Major Garrett at Fox News reports from Denver backrooms. “Top Clinton strategists, gathered by Hillary Clinton’s former campaign manager Maggie Williams, met privately late Monday in Denver to plot convention strategy. The main topic: what to do about Wednesday’s roll call vote.” And the answer will not surprise you.
During the question-and-answer session, a person who attended the meeting informs The Bourbon Room, Williams said delegates still loyal to Clinton, even after her appeals to support Obama, should “vote their conscience.”
A Clinton ally who was not at the meeting but who spoke to Williams directly said the context was the delegates should vote their conscience if they felt they had no other choice. Meaning, if Clinton’s appeals weren’t enough, they must follow their deeply held beliefs. Williams explained after the meeting that it would have been insulting to tell delegates anything else. Williams said her “vote your conscience” line should not be interpreted as an act of sabotage against Obama, but merely a recognition that some Clinton supporters will do what they feel they must.
Time was when foes met each other in the open field at 20 paces, armed with a sparking pistol or separated by two yards of cold steel. Nowadays you don’t even know who your friends are. Who wants to go back to back in a knife-fight with Jeremiah Wright, Jesse Jackson, Solis Doyle, Bill Richardson, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama? About the only thing you can say for that crew is that they must all understand each other perfectly. And what felicity of expression. Here for example is the most indirect expression of the words, “yer on yer own, bub” that I’ve ever heard.
The emerging consensus in Hillary’s camp is that Clinton can not be asked to solve Obama’s problem. They say it’s up to Obama to make the case for his economic policies and respond to persistent questions about his experience, toughness and vision. According to Clinton allies, no speech from Clinton or anyone else can do for Obama what he most needs to do for himself.
Which is that Obama should do what exactly? Oh never mind. Let your unconscious be your guide. And anyway, as far the appearances are concerned, it will be one big happy family.
The Obama campaign is leaving little to chance. It has created a rapid response team — led by Craig Smith, a former top operative in the Clinton world — to head out to the convention floor at the first sign of any trouble from Clinton supporters.
The Denver Post reports that convention organizers have hit upon a scheme to head off trouble by making delegates vote from their hotel rooms, thereby preventing dangerous concentrations of Clinton delegates from forming on the floor. “The move being worked out between the Obama campaign and officials behind Clinton’s suspended bid, would work in two parts: Delegates would cast votes at their hotels Wednesday morning; that night, at the Pepsi Center convention site, the roll-call process would rely on the votes cast that morning, the delegates said. ”
The move is being resisted by some Clinton delegates, who are busy tonight circulating a petition among delegates as the opening night of the convention, titled “One Nation,” gets underway. “We just want a roll call like you’re supposed to have,” said one of the delegates collecting signatures for the petition, who asked not to be named because of concern about friction within the party.
Rapid response teams, voting from forms placed in hotel rooms, delegates withholding their names, petitions being desperately collected — you’d think they were trying to keep the lid on rather expressing their exuberant joy at being blessed by the One. Yet with Obama’s poll numbers so close to McCain’s, Clinton seems genuinely afraid of being perceived as a reason for a possible BHO defeat. Under these circumstances, Hillary may simply expend her loyal supporters to make a deniable point, and still have it both ways.
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24 Comments
1. Royal Savage:Thanks for the link!
Aug 26, 2008 - 1:58 am 2. starling:“The Obama campaign is leaving little to chance. It has created a rapid response team — led by Craig Smith, a former top operative in the Clinton world — to head out to the convention floor at the first sign of any trouble from Clinton supporters.”
And what exactly will Craig and company do when face-to-face with a PUMA, I wondered. Twist their arms? Escort them from the convention floor? Rescind their credentials? Offer them stuff? Shout them down? Whisper threats? talk them into submission? Give them a free first-class upgrade on the flight home? Plead with them? Negotiate? Extol the sublime virtues of “Unity”, “Hope” and “Change”? Give the dirty looks? Charm them? Just what, I wonder, will these rapid responses be?
Aug 26, 2008 - 3:45 am 3. wretchard:Maybe this can end in either of two ways. If the Clintons are all bark and no bite then they will go sullenly into the political good night. If on the other hand they retain some residual sting, they might place a small bet and let it ride. Part of the problem in anticipating what the Clintons will do in Denver is assuming Bill and Hillary have a fixed plan. But suppose their plan is opportunism, contingent on what vibes they encounter? I wouldn’t be surprised if the the floor was thronged with task forces from either side, moving through the crowds like naval ships parting the waves.
Its true that when you come right down to it there is probably nothing they can extemporize at this late date. But hope springeth eternal. Or rather ambition does.
Aug 26, 2008 - 3:56 am 4. ledger:I suppose Hillary could have been more blunt and reminded the delegates of the Bill Gwatney incident.
Aug 26, 2008 - 3:57 am 5. RAH:This is politics in the rawest form. I personally think the Clinton supporters should be on the floor. Of course I would like to see chaos on the floor. Let the Democrats implode. This is so entertaining.
Aug 26, 2008 - 5:37 am 6. Herb:Watch Bill. He ain’t happy. When he ain’t happy that’s when he’s most entertaining.
This situation requires him to subordinate his desires to a ‘greater’ good. He’s not famous for that. If he does it’ll last maybe ten minutes.
Aug 26, 2008 - 6:35 am 7. Solon:>>About the only thing you can say for that crew is that they must all understand each other perfectly.<<
Wretchard, did you follow the 2000 GOP primary in South Carolina? Does McCain understand George Bush and Rove? I recall some whisper campaign about an illegitimate black child and a high society wife with a pill problem, but the details are vague. Maye you can do a post on it.
Aug 26, 2008 - 6:35 am 8. Anthony (Los Angeles):Love the graphic: Spy vs. Spy is perfect for this situation.
Aug 26, 2008 - 6:38 am 9. Dan:In other news, God is not pleased with the Dems this week:
“…In Plains, a National Park Service crew removed the oak that fell overnight on the home of former President Jimmy Carter. A friend, state Sen. George Hooks (D-Americus), described the tree as the largest tree outside the Carter residence.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter both were home Saturday night when stormy winds brought down the tree just above their living room. Neither was injured…”
Aug 26, 2008 - 6:44 am 10. clyde_m:from changing traditional floor roll calls to the rumor of placing Herself’s name on the VP ballot (i read it takes only 300 delegates to petition), obama is losing control of the convention. he had to either fully include or exclude the clintons. he chose to include them, and is now trying to have it both ways.
must be frightening to dance with the devil.
Aug 26, 2008 - 6:47 am 11. Charles:From the Catholic News Agency: Billionaire Tim Gill tells DNC delegates his strategy to advance the homosexual cause.
Gill’s strategy is to beat republicans at the state level.
Aug 26, 2008 - 9:10 am 12. Eggplant:What can the Clintons do? Their best case scenario is if the Democrat Party rejected Hussein and made Hillary their nominee. However the party’s left wing, all moonbats and most of America’s blacks would revolt from such a decision.
Alea iacta est. The die is cast. It’s Hussein or nobody (or better yet, McCain)….
Aug 26, 2008 - 9:13 am 13. Charles:Yesterday Clinton’s old advisor Carville & today Rush Limbaugh said the first day had nothing to it. Polls seem to bear that out with the convention so far giving obama a negative bounce
Aug 26, 2008 - 10:39 am 14. Mark:If the Clintons believed that Sen. Obama was going to win, I suspect they would support him fully.
If they believed that with their support he would win, they would support him fully.
If they do not believe Sen. Obama is going to win, they will hedge their bets, positioning themselves for 2012.
But why would they believe that Sen. Obama would not win?
There’s smoke rising from the Obama camp, and there’s likely a fire. We know that the press abhors Democrat fires, as illustrated by the lack of attention to the Edwards scandal. But the fire may break out. And the Clintons will not want to be scorched.
I can’t resist the conspiracy theory that Sen. Obama’s reluctance/ignoring to release his authentic birth certificate may be related to a name difference on the certificate, e.g. something like first name ‘Barry’ and not ‘Barack.’ Perhaps a small thing. But even such a small thing might send a ‘Talented Mr. Ripley’ shudder through the electorate.
Aug 26, 2008 - 11:47 am 15. Fred:Obama is taking Chicago politics national. His opponents, the Clintons, are masters of their patented Clintonian politics. Seems an even match to me.
Aug 26, 2008 - 12:00 pm 16. Charles:Rush Limbaugh said today that the point of Hillary’s speach will be to rally the democrats to war against the republicans and show also that the dems have rejected the A team by comparison to Obama’s own. proactive cya
another example of proactive cya was the spy agencies public announcement last fall that Iran had stopped working on their nuke program–because they were afraid the bush’s would use their previous assessment to the contrary as an excuse for war. The spies didn’t want to be accused of being wrong as they were accused of being wrong about Iraq’s nukes in the lead up to the Iraq war. In both cases it was a judgement call but whereas in the lead up to the Iraq war — the politically safer position was that Iraq had wmd — the judgement of the spies was that the politically safer position was that Iran had stopped working on nukes.
How does this relate to Hillary? If Obama falls badly–its important to the moderates in the party that the leftists get all the blame–so as to give themselves the upper hand in the power struggle to come. Interestingly just as Michelle repackaged herself last night –so will Hillary. Hillary will repackage herself as the centrist moderate who was repudiated — when in fact she is as much the leftist as gore,kerry obama
Aug 26, 2008 - 12:08 pm 17. whiskey:The role of the Convention is to sell the Candidate and Party. So far, Obama has not done a good job. Michelle Obama merely refrained from expressing her resentful, striving yuppiedom mixed with Angry Black Nationalism “Hate Whitey” persona that has proven toxic and an insight into Obama.
There is a reason why most political spouses are bland and boring: very little good comes from a spouse and much bad can come from it (negative insight into the candidate).
Obama has done nothing to negate his empty celebrity mixed with trendiness and Angry Black Nationalism / Blame America First routine. No “drill now” or lower gas prices or massive infrastructure & military spending to pump prime. Because he can’t. He has no experience in how to do so, merely agitating his Black Nationalist and Rich White Radical base. Not a good bet.
Aug 26, 2008 - 12:12 pm 18. David M:The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the – Web Reconnaissance for 08/26/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
Aug 26, 2008 - 12:31 pm 19. NahnCee:I think the image of a bunch of spotty-faced “anarchist” teenagers rioting over nothing in particular in support of Obama will probably be the most valuable thing to come out of this convention, as well as what Joe Sixpack will take away and remember when he’s punching his ballot in November.
Aug 26, 2008 - 2:38 pm 20. CPT. Charles:[Insert dark chuckle...] I believe I mentioned something about ‘dark corners and daggers’ not too long ago.
There are so many power blocks at this convention, it’s hard to imagine them slotting together seamlessly. Here’s my take on the main OoB:
A] The Eastern ‘Old Guard’: the DC–NY–Boston Axis.
B] The Chicago Hive: the Dark Tower in the Heartland.
C] The Left Coast Crazies: the LA–SF–Portland–Seattle Axis
D] The Dark Horde: the unions, various minority blocks, the Eco-fascists, the GLTBers, and the NEA.
Well, they’re all wound up and ready to go…this’ll be more fun than a Rock’em Sock’em Robots tourney.
PS-feel free to add/amend my OoB.
Aug 26, 2008 - 5:50 pm 21. M. Simon:Wretchard,
The New CW will be: “McCain Democrats”
Aug 26, 2008 - 6:25 pm 22. starling:CPT Charles, I like your list. With no disrespect intended toward any of the following, I tend to think of the power blocks or factions within the American Left in terms their “colors”:
Black = blacks, African Americans
Brown = Latinos
Yellow = pacifists, anti-war types in general (Not that all of them are cowards, however. Many do have principled reasons for opposing recent wars.)
Pink1 = Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgenders
Pink2 = Code Pink, and feminists more generally
Green = environmentalists, global warmers and climate changers
Blue = unions, labor activists
Red = communists, socialists, marxists, anarchists, and other anti-capitalists
Silver = celebrities, Hollywood, movie stars and moguls, entertainers
Gold = limousine liberals and other left-leaning wealthy individuals, including many former business people-turned-philanthropist like.g. Tim Sugar Daddy Gill, mentioned above.
Crimson = Academia (this is Harvard’s color and indicates nothing against the school per se. Rather, I pick crimson as a stand-in for academia in general while not ignoring or denying Harvard’s extraordinary influence and undeniable role as an opinion-leader and trend-setter of “enlightened” opinion).
Burnt Orange = Kos, his Kids, his Kossacks, and the rest of the netroots and “reality-based” online community
Did I miss any?
Aug 26, 2008 - 9:49 pm 23. mark_b:Starling:
Relationship between Crimson and Red noted.
Aug 27, 2008 - 6:08 am 24. buddy larsen:@starling: ”Did I miss any?”
For simplicity, you could lose the numbers and go with purple in place of pink 1, letting pink 2 be simply ‘pink. Having used black, you could use white for unions & labor activists, then use the blue for the academics. Blue fits their message & mood, and would save the confusion of red & crimson being more or less the same color.
Having critiqued as per invitation, now let me compliment you on the brilliance of the whole scheme!
Oh, ‘burnt orange’, using an adjective when none of the others do, could be brought into line by going instead with brown, which is not a bad choice for a bunch of assholes.
Aug 27, 2008 - 11:16 amSorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.