I haven’t watched or followed much of the DNC Convention, but I’ve seen enough to make these two observations:
1. Hillary Clinton and the Glass Ceiling. Before Hillary’s speech, they did this video montage thing that was all about how she may not shattered the “glass ceiling” that restricts the opportunities available to women in America but she cracked in 1000 places or something. The insinuation was very much that she lost not because Obama was the better candidate but because he was a man and she was a woman and America is unfair. I’m generally fairly sympathetic to that kind of argument, but I don’t think it holds much water in this case given that Obama is contending with a glass ceiling of his own.
More importantly, though, this is just the wrong message for her to be sending. She lost the primariy, and her role now is to suck it up and throw her support behind Obama. McCain is proof that candidates who lose in a primary but toe the party line for the general election can still be viable candidates eight years down the road. McCain had much more legitimate grievances in light of the dirty tricks that Bush/Rove employed against him in 2000, but he swallowed his pride, fell into line, and now he’s getting his moment.
Clinton claims she is going to play ball, but it’s a stretch to say that she is throwing her support behind Obama. It’s more like a weak lob. She’s taking every opportunity to draw attention to the fact that she thinks she should have won, that she was the better candidate, and that she is only supporting Obama because that’s what’s required of her now. Of course, such “support” doesn’t really count for much when it’s accompanied by a wink and a nod designed to let everyone know that in her view, he is not the strongest possible candidate.
2. I turned on the TV today to see Biden’s speech, and there was a woman on a red-lit stage singing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with a team of background dancers behind her. I assumed this was part of the DNC Convention until I saw Simon Cowell clapping for her. I think it’s funny that the conventions have become such an act of political theater that a casual viewer can confuse them with reality television.