THE DEMOCRATS are meeting now in Denver, and much of the suspense of past weeks has evaporated with Sen. Barack Obama’s choice of Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate.
As much as some Kansans would have liked to see Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as a candidate to replace Dick Cheney, Biden appears to be a good choice. He is well-grounded in international affairs (the Georgian government values his expertise and reputation enough to have invited him to Tbilisi after the Russian invasion) and his popularity extends beyond his own state of Delaware.
Sebelius, although liked by Kansas voters, did not have much going for her besides her brains and her ability to get elected and re-elected in a Republican state. As a faithful — if combative — correspondent on The Gazette’s Web site pointed out, the selection would have angered the hard-core Hillary Clinton supporters and brought little to the campaign in the way of electoral votes.
Still, as Sebelius said after Obama’s announcement, it has been nice to see Kansas get the attention.
As an early declarer for Obama, a vigorous campaigner and a good sport through the selection process for a vice-presidential candidate, Sebelius has collected a trunkful of IOU’s from the candidate and the national party. Those IOU’s could come in handy for Sebelius and the state if Obama is elected.
Who knows? The governor could find a Cabinet post under the Christmas tree this year.
This week in Denver, the Democrats get a chance to show the county how unified and determined they are. The party is trying to return a little of the old excitement to the convention process. A bit of real drama on the floor could re-energize voters who have lost some of their zeal in the months since the primaries.
The key to a successful convention — one that evokes the good old days of floor fights and “spontaneous” demonstrations while still giving the candidate a boost toward election — is to provide maximum drama and minimum disunity.
The best bet for drama is Clinton’s prime-time speech tonight. Commentators will read that speech as seers read animal entrails, looking for signs of party unity or disunity.
But the real effect of Clinton’s speech or the speeches of others will not be decided by the instant commentary, but by the people listening at the convention and at home. The target audience, as it should be, is the voters.
Patrick S. Kelley
Editorial Page Editor
Comments
We allow registered users to post comments on this Web site. To learn more about our posting policies please read our User Poster Agreement Policy.
Posted by Observation (anonymous) on August 26, 2008 at 6:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Sure Pat!! The Democrats are a quarter way through their convention and have already gained a whopping minus two points in the Gallup Daily Poll. If they continue to do such a good job for the rest of the convention then Mc Cain will only have an eight point lead prior to the Republican National Convention. Keep up the good reporting Pat.
Posted by jayhawker (anonymous) on August 26, 2008 at 10:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I guess that I missed the attention that Kansas got during the speculative vice presidential candidacy of Mrs. Sebelius. Certainly, she got a lot of attention, but most of the news articles that I read about the matter focused on her personally or how she had traveled to other states (Ohio, Michigan and Iowa) campaigning for Obama. In fact, any reference to Kansas was in a somewhat negative light (Mrs. Sebelius was able to win in spite of being from Kansas). Now that the east and left coast liberals have forgotten that they ever knew her, perhaps she will pay heed to Kansas governing, maybe even resuscitating two of the casualties of her flirtation with high national office, the badly needed coal fired electrical generation plants. Three stabs of a veto pen bloodied them good, but for the sake of future generations, maybe the wounds, though deep, were not mortal.
Post a comment
We allow registered users to post comments on this Web site. Our goal with this feature is to encourage thoughtful discussions about the news stories. Using the comment feature to make random attacks on people is not acceptable. Emporiagazette.com neither endorses nor guarantees the accuracy of any user contribution. Responsibility for what is posted or contributed to this site is the sole responsibility of each user. To learn more about our posting policies please read our User Poster Agreement Policy.
(Requires free registration.)