Convention Day 2

Maya, Dennis and Hillary

For Democrats Abroad, the day began with a breakfast presentation by Maya Soetero-Ng, who is Obama’s half-sister. Like Obama, Maya speaks with great charm and intelligence. It’s a real pleasure to listen to her.

Both Maya and Barack have multi-cultural backgrounds. (Maya’s father was Indonesian). How odd that Obama, with an international background, has been accused of lacking “foreign policy” knowledge. Nonsense! He (and Maya) have a deep understanding of this multicultural world that we live in.

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At the Convention

The burning question for weeks has been: Will Hillary and her people support Obama? It’s important that they do, if we are to win this election.

Today she made it magnificently clear that she does and she will.

First, Hillary visited the Democratic pro-choice women’s group Emily’s List together with Michelle Obama. I wasn’t there, but I hear they made a great team, and it was abundantly clear that Hillary will work hard to be sure Obama is elected. He has her full support. There were smiles all around.

At the Convention, a series of speeches built up to Hillary’s own speech, the highlight of the evening.

For me, the pre-Hillary topper was Dennis Kucinich. See it if you can. His energetic presentation was based on three simple words: WAKE UP, AMERICA! – Wake up to the great damage the Bush Administration is doing to our economy, to the lack of health care for many, to growing income disparities, by creating reliance in foreign oil, and burgeoning debt, etc. An electric speech!

Elizabeth Kucinich, who is English, is a friend of Democrats Abroad and spent time with us during our meeting in Heidelberg. She was happy to see us again in Denver.

The theme of the evening was economic, entitled Renewing America’s Promise. It focused on the suffering of working people under Bush, and the need to rebuild America’s middle class, a term which stretches to include the working poor.

Speakers included eight state governors, two US senators, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, as well as AFL-CIO President John Sweeny ad the President of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards.

I like that we are not shying away from our values. The speeches made that clear. We are not afraid of being labeled “liberal”. This time, we are not letting the opposition determine our agenda. We are on “the attack”, as they say.

But we are only attacking on substantive issues. We are not making personal attacks (unlike the Republicans). In fact, at one point Hillary Clinton said that “John McCain is my friend and colleague, who has served honorably as a Senator for many years”.

We oppose McCain because his policies are wrong, are nothing more than a continuation of the destructive Bush years. But our side treats the opposition with respect.

Of course, Hillary’s speech was the high point of the evening. Introduced by daughter Chelsea, Hillary got a five-minute standing ovation when she entered. The profound love, respect, and gratitude that she engenders were palpable.

Hillary’s speech was close to perfect. Her work to advance the rights of women was a recurrent theme. She stated the values that propelled her work, and said that she supports Barack Obama because those values are his, as well. She gave him, Joe Biden, and Michelle Obama unqualified support. She was intelligent, gracious, and grateful for the support that is around her. You can read the speech online at www.nytimes.com. It’s beautiful.

The press was everywhere, looking for signs of conflict or harmony between Obama and Clinton. WABC TV, the New York City affiliate, wanted one of us to give live comments on Hillary’s speech.

CNN’s Jonathan Mann (a very nice guy) interviewed several of us, and said he wanted to report on Democrats Abroad as a matter of public service.

Just like yesterday, when CNN caught me dancing, today Fox TV caught me studying my palm. I got emails and calls from friends in New York about it.

Bob

Where on earth will you vote? See www.votefromabroad.org