Charlottesville, a growing east coast city, named after the wife of King George III, is probably too small to host a US convention (hotels up to 50 miles away were required to accommodate delegates), but in such a tight race it is capital to one of seven battleground states and with 15 points (helping secure a target of 270) up for grabs, worth a visit by the Democrat Convention bandwagon.
And what a bandwagon it is. Take a British conference multiply and merge it with our Olympic closing ceremony and you start to appreciate what this $50m carnival looks like. The entire town centre, pedestrianised for the week, turned into a blur of media camps, delegate festivities and fringe parties - all stealthily protected by 4,000 police and secret service. One senators’ fund raiser I bluffed my way into charged $5,000 a table. In the convention centre itself, there were as many performances by A list celebs as there were by A list politicians.
Glamour and the glitz aside this Convention was a tale of three speeches, the passionate one from Michelle, the barnstormer from Bill and the plea from Barack.
Day One and Michelle Obama delighted the convention with an impressive, passionate and personal speech on her life with Obama, setting a trend followed by other speakers in reminding all of their early days and struggle to survive (before making it big) as a way of relating to the pain presently experienced by middle America.
Day Two and up steps Bill, the 42nd US President, performing a delicate dance of helping rather than overshadowing the 44th US President. How the memory fades with time. When he departed office, Clinton's approval ratings were 39% today they sore in the high sixties. Time has also allowed bygones to be forgotten; the two men had a strained relationship during Obama’s nomination battle with Hillary. Bill is the master of making the complicated sound simple and was the first Democrat to articulate a response to the Republicans’ fundamental question ‘Are you better off now than four years ago?’
Basking in his party’s adulation, he over ran his 3100 word speech by an additional 2700 words, which delighted the audience but left an anxious teleprompter scrolling up and down, not sure when his reader would return to the script.
With Michelle speaking from the heart, Bill from the head, it was now left for the President, on the final night, to speak from the gut – and convince America why he deserved another four years. Older, wiser and definitely greyer, Obamacut a sadder yet solicitous figure, compared with four years ago. For a speaker whose instinct was to soar to the rhetorical heights, this was a measured more sedate performance, the innocence and exuberance of yesteryear tempered by four years of political trench warfare. It was not his best performance, but just a ‘good’ Obama is usually everyone else’s ‘best’.
The quote of the convention must go to Senator John Kerry who said “Ask Bin Laden if he is better off now than four years ago” and the speech of the convention must go to former Michigan Governor Jenifer Ganholm which has to be YouTubed to be believed. She ratcheted herself and the stadium into such an animated frenzy I thought both were going to pop.
Charlottesville will now return to normal, the delegates will disperse, the roads will re-open and the bunting packed away. Only on November 6th will the Democrats see if they’ve wooed the local vote and secure those 15 points. Of course the Convention had two other objectives: firstly firing up its base and secondly enticing the floating voter. It certainly achieved the former, but the latter may have to wait until October 3rd when the first Presidential debate takes place.