There’s been at least some talk in recent weeks about exactly what role the Clintons would have the Democratic National Convention. Would they get snubbed? Would they feel respected? Would those who supported Hillary in the primaries feel like the Clintons had been given their due?
By all appearances, it looks like the Clintons will be up front and center in Denver.
Yes, Bill Clinton will have a role at the Democratic convention.
After a curious week of back-and-forth between the Obama and Clinton worlds, the former president was offered an invitation to speak on the second-to-last night of the party’s convention in Denver. He will take the stage on Aug. 27, three Democratic senior officials said, before the address by the party’s vice-presidential nominee.
The offer was extended by the Obama campaign on Thursday to Mr. Clinton, who accepted it.
The Democratic convention only spans four nights. Now, two of the four will feature prime-time speeches from Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. Not too shabby.
I know the media would love there to be intra-party drama here, and would gladly exaggerate any lingering ill-will between the Democratic nominee and the candidate who came in a close second, but it’s getting increasingly difficult to make the case.
Isn’t the more interesting story that John McCain has no idea what to do with George W. Bush at the Republican National Convention and that Dick Cheney might not even show up at all?
I don’t want to exaggerate the intra-party dynamic too much; there are some questions to be resolved. That said, the notion of Democrats tearing each other apart have been wildly off the mark.
The Obama and Clinton camps said this week that they agree on a central point: They would like to avoid an embarrassing display of discord from Clinton’s most ardent backers when the national convention begins in just over two weeks. Conversations about how to achieve that have increasingly focused on the question of whether Clinton’s name will be offered in a roll-call vote by delegates to determine the nominee, even though she has said she is not challenging Obama’s claim as the party’s standard-bearer.
Clinton confidante Cheryl Mills is working directly with Obama campaign manager David Plouffe to reach an accommodation, both sides confirmed. Clinton has been told that she will probably speak Tuesday night, Aug. 26, two nights before Obama’s acceptance speech, and she is working on her remarks, which will touch on her breakthrough as a woman but will be, in the words of one associate, largely “forward looking.”
It appears the lingering question is whether, and why, Hillary Clinton’s name would be submitted alongside Obama’s for a required roll-call vote. There’s been some suggestion that Clinton supporters would find this “cathartic,” though I’m not sure why. (“You worked hard during the primaries and came up short. As part of an exercise to make you feel better, we’ll have you come up short again at the convention in a choreographed defeat.”)
It’s one more detail to be worked out, but the bottom line remains the same — it’s hard to say the Clintons are being slighted if both Bill and Hillary get prime-time speaking slots.