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TX Dem Leaders Insist On Unity At State Convention
by Natasha Chen and David Chong
'Hope' and 'change' took a backseat to a different campaign theme this weekend at the Texas Democratic Party's state convention in Austin: 'unity.' Party heads were pushing for unity between Hillary Clinton supporters and Barack Obama boosters every chance they had, hoping to buffer any fallout from Clinton's anticipated suspension of her presidential campaign on Saturday. That's no surprise considering the Texas convention is the first major event for the Dems after Obama secured enough delegates to claim the party nomination last week.
Obama and Clinton supporters in for the convention even informally organized a 'unity pub crawl' Thursday night, where Clintonites met at Bull McCabe's Irish Bar while Obama fans partied up the street at Club de Ville. At midnight the two sides would meet and "start the unity process." But video of the peace talks between the two tribes meeting at the neutral location of the Austin bar scene shows the unity process ironically involves a lot of yelling, finger-pointing, and immature insults. All that these Jets and Sharks were missing was a Leonard Bernstein score.
[VIDEO - Unity Party]
Unity Party from Natasha Chen on Vimeo.
Though this unsanctioned attempt at reconciliation may not have been an unequivocal success, it's clear why state Democratic leaders are worried about a party schism during a year when Texas Democrats have the chance to gain the five seats needed to take back the state house. Nearly one-and-a-half million Texans voted for Clinton in the state primary in March where she defeated Obama (though the Illinois senator did win the state caucus). And Clinton supporters came out in full force at the Texas Democratic convention, a wash of Hillary t-shirts, signs, and pins that drowned out most of the Obama spangle. It was clear many Clinton supporters were far from ready for party unity. Meanwhile, Obama delegates grumbled over a perceived reluctance from Clinton to come out and fully support him immediately after the final primary on June 3rd.
These party-wide tensions were being played out on a micro level in some of the Texas senate district meetings, where delegates from the same region convened to elect state party representatives and conduct other party business.
Senate District 19 is a geographically wide area stretching from San Antonio to the edge of El Paso, and includes two-thirds of the Texas-Mexico border. Delegates from this district began their meeting sitting on opposite sides of the room based on which candidate they supported. Clinton supporters sat on the left side and almost all of them wore yellow "Hillary" shirts and matching caps. Meanwhile Obama supporters donned red and white shirts and sat on the right side of the room. It seemed only a matter of time before each side would erupt into chants of "we've got spirit, yes we do!"
Democratic voters in this district had come out in strong numbers for both Obama and Clinton this past March, mirroring the statewide results with Clinton getting a majority of the primary vote in the region and Obama winning the area caucus. But even up to a week before the event, the rival groups continuously battled over the number of delegates their respective candidates would receive and have represented at the convention.
The mounting tension in the crowded convention room seemed ready to break out into a full-on dispute as meeting heads struggled to count delegates accurately. Then leaders from both groups forced everyone to sit by county, not by the Clinton-Obama divide. Soon after Sen. Carlos Uresti, who represents this region in the Texas senate, gave his unity speech to the crowd, asking everyone to shake hands and hug the person next to them, be they a Clinton or Obama supporter.
It seemed the Democratic leadership were willing to spoon-feed unity to warring Clinton and Obama tribes for the sake of the party when all else failed.
The 'unity' plea became the theme for almost all the speeches during the evening general session as well, including Hillary's surrogate and daughter, Chelsea Clinton, who indicated in the most unambiguous terms as of yet that her mother is putting party unity first.
[VIDEO - Chelsea]
Chelsea from Natasha Chen on Vimeo.
At one point every single Texas state lawmaker came on stage to make their own unity pitch, some more creatively than others. Texas House Democratic Caucus leader and state representative Jim Dunnam memorably called for a moment of silence for former GOP politicians like Tom Delay and Dennis Hastert. Given that the total presentation dragged on for at least an hour, perhaps the Texas Democratic leadership hoped the masses could be numbed into a docile state of unity ready to vote the party line come November.
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I think the best thing for Democrats up and down the ticket is for Hillary to make herself absent until after the November election. Every time she makes an appearance it's salt in the wound. More of her supporters would do the right thing come November if her atrocious campaign could be left to recede in the American memory.
illinoisan I disagree. Sen. Clinton does not need to absent herself until after the GE. In fact, that's the worst thing she should do. Sen. Clinton needs to get some rest first and then come out and work her heart out to unify our Party and get Sen. Obama elected POTUS.
She needs to campaign AGAINST John McCain. She needs to tell her supporters that the nomination was NOT stolen from her by either the DNC or Sen. Obama. She needs to make it clear that Sen. Obama won the nomination fair and sqaure.
She needs to make it clear that while she had hoped to win the nomination, Sen. Obama will be ready on day one and that he has passed the CinC test.
Sen. Clinton needs to make sure that her supporters know that Sen. Obama is not a sexist politician and he is not a misogynist. She also has to help them to understand that in politics no candidate feels that he or she has been treated fairly by the media. Nevertheless Sen. Obama neither encouraged or condoned media sexism.
Sen. Clinton has to point out where she and Sen. Obama stand in agreement with each other on issues that affect not only women but all Americans including those who live in the Appalachian regions.
Lastly, Sen. Clinton should be accompanied by Bill and Chelsea during some of the campaign stops. If she does all of these things the Party will unify the Party before November.
True, Jezreel: Imagine how much territory could be covered in a state(s) if Obama, Michelle, Bill, Hill, and Chelsea all campaigned at once. Even better, if all of the previous Dem candidates joined them. Imagine if Elizabeth Edwards campaigned for Obama's universal health plan (hopefully, he will combine elements of his, Edwards', and Hillary's to really make it the best). McCain has NOTHING for poor and middle class citizens in his platform. Dems should sweep the board in November.
Oh, get a grip Obamabots. If the election were tomorrow, I'd leave the presidential spot blank and take my chances with McInsane and the bunch of cowards in congress until 2010 when Hilary's supporters (not drones) target them in the primaries. God I'm looking forward to that. Enjoy your victory. You guys won the battle but may end up losing the war. Typical Dem strategy. Very sad, but typical Dem.
FireThorn wrote: "If the election were tomorrow, I'd leave the presidential spot blank and take my chances with McInsane and the bunch of cowards in congress until 2010 when Hilary's supporters (not drones) target them in the primaries."
Let me get this straight. You claim to support Sen. Clinton but you would reject her sincere request to unite the Democratic Party and opt instead to vote for a misogynist who laughed when one of his supporters called Hillary a "bitch" and who said of Chelsea in February: "Why is Chelsea so ugly? Is it because her father is Janet Reno?".
And moreover, you FireThorn would rather kick Senator Clinton to the curb and vote instead for a man who is 100% opposed to all that she has stood for, for nearly 4 decades. John McCain is 100% opposed to the right of a woman to choose. He's 100% opposed to roe v wade. McCain is 100% opposed to insurance coverage for birth control.
McCain opposes universal healthcare. He opposes pulling American troops out of Iraq. He is totally against government intervention to assist homeowners entangled in the housing foreclosure debacle. In fact, his economic policy was written by Graham who bears much of the responsibility for the current housing and gas crisis.
Gee. With supporters like you FireThorn, Senator Clinton really doesn't need enemies.
ehhh...he/she/it is just a troll - they'll be eating those words when Obama wins by a landslide.
Looking forward to the creaming.
GObama!
If a supporter for Ms. Clinton votes out of spite for McCain or just doesn't vote at all, so be it. They will pay dearly if McCain wins this election. It will be four more years of Bush and company. You gotta tatke into consideration that McCain probably won't live to the end of his term and we will then have the nitwit that he picks for vice-president. It won't make any difference who it is because EVERYONE is owned by corporations, lobbyists and Murdoch.
Think about it and work to help those who are "on the fence" to see what we're up against right now. Gas in Lockhart is $4.05 a gallon. The people who have to drive into Austin are being beaten to death by this administration. Milk is almost $5.00 a gallon and good eggs are more than $3 a dozen.
What more will it take, other than the war and torture and greed and dishonesty and arrogance, to do the right thing for our party.
This nation is going to hell in a handbasket if we don't get it right this year and then it will take at least three terms to straighten out bits of the mess we're in.
VOTE FOR OBAMA........I supported HIllary for a very long time and now it is time for us to do the right thing and try to heal our nation.
Hit the streets and let's get it done!
As is evidenced by the now-famous video, Hillary supporters are not noted for losing gracefully.
they should have left the booze out. Would have helped more.
Sorry, one drunk Hillary supporter is representative of nothing. Perhaps it wasn't wise to mix alcohol into the "Unity" efforts?
I've been for Obama all the way, and I do think we need to give the Clintonistas some time and space. It's been a long, hard road. I don't understand them, but I can feel for them.
Come on Texas. Show the rest of the country what being big is about. Let's unite now and crush McBush this fall.
From the state that gave us Bush....
The best news for Texas Democrats is Phil Gramm's role in McCain's campaign. No one will vote for McCain if Gramm is part of the package. He is disliked by both Dems and Republicans due to the Enron mess and the foreclosure mess...
What a mess and if we want to win back the white house we had better stop fighting
each other and start fighting McBush.
Knowing what I know about Texas (I live here) the Hillary faction was probably heavily subsidized by the GOP here to go and make trouble at the convention.
I believe those were Republicans in Hillary clothing!
True Democrats are smarter than that. The problem is Hillary's camp was infiltrated by Republicans months ago, and they knew it not. Probably 1.5 million of her 17.5 million were Republicans! And now they are hell bent on causing nothing but trouble.
Yes, there was "infiltration by Republicans" but not as much as people are being led to believe, with comments such as yours.
Your insults are what keep Senator Clinton voters away. We were too stupid to vote for her. Thats a way towards party unity
Holy moly. A Clinton-Obama unity pub crawl in Texas. There's a premise for a movie if ever I heard one.
Get Richard Linklater on the phone - this could be his Slacker II.
I wonder who thought it was a good idea to separate people into the two camps, liquor them up and get them talking to those of like mind until they are really worked up, and then to meet in the middle? I have to think that was a closet GOP person.
Must people are very aware who created a man or mouse like GWB..His parents they told this half brain nit-wit that they would buy him anything he couldn't achieve on his own....Thus here we stand at the crossroads
Fashion is not one of strong virtues. Our shopping is done at Wal Marts and Flea Markets. Yaaaahoooo.
I beg to differ texastornado. My shopping is not done at WAL-MARTS as you put it. I am a Texan and I am very fashionable .
I beg to differ with your comment about Texans shopping at Wal Marts as you put it. I am very fashion conscientous and I am a TEXAN.
Yep Texas is a very strange place. It spawned the likes of "frog blowing bush", convict Tom Delay, gluttonous rabid Hagee and thousands of rowdy yahoos. Looks like the Texas education system left all children behind. God bless Amerka.
Texas also produced LBJ, Barbara Jordon, Ann Richards, Molly Ivins to name a few..
YEP. Let's riot and burn down our own neighborhoods!
That makes a lot of sense. I can't believe that any Democrat would even think of not voting for Obama simply because their candidate lost.
A question to any Clinton supporter who is thinking or ahs alrady made up his/hermind not to vote for Obama:
1. Do you think that Obama will LOSE much if he loses the election?
2. Just how does Obama losing make YOUR life better?
3. Do you really think McCain will fight for the things Clinton holds dear to her heart?
If after you've answered those questions, and others like them, you still want to vote for McCain or stay home, then go ahead. Otherwise, suck it up, Other candidates have lost elections before and I am sure others will.
But the metrics of what constitutes a Democratic victory in the fall are A) Winning the popular vote B) Wining the Democratic strongholds and C) Wining in enough states to garner 270 electoral votes. By all these metrics Hillary won. Why should I be bitter?
D) Winning the larges number of Delegates - That was the contest
* Popular vote only if you add in Michigan and he wasn't on the Ballot.
Operation Chaos was a factor in many contest after the Republican nominee had been selected. Hillary garnered a lot of votes from people who had attentions on voting for her in the General.
This isn't about HIM. It isn't that we have something against HIM, because we don't. What we didn't like and don't care to "get over" is the way we were treated by SUPPORTERS and THE MEDIA. R-E-S-P-E-C-T, that's all.
1. Yes, I like that Obama will lose much if he loses the election. People will be talking about what he could have done differently, like making it about US instead of THEM.
2. It doesn't make my life better. How does his winning make my life better? The important thing is Congress, without that, it doesn't matter who is president.
3. No, I don't think McCain will fight for the things Clinton holds dear to her heart. I'm not going to vote for him, but I may not vote for Obama, either.
So you might not vote for Obama because you don't like his supporters and the media?
THINK VETO
THINK Supreme Court Justice Appointees.
THINK War ON Iran
THINK Vice President Lieberman
THINK Executive Statements on Congressional Bills
THINK Karl Rove Political Advice
THINK
just
THINK
Spite Is Very Unfashinable After Labor Day
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Posted June 7, 2008 | 10:31 AM (EST)