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On Democrats' Stage

Posted on: Wednesday, 27 August 2008, 06:00 CDT

Neither family wanted it this way, neither the Kennedys nor the Clintons. But the opening of the Democratic convention brought a stark contrast: a bittersweet public celebration of the life of Senator Edward Kennedy, who is suffering from brain cancer, and an embittered private drama about the terms on which the Clintons would yield the party to Senator Barack Obama.

Kennedy, who endorsed Obama in January, had hoped to lead a hearty, full-throated night of anointing the next generation. Instead, the tribute to him took on the weight of a farewell to the last of the storied Kennedy brothers, with an intensity that rivaled the excitement around Michelle Obama's speech about the Democrats' next standard-bearer, her husband.

As one political dynasty celebrated its legacy and ceded the political stage Monday night, the other dominant family of the Democratic Party struggled to protect its legacy and accept its own exit from the spotlight. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Clinton had once hoped this convention would be theirs, an exultation of past and future Clinton White Houses. Instead, they were coming face to face with shrunken, supporting roles.

Still, for many of the female delegates and party activists in Denver, and for many women watching nationwide, the convention's high point was expected to be Clinton's valedictory Tuesday night, not Obama's acceptance speech Thursday. What she would say then to promote her onetime rival was expected to tell a lot about Democrats' ability to unite for victory in November against Senator John McCain, who is to be nominated officially next week by his Republican Party in St. Paul, Minnesota.

By Wednesday, advisers say, she will have released her delegates to vote for Obama. But many will stick with her to make a symbolic statement. Clinton supporters said she would give a full-throated endorsement of Obama and note that the differences between them were minor compared with those with McCain and the Republicans.

But there were plans for a march Tuesday sponsored by the pro- Clinton "18 Million Voices" group, named for her national vote total in the nomination race. And Republicans had a war room in Denver to exploit the divide, with a McCain adviser, Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief, seeking to meet with Clinton delegates.

Frustrations abounded for Hillary Clinton: At a breakfast with New York Democrats on Monday, she was forced to rebut a new television advertisement for McCain that used her past attacks against Obama. And she faced questions about comments from friends that Bill Clinton was still aggrieved from the bruising primary battle and was unhappy about his speaking assignment at the convention.

At one point, she told aides that the Obama campaign could end the bad blood with her husband by simply acknowledging his policy accomplishments and efforts at racial reconciliation in the 1990s.

As one Clinton fund-raiser put it in an interview Monday, "Hillary often says that Bill isn't a complicated person - the Obama people don't have to do much to make peace with him."

If the Obamas see soul mates among the Kennedys, they see the Clintons as, if not spoilers, then at heart a more complicated and tactical family.

The same could be said of the Kennedy-Clinton relationship. At the 1992 convention where Bill Clinton was nominated, his biographical film used the grainy footage of his meeting President John F. Kennedy at the White House as a teenager in 1963 to try to establish a natural progression. The two families became friendly, but their bond was ruptured, badly, when Edward Kennedy endorsed Obama in January. The politics of Democratic torch-passing turned pained and personal.

The Kennedys offered a fuller embrace to the Obamas than they ever gave the Clintons; Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the John F. Kennedy, even signed on in a substantive role, helping Obama select his running mate, Senator Joseph Biden Jr.

Critics of the Clintons have accused them of selfishness.

But it is a fact that millions of Americans voted for Clinton this year, and that Obama did, at times, minimize the successes of the Clinton administration. And Bill Clinton believes, viscerally, that the Obama camp framed him as a race-baiter, friends say. At the same time, even campaign advisers to Hillary Clinton admit that her husband was blustery and offensive about Obama at times.

Robert Shrum, a longtime adviser to Edward Kennedy, said that just as Clinton's ascent in 1992 marked a generational shift in the party, Obama's rise was another watershed moment that resonated in different ways for many Democrats.

"Kennedy's embrace of Obama was in part about seeing personal qualities in Obama that he saw in his brothers," Shrum said. "For the Clintons, who were in and out of power much more recently, it is more complicated. The Democrats will have a new leader in November, and President Clinton and Hillary are still coming to terms with that."

For their part, the Clintons have declined interview requests in recent days. Obama, campaigning in Iowa on Monday, said he had told Bill Clinton that he could say whatever he liked at the convention. He said he had no doubts the former first couple had embraced his candidacy.

"There are going to be some of Senator Clinton's supporters who we're going to have to work hard to persuade to come on board - that's not surprising," Obama said. "But if you take a look this week, I am absolutely convinced that both Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton understand the stakes."

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

Source: International Herald Tribune

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