The Hillary Pod

by Ian M Fried :: Filed Under Elections 2008 :: August 27th, 2008 @ 2:09 pm EST

As I was on the floor of the Democratic Convention last night sitting with the DC delegation (more on that later), I was looking for the Hillary dissenters that the media have analyzed in great depth as Gregg has posted about earlier. With Hillary speaking before the convention I was sure that the media’s description of a divided convention would be on full display. Yet as she gave a graceful, strong speech in support of Obama (or possibly more a speech against a McCain presidency), the sea of delegates, guests and hangers-on like myself embraced the unity message.

Looking around the convention floor before her speech, I saw a lot of Hillary delegates wearing her campaign buttons, but many of them also wore one that said “Hillary is for Barack Obama, and So am I.” Many wore their Hillary for President buttons next to a variety of Obama buttons, so for the most Hillary supporters, lastnight was their way of saluting her and then going on to the next phase of the race for November.

I did, however, find one pod of Hillary supporters in one of the state delegations that insisted on holding up “Hillary for President” signs throughout the evening, and chanting her name rather than Obama’s. Now I would have expected such behavior out of the New York delegation, and there it would have actually been understandable — but this pod was actually in the Texas delegation. Now most of the Texas delegates were full-throated in their support for Obama, and this was at the most 10% of the delegation, but it was interesting to see their stubbornness in the sea of Obama-mania.

The convention planners did well last night to distribute thousands of white “Hillary” signs that looked nothing like her own campaign logo. It was a wise way of saluting Hillary without conflicting the purpose of the event itself. However the Texas Hillary pod continued to hold up their campaign signs, and when Hillary asked the convention “Who do we need to be President?” they seemed to be shouting out “Hillary!” Tall, blue signs with “Obama” or “Hillary” on one side, and “Unity” on the other, were distributed throughout the arena, about 5 minutes into Hillary’s speech. As her speech went on, the sea of cardboard mixed these unity signs with various Obama placards and those white Hillary signs, which were understandably most prevalent in the New York delegation. But the Texas Hillary pod was persistent, though their own material was bloked out by the 90% of the Texas delegation that was with the program.

After Clinton’s speech, I saw CNN reporter Suzanne Malveaux interviewing one Hillary delegate, an African American woman from Washington State, who still could not commit yet to Obama. The news networks are always going to look for conflict, and in a Hall filled with what must have been over 40,000 people they will be able to to find that story of conflict. (I am curious to see how they will cover Ron Paul delegates in St. Paul next week). But if the heart of the “Hillary or Nobody” movement is in Texas, a state that Barack Obama will not win, then I think they will not have much of an impact on the national election.