or third or whatever, but we don't have that and I don't think we will have it anytime soon, so we have to play the hand we're dealt, not the one we'd like to have.
no subject
Date: 2016-07-28 07:35 pm (UTC)I was watching the DNC's own feet, which had no footers, but I subsequently saw a clip from a network which did put totals and running totals on. It is customary to manipulate the order by having states pass so that somewhere appropriate can put the winner over the top. But that didn't happen this time - I read somewhere that it was South Dakota that did it - and perhaps they thought that would be wounding rather than celebratory.
They did another 2/3rds voice vote at the opening on Wednesday to nominate Kaine for VP without any speeches or roll calls whatever. I miss the chaotic Democratic VP votes of my youth, when occasional votes for the likes of Mickey Mouse or Archie Bunker would enliven the proceedings. Also, they had fractional votes then, which added a further layer of the gothic to the process.
no subject
Date: 2016-07-28 10:42 pm (UTC)Nine
no subject
Date: 2016-07-29 03:55 am (UTC)