Saturday, August 09, 2008

Bill Clinton's Democratic Convention Speech To Take Place On Wednesday Night

Tom Raum and Nedra Pickler, HuffingtonPost.com: Former President Clinton will have a role at the Democratic convention in Denver later this month.
Democratic officials said Thursday that Clinton will give a speech on the third night of the convention, before an address by the as-yet-to-be-named running mate for Barack Obama, the party's likely presidential nominee. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity before the details were formally announced.
Exactly what role the former president would play at the gathering Aug. 25-28 has been the subject of speculation since his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, ended her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in early June and endorsed Obama. ...
LSB: Obama has given prime-time coverage at the convention to both Bill and Hillary. I get it - he's a former President and still a rock star in some circles, she captured a lot of primary voters and needs her to continue campaigning for him, and the Obama folks don't want to piss them off any more than necessary. But Hillary is still out big bucks (will we hear a plea for funding - "hillaryclinton dot com"), and Bill is still angry about losing "his" second run at the White House and about losing his mantle as the First Black President after some of his primary comments. Obama had better be careful, because the Clintons are not political neophytes and they will easily steal his thunder at the convention. And there damn well better be a plan in place to kill Bill's mic if he gets long-winded. We don't need a repeat of the 1988 convention where Bill's nominating speech (which was really all about him) for Dukakis bumped the next speaker out of prime time. Why weren't they on the same night - call it the Clinton Lovefest - and let them duke it out among themselves if sombody gets bumped from prime time?

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