The search for the perfect postcard

A request from a good friend of the Irish Echo in New York was passed on to me just before I left for the DNC. He’s a collector of sorts, I guess, for he has a political postcard sent from the Denver convention in 1908, which was the last time the Democrats met there. So naturally, he wanted one sent from the 2008 gathering, too. And I brought the appropriate stamp and began my search the day I arrived.

If election ephemera is your thing, you didn’t have to look too hard for some this past week. Most of it was focused on the Democratic nominee. One of our group said that the Colorado capital had turned into “Obama city.”

For example, a spectacular array of posters, buttons, t-shirts and just about everything else awaited the thousands who poured into the Denver dark each night after the speeches. One seller pushed his specialty item shouting: “Obama watch – Time for change.”

One of the most popular buttons of the week, however, doesn’t mention him, but instead references a gaffe made by his opponent: “Ask me how many houses I own,” it says.

Anyway, I also checked out the 16th Street Mall, a pedestrian street with lots of stalls with Obama and political material. Someone recommended Where the Buffalo Roam, a trendy store (one of a small chain) selling political t-shirts, buttons and posters, again with an Obama emphasis. Barnes & Noble didn’t have much 2008 election material, though I bought a postcard of Bobby Kennedy campaigning for Gov. Pat Brown in California in 1966.

I asked people at the DNC’s own store, which was selling Obama/Biden t-shirts the day after the running mate’s name was announced. But there were no 2008 postcards there or at any of the above-mentioned places, or at any of the stalls relating to the convention, including those promoting the city and state, set up at the Sheraton Hotel. I also went to www.democraticstuff.com where a search for postcards yielded no results.

One of the store employees I consulted said it would be “so cool” to have postcards from both the 1908 and 2008 conventions, and that was the general attitude of all of those I approached. They were sympathetic, but we couldn’t get around the fact that apparently it had occurred to no one to produce a card to mark this year’s event. (I say "apparently" because I can't, of course, say definitely that one doesn't exist.)

And I’m sorry I couldn’t oblige, though I do have lots of interesting stuff mentioning Denver and the Democratic National Convention 2008, which hopefully will be some compensation for our collector.

[Photo: Lynda Clarke and Nancy Touchette traveled from Maryland to the convention.]

A Wednesday night to remember

Wednesday night at the Pepsi center was brilliantly choreographed and was far by the most dramatic of the week to date. A journalist sitting behind me said of Bill Clinton before his speech: “He’s got to say that he [Barack Obama] is ready from day one.” It was felt by some that when making the speech of her life, that Hillary Clinton didn’t make a strong enough case for the presumptive Democratic nominee. In a CNN interview afterwards, a female African-American delegate and Hillary diehard said that there was no way she was voting for John McCain. But she still had a distance to go over the next two months with regard to Obama. Experience was the issue she cited. She said she’s always been the one to make the calls to get people out. But the positions were apparently reversed -- now they’ll have to call her.

Her view was by that point very much a minority one within Democratic ranks. Still, one could only wonder about white Hillary supporters in Ohio or Virginia or Pennsylvania. So, the former candidate's speech didn’t fully dispel the uneasiness. In fact its very success was part of the problem. And certain elements seized on that. One media outlet even interviewed a body-language expert who said that despite her happy tangerine pantsuit, the New York senator was angry.

In the lead-up to the convention there was talk that Hillary had moved on, but that Bill was said to be still absolutely seething. The critics talked about the Clintons’ constant psychodrama and how it was hijacking the entire proceedings.. It didn’t seem a good sign that Obama aides weren’t allowed input into the former president’s speech. There was better news, however, when the delegates were released and Obama was formally nominated unanimously on Wednesday afternoon. He officially became the first African-American to run on a major party ticket. Then William Jefferson Clinton --uncharacteristically on time at 7 p.m. -- emerged to ecstatic, prolonged ovation. When the speech was over, another journalist said. “That was a home run.” There was no wiggle room. Obama and his aides could not have asked for more.

Clinton used the home-run analogy himself when he said that Obama’s veep pick “was out of the park.” It turned out that it was Kerry and not Biden who chewed on McCain “like a dog with a bone” (see Celtic Tavern post for reference). When our group surveyed the night’s proceedings afterwards, a majority thought overall that Biden did very well. (One who didn’t felt that Kerry was great -- so perhaps, the veteran senators were playing good cop/bad cop on their old friend from the Republican Party.)

A big moment came when the new vice-presidential nominee introduced his mother. And Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden clearly enjoyed her moment in the spotlight [I hope to return to the Finnegan angle in a post soon].

And then Obama’s unscheduled appearance electrified the hall. It trumped the extraordinary reception given to Clinton earlier. It put an end to talk about a divided convention and psychodramas. As Ted Kennedy had said earlier in the week, the torch had again been passed on to a new generation.

Carol Wheeler, Obama liaison, reports enthusiasm

The happy party atmosphere at the Irish American Democrats event in Denver Tuesday night speaks volumes, according to Carol Wheeler, who earlier this summer was appointed as Barack Obama’s liaison with the Irish community.

“I’ve been truly encouraged by the excitement in the Irish-American community for Obama,” she said.

When people are asked if they want to help the campaign, she reports, they volunteer before the questioner even finishes their sentence.

Some of them, particularly those in the battleground states, want to express enthusiasm for the 2008 Democratic ticket via their Irish-American identity

“That’s not to say we don’t have a lot of work to do,” Wheeler added.

“A lot of people are taking a look at Barack Obama and trying to figure who this guy is,” she said. Some in that category will likely be “more comfortable” with Joe Biden. “They can relate intuitively to him,” she said. But with Obama/Biden as a package, some of that can rub off on the younger man. And then, she added, voters will see that their stories and their values are in fact remarkably similar.

“Personally I’m thrilled,” Wheeler said about the Biden choice. And from everything she’s heard on the ground in Denver, that’s the general feeling.

[PHOTO BY KA CHAN: From left, Irish Labor Party leader Eamon Gilmore T.D., the Irish Echo's Peter McDermott, and Antoine Faisal, the publisher of Aramica, a New York-based paper, pictured at the Irish American Democrats event in Denver.]

Democratic Convention opens in Denver

Denver -- The Democratic National Convention has returned to Denver after 100 years, but this time the whole world is watching.

Just about all of those attending are agreed that the stakes are much greater in this election year than they were in 1908. Certainly the numbers involved at the convention are considerably greater.

Fifteen thousand local, national and international members of the media are attending; 26,000 local volunteers are helping with convention events; 4,500 delegates are participating, and for every delegate, one can factor in at least four more family members, friends and party supporters who've turned up to be part of this uniquely American spectacle.

But the most important figure is 75.000 - the number of people expected to hear Senator Barack Obama accept the Democratic nomination

on Thursday night for the presidency of the United States, thus becoming the first-ever African-American candidate for either of the major parties in the nation's history.

Meanwhile, ahead of Senator Hillary Clinton's keynote address on Tuesday evening, the New York delegation was putting its best foot forward at three packed events at Denver's Sheraton Hotel.

There was little post-primary tension evident at an early Sunday evening function held in honor of the speaker of New York State Assembly Sheldon Silver. The party atmosphere continued directly afterwards when Gov. David Paterson was in the spotlight.
The next morning Clinton herself was the guest of honor at a New York State Democratic Party breakfast, where she gave every indication that she was committed to victory in November. Before that, however, Silver kicked off the Sheraton breakfast predicting "we're are going to hear speeches [during Convention week] that will be recited for years to come.

"It's time for an extreme makeover at the White House," he added to enthusiastic applause. Then the Assembly speaker introduced the other U.S. senator for New York as a "Brooklyn boy done good."

Senator Charles Schumer said that his fellow senator led a "wonderful struggle that broke so many glass ceilings." He referred to the great racial and ethnic diversity of the New York Democratic Party and also to the fact that though the faithful was divided during the primary season, it was now united around Barack Obama. He said that Clinton was the "person who will lead the charge to take back America."

Clinton appeared finally to a rapturous reception and listed the reasons why the Republican Party should not be allowed to retain control of the White House. She then attacked the GOP ads that pitted her against Obama. She said: "I'm Hillary Clinton and I do not approve of this message."

The gathering was one of a number of events based around the convention, one of them being a reception hosted by the lobby group Irish American Demcorats.

As was the case with Clinton, another rapturous reception greeted ailing Senator Ted Kennedy when he spoke to the convention Monday night. Kennedy was introduced to the crowd waving Kennedy placards by his niece, Caroline Kennedy. In her remarks she made particular note of her uncle's efforts to end apartheid in South Africa and bring peace to Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile if the Democratic Party is using the convention to market itself, so inevitably is Denver. And two young Irish-American women raised in the Midwest and recently transplanted to the Colorado city are helping with the effort. Susan Brake promotes the Metropolitan Denver Economic Development Corporation.

The Cincinnati, Ohio, native Brake, whose family name is McGarr, relocated to the city in 2007 with her husband. She described the atmosphere in the city over recent days as "electric." Brake said that Coloradoans hoped that visitors would get a taste of the state and come back for more. One of the things that the Metropolitan Denver Economic Development Corporation wishes to promote is the city's $7 billion mass transit project, the sort of endeavor not associated with Western cities generally.

St. Paul, Minnnesota-raised Caitlin Sullivan, who works with Colorado Tourism, said that the state is ideal for those who "want to pursue an active, outdoors lifestyle." Nonetheless Sullivan added that when she and her boyfriend get married they intend to go to Ireland for their honeymoon.

[Photo: Dubliner Nuala McGovern, executive producer of WNYC's influential "The Brian Lehrer Show," with the host Brian Lehrer at Denver's Sheraton Hotel.]

Democrats and guests gather at Celtic Tavern

On the small stage at Denver’s Celtic Tavern Tuesday evening, the Irish-American Democrats’ Stella O’Leary brought on Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and AFL-CIO leader John Sweeney to rally the troops.

O’Malley, alluding to this year’s ticket, said that African-American/Irish bonds go back to the friendship between Frederick Douglass and Daniel O’Connell in the 19th century.

The evening's more formal aspects, though, were kept to a minimum, and most of the talk took place over drinks.

Fine Gael’s Nora Owen told me she thought Hillary’s speech was “stunning.” She did all she needed to do. “She can’t be blamed if the Democrats lose the election,” said the former minister for justice.

(Earlier, at the convention hall, I heard a party supporter, a 60-something white male with a pronounced Southern accent, say at the end of the speech: “That oughtta shut ‘em up.” I presumed he was referring to recalcitrant Clinton supporters. The same man said earlier: “That Biden: he’ll chew out McCain like a dog on a bone.”)

Owen, who is a grandniece of Michael Collins, was also very impressed with Michelle Obama’s speech on Monday night. “She’s a fine woman,” she said. And like most Irish and Irish-American visitors I spoke to, she regarded Ted Kennedy’s moving speech as a convention highlight.

Eamon Gilmore, the leader of the Irish Labor Party, is attending his first U.S.
political convention. He agreed that it’s a rather different experience from his party’s annual conferences back home. But if the European Union’s socialists got together, it would be an event on a similar scale. And he revealed it could happen. The socialist party leaders, who meet regularly, have discussed the possibility of a gathering of the Continent’s mainstream left.

It was love rather than politics that brought Tallaght’s Shay Dunne to Denver two decades ago. His late wife was a native Coloradan. Dunne, who learnt his hurling at home in Dublin, is active in the local GAA. He said that the NACB championships held in the city four years ago were considered one of the most successful ever. “We showed them how to do it,” Dunne said.

What Biden means by 'clean'

Joe Biden is a popular choice with the Democratic faithful, judging by brief conversations I’ve had with political figures, delegates and party supporters over the last 48 hours. A long-time Hillary supporter, Congresswoman Nydia Valezquez, told a small group of us ethnic journalists from New York, when we spotted her on Sunday night, that the Delaware senator owned just one car, which he drove himself to the only house that he owned. (Incidentally, Valezquez, who represents the Lower East Side in New York, told me that the recent saving of St. Brigid’s Church “showed that you have to keep hope alive.”)

Nancy Touchette whom I met on Monday morning with Lynda Clarke, a fellow party supporter from Maryland, said that Biden is “right for this year.”

And it’s a popular choice with the hard-nosed commentariat. On Aug. 22, before the official announcement, the New York Times’ in-house conservative columnist David Brooks (who has said some quite nice things about the presumptive Democratic nominee) said: “Barack Obama has decided upon a vice-presidential running mate. And while I don’t know who it is as I write, for the good of the country, I hope he picked Joe Biden.”

Most Democrats believe Obama has all the qualities needed in a president, but Dan Balz in the Washington Post said he has “to show he's willing to embrace some old-fashioned ideas about what it takes to win.” His choosing Joe Biden was one important sign of his pragmatism. And there may have to be others.

Interestingly, “What it Takes,” is the title of Richard Ben Cramer’s 1992 book about the 1988 presidential campaign. He followed from the very beginning six of the candidates positioning themselves to be Ronald Reagan’s successor in the White House. They were: George Bush Sr. and Bob Dole on the Republican side, and Democrats Michael Dukakis, Dick Gephardt, Gary Hart and Biden.

Cramer used various techniques of the new journalism genre then still very much in vogue, but his trademark was writing in the third person channeling the voices of his interviewees, whether the candidate himself, his managers and aides, or his close family members.

He had access, without which the project would not have been possible, and all of the profiles were to varying degrees sympathetic. But he had his favorites (for the most part here I’m relying on my memory, having read it more than 10 years ago).

From early on in their post-World War II marriage, Cramer revealed, Bush and his wife Barbara had sent out thank-you notes to people they’d met, and over the years had compiled an impressive database of names. This courtesy practiced on such a huge scale appeared coldly calculating in political terms. Hart, for his part, was regarded as a little strange by reporters and simply in the retelling it seemed he was for Cramer, too. (Actually, yesterday I met Raymond Jones, an African-American columnist here in Denver, which is Hart’s home patch, and he said that the former senator suffered from his typically western persona. “He’s a loner,” said Jones, who knows and admires him.) Dukakis came across as a control freak, and Dick Gerphardt was decent and wholesome, as well as stoical in the face of life’s challenges, all of which somehow made him rather bland.

But it’s Dole and Biden who emerged as the most human and also the most likeable of the six. The author’s connection to the pair continued after the book was published. Cramer, a liberal, wrote a glowing magazine portrait of Dole (for Rolling Stone, I think) when he was the Republican candidate in 1996. And he encouraged Biden to write his own memoir, “Promises to Keep.”

I haven’t seen “What it Takes” mentioned in the media so far, but Cramer’s book is bound to be a resource on Biden. When flipping through it before our group’s early-morning Sunday flight, I came across a snippet that said something about a recent Biden gaffe. A great deal of attention has been paid to his statement during the early primary campaign that Obama was “articulate” and “clean,” among other laudable things. You’re veering into eggshell territory when you say that someone from a traditionally oppressed group knows how to speak; however, he used the latter term about himself when he first ran for the Senate as a 29-year-old upstart in 1972 (if I’ve divined Cramer’s narrative technique correctly). And by “clean,” it’s obvious enough to me that he means “clean-cut” and thus potentially respectable, which is what Biden himself was -- even back in college he wore a jacket and tie to class -- when compared to many of his peers 36 years ago.

Hayden stays a 40 year course

Denver -- Forty years after the chaos of Chicago, Tom Hayden is attending the Democratic National Convention yet again, but this time not as a protest organizer, or as a delegate.

By Friday, Hayden will have made at least five appearances on panels at the Denver event.

"Conventions have been forced into uniformity in order to take advantage of the opportunity for free media," he said. "But on the ground, there is a huge richness of discussion, debate, protests [and] cross fertilization of movements."

Hayden was a lawmaker in the California State Assembly and State Senate in the years from 1982 to 2000, but he's still best remembered by some as one of the Chicago Seven, the group of antiwar leaders who were put on trial for conspiracy and inciting to riot before and during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Many felt that the activists, whose convictions were later overturned on appeal, were made scapegoats by a conservative establishment that was angry with the antiwar left.

Certainly the seven, who came from different parts of the movement, were unlikely conspirators, at least as a group. For example, the best known of them, Jerry Rubin and Abby Hoffman, were the co-founders of the Yippies, while Hayden was a long-time member and early president of a rather different organization, Students for a Democratic Society. He was also the author in 1962 of that group's founding manifesto, the Port Huron Statement.

Hayden told the Echo this week that his ideas have remained fundamentally the same in key respects since those years. "My thoughts are consistent with the early '60s notions of a) participatory democracy as the goal, applied to the public and private sectors, and to opening up the political process," he said, "and b) the notion that change occurs through the agency of social movements which begin on the outside but ultimately alter the mainstream."

Hayden, who was born into an Irish-American family in Detroit in 1939, said that the "Sixties" were "caused by a new generation of young people outside the institutions around the world."

He stressed that while, for instance, President John F. Kennedy's "persona and rhetoric" contributed to the sense that change was in the air, the decade's upheavals came from below.

Hayden said: "The unusual circumstance today is that the spirit and movement of youth is rising inside a context of a presidential campaign."

He believes that "the 'Obama generation' will supply the social activism in America for the coming two or three decades regardless of whether he wins or not."
Of course Hayden, an early supporter from the party's left wing, hopes that Barack Obama does win. However, he hasn't been uncritical. He was one of about 50 well-known progressives who signed a recent open letter to the Illinois senator that, while generally positive in tone, said "there have been troubling signs that you are moving away from the core commitments shared by many who have supported your campaign."

It ends with the line: "Stand firm on the principles you have so compellingly articulated, and you may succeed in bringing this country the change you've encouraged us to believe is possible."

Asked by the Echo if there have been positive changes specifically in the political process since the Chicago convention 40 years ago, Hayden said: "Yes, of course. Immediately after 1968, the Democrats changed their presidential primary system to a bottom-up model. Half the delegates were required to be women, the draft was ended, the 18-year-old vote established, etc. On a cultural level, a much greater acceptance of diversity exploded in the mainstream."

That tumultuous era has still much to teach later generations, he said.

"The key is to read the primary literature and view the countless documentaries that enable us to understand the '60s," he said.

But he said it is sometimes a big challenge putting the "'60s radicalism into an understandable context of the extremities our generation faced, like the military draft for a war that couldn't be won."

In a similar vein when asked if he'd do anything differently, Hayden replied: "You can't go back to an earlier context."

Anarchists, rioting police and an Arab-American at the Democratic Convention

I'm in Denver with a delegation from the New York Community Media Alliance. One of our number, Antoine Faisal, who is Lebanese, was on his way to an Arab-American comedy show on Monday afternoon when, near the Sheraton Hotel, he found himself in the middle of a confrontation between young anarchist protestors and riot police.
Faisal is a publisher and writer for a New York-based paper, but he originally trained as a photojournalist, and his instincts kicked in. A few minutes into the incident, he was pepper sprayed by a policeman despite saying he was press and showing his badge. He was hit in the eyes, but held onto the camera, and focused it on himself, taking pictures of his agony and of the efforts of bystanders to help him.

He shared the images with members of our group. His story will likely get some coverage as a producer for public radio and a New York Times reporter have been covering our trip.

After relaying his story in detail, and showing his dramatic pictures to us, Faisal said: "I have a surprise for you." He'd been on his way from a panel discussion and, it turned out, had inadvertently left his tape recorder on. So, he also had a dramatic audio recording of the incident.

He described himself as a person who is generally sympathetic to police but said of these officers: "They don't honor or deserve the uniform they are wearing.
"As a journalist, I was doing my job. I wasn't threatening them. I didn't cross any lines. This is why we have press credentials." .

He recalled the pain as the worst he's ever experienced, but given what has happened over the past several decades in his home city of Beirut, he said "it's nothing."

After his recovery, he went to the comedy show and took pictures there, too.


[Photo: Antoine Faisal tells his story to the New York Times and to the "Feet in 2 Worlds" radio project.]