Politics

Amy Pearl Parodi's Web Site

Below are some thoughts on the 2004 and 2008 US Presidential Elections

I admire Ann Lewis. Who doesn't?

Notes from 2008 Democratic National Convention

Link for Wednesday and Thursday’s photos: http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?collid=437931058605&UV=891644291722_726169948605

Thursday at the Convention

Getting the roll call story

            Having missed the entire roll call, including Hillary’s apparent dramatic appeal to nominate Barack by acclamation, I got some of the scoop at breakfast. I also heard conflicting stories about the accuracy of the roll call on the floor and the floor roll call vs the roll call that will be recorded. I hope someone independent investigates and reports on this. I do know of at least one CA HRC delegate who cast their first vote for Obama.

Mayors at breakfast

            Breakfast speakers featured LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Villaraigosa) and SF mayor Gavin Newsom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Newsom). Both were treated like rock stars (people rushing up to take their picture, being interviewed by the press afterward). Both are considered possibilities to run for CA governor in 2010 against my guy Lt. Gov. John Garamendi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Garamendi). FWIW, of the three only Garamendi is still married to his first wife!

Crashing large donors lunch

I semi-unintentionally crashed the large donors lunch which featured Michelle Obama and Joe Biden in a relatively small setting (several hundred people). Michelle was funny (‘tonight is Barack’s night to introduce himself to the American people. It’s hard for those of us who may be a little tired of hearing about him to believe that most people don’t know him’) and generous: ‘Hillary made my husband a better candidate, she brought issues of importance to me to the fore of the convention - women and children, and because of Senator Clinton my daughters have more opportunities and know that they can be anything.’

Biden was inspiring.

Amazing encounters

After the lunch I decided to go over to the Denver convention center to try to find the “Hillary supporter for Obama” buttons I had gotten there before but couldn’t find elsewhere. In front of the panoramic picture of the delegates, I began to talk to a Hillary supporter about our feelings and experiences at the convention. We talked about a million things. When she gave me her card, I found out why she was such a good listener: she is Carol Evans, the President of Working Mother magazine, http://www.workingmothermediainc.com/web?service=vpage/19. She was not dressed as the powerhouse that she is!

I invited Carol to go with me to the tribute to Shirley Chisholm at 2, sponsored by (among others) the Whitehouse Project (http://www.thewhitehouseproject.org/) and Mills College (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills_College). I had been invited to the event by Janet Holmgren, the President of Mills College (http://www.mills.edu/administration/presidents_office/bio.php). The event featured the 2005 documentary “Shirley Chisholm 72 - Unbought and Unbossed” http://www.chisholm72.net/about.html by filmmaker Shola Lynch (http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200502/20050204_lynch.html) Speaking were Congresswoman Yvette Clark http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvette_Clarke, who now represents Shirley Chisholm’s district and Congresswoman Barbara Lee, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Lee, who represents Oakland and Berkeley, CA.

Invesco Field

            It was something of an ordeal getting out to Invesco Field. The bus I took had to turn around because a train in its path had gone off its tracks. The bus couldn’t get near the Invesco Center, so we had to walk quite a distance anyway. Then we were shuttled into large holding areas, awaiting security screening. It was pretty creepy for this crowd-phobe. Once inside, it was a huge maze of a stadium. I wandered around looking for my friends Emy and Jim, and looking at the “chum” tables. I ran into my friend, Anne Marie, an HRC delegate from NC with whom I hoped to sit, but I never did make it onto the field (see above, Bookends).

            It was … festive in the stadium. Trying to stay in the moment without being brainwashed, I could feel the historic significance of this day. Though I had been skeptical of holding it in a stadium, I did feel it was in keeping with the Democratic ideals to open it up to many people, not just “credentialed” people. I found it mostly not too glitzy, though the Will.I.am performance of “Yes, We Can” still creeps me out, and seeing people respond to it live really creeped me out. But other than that I felt people were not Obama-zoids, but really just celebrating.

            In addition to trying to contact Emy, Jim and Anne Marie by phone, I was also trying to connect with Bailey, who had been the boss of the grassroots Superdelegates outreach program, for which I had been the N. CA. staff. I had gotten to meet her in DC when I was there in June for the Emily’s List conference. My one big regret then was never getting to meet the remarkable Jonathan Fromowitz, the Activate lifeline for all of us remote HRC phone bankers. Anyway, it was so loud in the stadium that for the second time in my life, I found myself texting to connect with people! (the other time was communicating with my daughter Loren, who had laryngitis - I couldn’t really call and ask her anything and expect her to answer!). I managed to hunt Bailey down in the popcorn line. I heard all about her new job as Director of Outreach for Women’s Voices, Women Vote, www.wvwv.org.

This is a fantastic organization whose mission is to improve unmarried women's participation in the electorate and policy process.

            By the end of the evening, by the time of Senator Obama’s speech, I was resigned. We did what we needed to do, Hillary did what she needed to do, and the Party and Convention did not what I wanted, but enough of what I needed it to do. His speech was familiar territory for me. He did a great job with it. I grew up with African American kids, and I know what this nomination means for many of them, and for all of us. I am awed that I am alive to see the historic event of a capable African American being nominated for President. Given the choices before us, I sincerely want him to win the election and to succeed. I am heartsick at our lost opportunity, and awed by the historic opportunity before us. As he spoke, I cheered with the crowd, but not with my heart. I was ready to go home.

Wednesday at the Convention

I can hardly remember Wednesday! I was exhausted, physically and emotionally after Hillary’s speech. I skipped a bunch of stuff I meant to go to. Every morning the California Delegation Breakfast (for which I had paid a sum so large that I could only justify it as a donation) was at 8 am. I paid so much for it that sleeping in was not an option. The only thing I remember from breakfast that morning was first thing running into a CA HRC delegate, who had been a “Hillary holdout.” As we hugged, I noticed that she was wearing an Obama button and I started crying. Not from being upset, but from the emotion of seeing what an impact Hillary’s speech had made. This was the day that each delegation was going to take a vote of its delegates, and then during the convention, the Chair of each delegation would report the results from the floor.

After breakfast, I went to a briefing by the DCCC (that’s the Congressional/House of Reps fundraising/organizing arm of the Party). Then I went to the Nancy Pelosi tea honoring Members of Congress. Very posh, on the top floor of the Grand Hyatt with a fabulous view, a woman singer from Broadway sang, Eva Longoria was there (with short hair as Sophia pointed out to me!), amazing desserts that I ate way too many of.

I staggered back to my room around 4pm desperate to take a nap. When I woke up, I started writing up my thoughts about Hillary’s speech (see below). After awhile I realized that I could watch the convention on CSPAN on tv. As I watched and realized I had missed the entire role call vote, I also realized that I had missed all the buses to the convention center for that night! So, I stayed in, watching the convention on TV, especially Bill Clinton and the Joe Biden festivities. Bill was great and I was especially appreciative that he didn’t even come close to eclipsing Hillary’s speech! I am an unrepentant Joe Biden fan. He is smart, cocky, irreverent, “shoots from the lip,” is somewhat impervious to political correctness. I’ve known his personal story and been impressed with him. I have been surprised that the opposition has not yet brought up the one scandalous chapter in his political career: when he was running for President in 1987 (at 45 years old!) it was claimed that he plagiarized lines from a speech of a British politician. For a bio of Joe, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden. While I kept saying that Barack would never choose Joe as VP because Delaware is too small a state and Joe would be great in the Cabinet, the choice of Joe was a significant step in my acceptance of Barack’s candidacy.

I went to bed early Wednesday night, resting up for the huge crowd at Invesco Field.

Tuesday at the Convention

Tuesday was August 26, which is annually Women’s Equality Day, the day celebrating women in the US getting the right to vote. Because of Hillary and her supporters/Obama-resisters (IMHO), the theme of women pervaded the events of the convention on Tuesday. My day began at the CA Delegation breakfast, where various (male) governors spoke, including Ted Strickland of my home state of Ohio. Strickland ran and won against Ken Blackwell, the Ohio Secretary of State who delivered Ohio for Bush in 2004. He succeeded a Republican governor who got mired (as did several other prominent Ohio Republican electeds) in a scandal. Strickland is doing a great job rebuilding OH, is well-loved and was a Hillary supporter. His speech at the breakfast was much better than at the convention the next night (he was very boring except for his line that “John McCain can’t dig our way out of this energy crisis, no matter how many of his backyards he drills in for oil!”). The new Ohio Secretary of State is also a Dem (I think her name is Jennifer Brunner??) who has cleaned up the voting machine situation there. Ohio is definitely a changing political climate, it is truly a swing state.

CA DNC Chair Art Torres celebrated Women’s Equality Day by having all the women electeds present come up to the stage, which was quite packed. LA “celebrity” feminist attorney Gloria Allred demonstrated at the breakfast, wearing a gag and holding an ERA banner, accompanied by our own Ray Penko. Gloria has been advising the Hillary delegates who had in the last month organized a petition to have Hillary’s name put into nomination. There are DNC rules about what must happen to have someone’s name put into nomination, for example there need to be a certain percentage of delegates signing the petition, with no more than some other certain percentage from any one state. Hillary’s delegates had been organizing themselves for the last two months, first struggling to find each other (neither the Party nor the Clinton campaign would help them with contact information), setting up a google group, figuring out what they might do, deciding on this petition, finding out the regulations and then with massive effort getting enough delegates to sign the petition, which had to be notarized. This was an enormous effort against big obstacles, which I am absolutely positive led to the DNC’s decision to have Hillary’s name put in nomination. The CA delegates wanted Gloria to address the breakfast and then meet to coordinate at the end of the breakfast, but Art Torres would not permit it, so she staged a protest. This is a small, but important chapter of this convention that may not be remembered in the crush of all the issues at the convention, but I am personally really proud of the delegates and volunteers who helped with this project. They helped change and mark history. See Delegate Chris Nichols’ video interview on the subject. Go Chris! http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/08/26/tnr-tv-fairbanks-ventures-into-the-quot-hillary-suite-quot.aspx

Last year my husband Skip and I went to Yellowstone in Wyoming. In the park you would encounter “traffic jams,” where a knot of cars were pulled to the side of the road, because someone had spotted some wildlife and everyone pulled over to look. Downtown Denver has a pedestrian mall on 16^th, which is heavily trafficked. It was much the same, except instead of baby moose, or grizzlies, it was Al Sharpton, or Forrest Whitaker, or Jennifer Hudson, being interviewed and stared at! There were also knots of protesters: the anti-choice people were all over, Falun Gong, “You are going to hell, blasphemer” protesters, anti-war protesters and more. I have never seen so many security people in my life: police, SWAT teams, anti-riot squads, on foot, trucks, horses, bikes and Segways!

Tuesday morning I went to the Women’s Caucus, which was an enormous gathering in a ballroom. There was a tribute to Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Ellen Malcolm of Emily’s List spoke, and there were security people all over. The Lifetime channel provided small tambourines on every seat, which people used instead of clapping, which was really cool. Then it was off to the Womencount event, put on by our own Stacy Mason and Rosemary Camposano, respectively the Executive Director and Communications Director for Womencount. Great healthy food (thank you, Susie Buell!!), tshirts, buttons and bumper stickers and about 500 people. Jehmu Greene of Womencount mc’d and was wonderful. The speakers were women running for office (former NH Governor Jeanne Shaheen running for Senate, Tracy Brooks from upstate NY running for the House, and Christine Jennings of FL running for the House). Hillary was there with Chelsea, but I left before she spoke, as I went to the Emily’s List event which was a huge, big deal.

Of course Ellen Malcolm spoke at Emily’s List. At the pre-reception she spoke of her friend Stepanie Tubbs Jones, she spoke of the pain of Hillary not getting the Presidential nomination, and she spoke of the critical importance of the Democrats getting a greater majority in the Congress, both House and Senate, as a backstop if Obama doesn’t win, or to help him if he does. Barbara Boxer spoke, and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sibelius spoke (a native of my hometown Cincinnati, she makes me feel like a real slacker! Her Dad was a great Ohio Democratic Governor when I was growing up).

There were 3,000 people at the main Emily’s List reception. They began with a video of Stephanie Tubbs Jones speaking at the Emily’s List Majority Council conference I attended in June in DC. Then Hillary came out. I had never heard such thunderous applause, and she could hardly get people to stop. It was a pre-cursor of her evening speech. People were crying. I personally was so moved, I didn’t take a single picture.

Tuesday evening at the Convention was Women’s Night. Eight of the eleven Democratic women Senators came up on stage, including Barbara Mikulski, the first Senator Emily’s List helped get elected, the first woman elected to the Senate “in her own right.” (not replacing her husband, etc). That choked me up, seeing Hillary up there as “just” a Senator. They had a bunch of Governors give speeches, both men and women governors. And then of course they closed with that unbelievable, historic, profound speech by Hillary. It did totally change the whole energy level of the convention. Up until then (including the “Keynote” speech before her by Mark Warner), the convention had been kind of desultory. People milling around, talking, but the energy wasn’t high, much less electric. But Hillary rocked the house. As I reported (and subsequently heard some contradictory and corroborating reports), around me, *everyone* was out of their minds with enthusiasm: men, women, white, black, young, old, Obama supporters, Hillary supporters. Screaming, cheering, chanting, not letting her go on, waving signs. It was like a real political rally! And when she was speaking, it was dead quiet, people were riveted. I heard from many of you the incredible impact Hillary’s speech had on you as it did on me. It is trite but true: when one door closes, another one opens, and Hillary blew through that opening with total control and power.

I sent Ann Lewis email asking who put that incredible presentation together and got this reply: “Speech team : Lissa Muscatine, Jon Lovett, young speechwriter; Jim Kennedy, has worked for HRC and WJC, now with Sony (?) And Mandy Grunwald. With lots of meetings, revisions by HRC which is why her delivery so strong even tho not finished until last minute. NOT Mark Penn who wormed his way into NYTimes story. Let's talk about next steps for Sisterhood of Traveling Pantsuits.”

I emailed Howard Dean: “Congratulations on creating the program based on hope, not fear, and celebrating HRC, and giving her, her campaign, and accomplishments full expression. It totally worked. I told you it would create more unity than trying to force unity by ignoring the divisions! I can't tell you the great things I'm hearing. Thank you for your trust and faith in HRC. Good job!” and he wrote back “I never had any doubt that Hillary would do what she did. She is a true star, putting the country ahead of her self. Something the Republicans are incapable of.”

Thoughts after HRC's historic speech 8/26/08, Democratic Convention, Denver CO

Four years ago I went to a Kerry fundraiser, where Hillary was the speaker. She was thoughtful, insightful, right-thinking and I left with a yawn about Hillary. She was kind of stiff and pedantic. Many of my friends were Hillary-lovers for years; I just didn’t get it. At the beginning of last year, as I looked at all the candidates, intellectually it became clear to me that Hillary was by far the most qualified to be president. So, since the most qualified person was a woman, why not “support” her, whatever that meant?

The more I saw or heard Hillary in the first half of last year, the more impressed I became with her depth AND breadth. Conversely, other candidates disappointed me, the more I saw them. More due to life-circumstances (not working) than huge commitment to Hillary, I became very involved in her campaign. As the campaign evolved this year, and as Barack challenged her early in the race, I watched Hillary become a better and better campaigner. I believe that the true measure of a person is not how good they are when things are going their way, but how they are when things are going badly. I admired Hillary during the Monica and impeachment debacle. How many people could go through something like that publicly and turn it into something as positive as Hillary has?

Last night I saw Hillary do this alchemy again. She took the experience of the campaign and of Barack getting the nomination, and she grew before our eyes. I really think part of her thinking is, how do I take my experience and rather than being defeated or being a victim, use it to transform myself into someone better, how do I grow from it? All this year, and culminating last night, I saw someone of tremendous talent, unbelievably again increasing the fulfillment of her god-given potential.

Being in the convention hall (again in the nosebleed seats, this time my neighbor was the Australian ambassador to the US and a congressional liaison on his staff, GREAT company!), I was blown away by what truly seemed like the *entire* audience’s response to Hillary. There were clearly Barack supporters, and in my experience, not a small percentage of his supporter have hated Hillary, cheering incredibly wildly, not just polite clapping, and not just when she was saying “that’s why we must elect Barack.” Her personal power as a human being was at a high last night. I think the audience gave her all “10s”!

After these last few months of anxious uncertainty about how the Party and the Obama campaign would “treat” Hillary, her campaign, accomplishments and her supporters up to and through the convention, it was a relief that they celebrated women on Women’s Equality Day, that they celebrated her and what she stood for, and that they acted from courage, not fear, and let her have her say. Beyond relief, it was incredibly moving to have virtually everyone there spontaneously responding as they did. It made me proud to be a Democrat, and proud of what people are capable of.

I am so personally inspired. When I think of my personal future, and the limitations I place on myself when I think about what I might accomplish (my advanced age, my diminishing memory, my introversion, whatever), I am wondering whether I should start thinking rather about how in the second half of my life can I grow myself to truly fulfill all of my god-given potential, not just the easy part of it. And how, like Hillary, might I do it in service to others, with a vision that can help and inspire?

Who says there’s no reason for political conventions anymore?PS. Good luck matching this next week Republicans!

Monday, 8/25/08, Democratic Convention, Denver CO

I’ll try to send emails about what it’s like here, but it’s a little overwhelming, lots of different experiences and feelings, even just since arriving yesterday. For context: The convention center is different than where the convention is (go figure). Meetings and events during the day are at the downtown convention center, as well as other locations around downtown (mostly). The convention itself (except for Thursday night at Invesco Field) is daily 4pm – 9pm at the Pepsi Center. Having “credentials” gets you onto the buses, through security and into the Pepsi Center, but does NOT guarantee you a seat or even access to seats inside the Pepsi Center, even if you gave thousands of dollars. Due to Lorraine’s (and Diane’s tardiness) generosity I did get access to seats tonight. I was literally in the nosebleed section and grateful to be there. I was seated next to a couple from Menlo Park who donated $50K to get their credentials that gave them those seats!

Monday at the Convention

Monday was about getting oriented to the convention: to downtown Denver and the venues, what was happening where, what credentials meant (how to get them, how to use them, what they meant). It was about running into people I knew, mostly from California: Annette, Carol(s), Dale, Edesa, Emy Erik, Holly, Jim, Julie, Lorraine, Pat(s), Sophia, Wendy and many more. John Garamendi, of whom I’m a fan, spoke at the CA delegation breakfast and I also heard him speak at a smaller gathering (thanks, Erik!) where I got to meet and talk one on one with his wife Patti about my concerns for his campaign for Governor.

I went to a reception sponsored by NOW. There were anti-choice demonstrators outside the door of the venue, with megaphones and person-size posters of aborted fetuses. It was packed. There was a tribute to MOC Stephanie Tubbs Jones of OH who died suddenly a couple weeks ago. Barbara Boxer spoke and I met and spoke with Christine Jennings, who is running for the House of Rep from FL. Because of Emily’s List I knew about Christine, how she moved up in her life from being a bank teller to owning a bank. She ran for Congress in 2006, but mysteriously several thousand votes from her hometown of Sarasota disappeared. She lost by less than 200 votes.

In the afternoon was the first trip to the Pepsi Center, where the actual convention was held. You had to have a credential to board a shuttle bus to go there. Once there, you had to go through a security check like at the airport. Then you had to walk a fair way to the center which was a mob scene. You had to figure out what your type of credential entitled you to. Some people who had given reasonably large contributions to one Democratic org or another (DCCC, DSCC, DNCC, DNC, now I kind of know the diff) got credentials that allowed them on the bus and into the Pepsi Center, but did not allow them to go into the seating areas!! I was able to go and luckily find a seat in the nosebleed section (I learned to go earlier after the first night, when finding any seat was hard by about 6pm when I got there), but my roommate wasn’t so lucky and had to keep moving around the seating areas ducking security all night! Nancy Pelosi spoke. As at the other two times I’d heard her that day, she quickly spoke about the historic nature of women at this convention, how for the first time more than 50% of the delegates were women, and what a fantastic campaign Hillary had run. The tribute to Ted Kennedy was very moving. I’ve lost a sibling and a close friend to brain cancer, and so when he came out and was such a powerful speaker, it was very moving for me.

For the last few months I’ve avoided the news coverage, and especially when it was covering Barack. I found it hard to watch him being treated and presented as the actual nominee. I decided to leave early so that I could watch Michelle’s speech from the privacy of my hotel room. I wasn’t sure how hard that might be for me emotionally, being finally, ultimately confronted with the fact of Barack’s getting the nomination. This was easier said than done. The shuttles weren’t running until after the close of the events, so I had to wander through this huge convention complex, asking people (who sometimes turned out to be Secret Service) where to find a cab. When I got one, roads were blocked off, and it took forever. When she dropped me at the Sheraton, the hotel was blocked by riot squads! I saw a few apparent protesters seated on the ground, not looking like anything that would get so many intimidating looking security people deployed. I got into a side entrance only to find out that they had shut down the elevators (I was staying on the 9^th floor) with no indication of when they would be working. I was exhausted physically and emotionally, desperate just to get to the room. I snuck into a service elevator (after being harassed by a hotel security guy) and made it back just in time to watch Michelle on TV.

How is it being here as a Hillary supporter? For me it’s mostly ok. There are obviously many Hillary delegates and supporters here, wearing plenty of Hillary chum. Some have “Hillary Supporter for Obama” buttons. I am still a Hillary supporter (wearing “I <heart> Hillary” and “Thank you Hillary” buttons). I may always think she was the better candidate. But that doesn’t mean I (and others who wear these badges) can’t support Barack.

Also, there’s more going on at the convention than the Presidential race and it is good to remember that there is more to the conversation than that. While I am not a “strong” Democrat (I have voted for Republicans in my lifetime, tho not yet for Pres), I always say (yes, I know you’re sick of this line) that I am the most conservative of my liberal (SF Bay area) friends. Still, I’m clearly a Democrat. While there are things I’m not happy about the Party, I am still currently proud of being a Dem.

Here’s where I’m personally at (today). I have appreciated the steps that the Obama campaign, Barack himself, and the Dem Party have taken. He reached out to his fundraisers to contribute to Hillary’s debt relief (I know this for a fact). His local Silicon Valley organizers reached out to Hillary’s local organizers and we held a house party; they were genuine in their sensitivity and welcome to Hillary supporters. The convention put Hillary in a primetime convention speaking slot. Local SF Bay are Barack fundraisers gave over $50K to Hillary’s debt relief. The convention is putting her name in nomination and having a role call vote. Today many if not all the speeches I heard acknowledged Hillary and her campaign and supporters in a positive way.

You could argue (and not a few of her supporters do) that they haven’t done enough and/or haven’t done this willingly. Have they done as much as I hoped for? Absolutely not. Should Hillary supporters have *expected* more? I don’t know. Have they done all of this without negotiation by Hillary and/or pressure from her delegates/supporters? Most likely not. (I’m really proud of her delegates who put together the nomination petition, that is really democracy at work). But it’s not fair to totally discount what steps have been taken, however they have come about. Is it enough for me? With the role call vote, for me it will be enough. Not as much as I wanted, but it will be enough.

For me it is coming down to the one predictable major legacy of the next president and that is the Supreme Court nominees. Not even Roe v. Wade specifically, but the SC generally. I cannot vote for what John McCain is saying he will use to guide his nominees.

It is the Hillary supporters here that are making it ok for me to be here. We talk to each other and share the difficulty. And there are many Barack supporters genuinely concerned about how can we come together? Julie, a Barack delegate from my district, told me she was really happy that they were having a role call with Hillary on the ballot, she feels Hillary’s candidacy was historic and should be acknowledged and recorded. That makes it ok. And the media, on seeing your Hillary buttons, swoop down to get you to feed the Hillary supporters are anti-Obama story line. I can’t stand being shark bait. I’m personally currently far more disgusted by the media than the Dem Party.

And when I go to the NOW event and there are screaming anti-choice protesters outside, with pictures of bloody fetuses, and they drive trucks around downtown with these pictures a story high, damning Barack Obama, it puts into perspective for me what the end game is. At Sun Microsystems (and in many other places) we used to say “Agree and commit, disagree and commit, but commit.” It meant, before the decision is made, have your say, make your stand, but after the decision is made, in order for us to make progress, commit to the decision, even if it wasn’t your say, your stand. You may not think it was the best choice, but a good decision is better than no decision. I personally don’t think Barack is the best decision, but he is a good enough decision.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Tonight, I left the convention before Michelle’s speech. I wanted to watch this from the privacy of my hotel room (which after some unbelievable trials, I did, I’ll write that in another email). So, I can guarantee that many of you will think I am not moving on fast enough and am not a good enough Dem and not seeing the big picture. And I can guarantee that there are many of you who think I am moving on way too fast, giving in to the Party that betrayed us, and not seeing the big picture. So it goes. I am looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds for us all, and this week is a huge chapter --

I’ve uploaded my pictures from Monday:

Notes from the 2004 Presidential Election

Sunday, November 7, 2004: A minority view of the election.

Some of my views are shaped by my Ohio experiences: growing up in Cincinnati, having visited quite a lot in the last year, and spending about 70 hours the week before the election at the Cincinnati Kerry campaign offices, working on the campaign. I think what I experienced in Ohio is instructive.

In the final analysis, despite all this week’s shirt tearing, blaming, and analysis, I believe the bottom line was the prediction that the race was so close that it would come down to whichever side did a better job at getting out their vote. I don’t think that Kerry was a crappy candidate, or that he ran a poor campaign, or that the Dems aren’t viewed as having “values,” or that the country is turning into a lot of reactionary, ideological, intolerant extreme Christians. Kerry was a good candidate, who ran a very strong, relatively clean campaign, who reflected the core values of the Democrats. Kerry and his organization were more motivated and organized than in 2000, and never let up, even when things looked good, even when Elizabeth Edwards was diagnosed with breast cancer.

We have to keep in mind that Kerry was running against an incumbent, wartime president, with a well-funded, strong, ruthless, *moitivated* campaign and organization that has been organizing since the 1970s, with databases and direct mail before anyone else used them. Given all those things, I think it’s impressive that Kerry’s organization made the Bush team sweat, and I saw that first-hand that last week in Cincinnati.

Southern Ohio is very conservative, much more than the rest of Ohio, and it should have been a lock for Bush. But his numbers were slipping there, and he was worried enough that he visited Cincinnati three times in the last two days of the campaign. His speech at the largest event, last Sunday, was broadcast by all three local TV stations in its entirety as “breaking news.”

The Kerry organization in Cincinnati was very good, which was impressive given how young it was, how late they got ramped up, and how little support they received from the state and national party until the last two weeks. In 2000 the vote in Hamilton County (Cincinnati) went 58% Bush, 42% Gore. This time it was 52.8% Bush, 46.7% Kerry. That means that from 2000 to 2004 the county went from a 16 percentage point difference to a 6.1 percentage difference. They more than halved the percentage difference. That is a large shift, and it reflected big changes in a very conservative community’s views about George Bush. Why was this true in Hamilton County and not true elsewhere? Voting issues aside, I can testify to the large, organized effort to GOTV, which gave this result. Some of the numbers shift was due to a GOTV effort specifically in the African American community. The percentage of African Americans who voted in Hamilton County rose 186% over 2000. That’s almost triple.

In addition, I know from direct personal knowledge that there was a lot of Republican crossover, of Republicans who voted for Bush in 2000 who voted for Kerry in 2004. Contrary to the growing view that the country has grown more conservative, and more ideologically religious, I saw the opposite in at least this one conservative community. Many Republicans are worried about the radical direction they see the Republican Party taking and about George Bush’s policies in particular, mostly on Iraq, but also on fiscal responsibility, the environment, and education. Bush’s campaign was very effective at manipulating emotion over reason, which is understandable in this time when Americans are still feeling vulnerable. I hope that the Democrats won’t ignore these lessons and just use the election loss to make their own party more extreme and ideological.

It’s the Republican crossover that makes me really worried about the reaction, much of it from Democrats, that the Democrats are not appealing to Americans. Virtually 50% of the country voted for Kerry. I’m also hearing reaction that America is becoming a “Christian” country. That is not new, it is a Christian country as any religious minority in the US will tell you. And as for the country becoming more religious, people in middle America, and even on the coasts, embrace spirituality and religion and always have to one degree or another. In times of stress, people do cling more strongly to these things for comfort. But I don’t think that much has changed since a week ago, except that a fringe part of America, the religious right/Christian evangelicals, who have been organizing since the 1970s, are having a disproportionate effect on the election because they effectively mobilized their well-organized community.

I think it would be fine for the Democrats to do some soul-searching and try to develop a more compelling vision, and more compelling candidates and leadership. But I think that the most important thing they need to do is to build on the successes of this election: much better fundraising, better databases, and coordination among the liberal affiliated organizations and organized GOTV ground efforts. The Republicans still outmatch the Democrats in all these areas, but the Democrats made great strides this election cycle. They should build on this, not start over from scratch. Resolute isn’t always bad!

The big answers to that will take some time. For now I suggest to those who are considering moving to Canada, if they want to make a real difference, how about moving to Ohio instead? Really, no place is perfect, and it’s a pretty nice place with some tremendous people.

We will survive. America will survive. It feels terrible to lose, but now we’ll see what we’re made of. And if it’s any consolation, remember, Bush gets to deal with Iraq now and get all the “credit” for it.

America (and the Democrats) can do better. Peace.

Wednesday, 11/3/04: Some thoughts the day after

Jerry Estrin motivates

One of my best and most annoying qualities is that I try to see both sides of things and to find or create a middle ground. And I believe that most people, no matter how much I disagree with them or they piss me off, are trying to be good people.

So, despite my dislike of George Bush’s administration, I had tried to keep a fair and balanced, open mind about them and the war. But last year as the war devolved and evidence emerged that we had been and were being manipulated and misled, my ideals and illusions were shattered. I began to despair. A year ago I was seriously thinking about moving to Canada, which I love, trying to convince Skip that it was a good idea (good hunting! Not many people!).

About that time I was talking about this to a colleague, Jerry Estrin, who is close to my parents’ age. We were talking about Iraq and I started talking about my shattered illusions and despair about the political situation in the US and that I was thinking of moving to Canada. Jerry, who had been warmly engaging in conversation with me, drew back. And he looked me intensely in the eye and passionately said, “You must not. You can not. You can *not* let them drive you out. You have to stay and defend your right to live here. We learned that in the McCarthy era.”

How do I express the impact that his insistence, coming from enduring a different horrible period in the US, had on me? It’s one thing to read about history like the McCarthy era, and even talk about things in its context. And it’s one thing to live through history as we are and react to it, trying to put it in context from our own lives. But our elders are *living* context. Jerry woke me up from my reactivity and made me remember that this is a great country, and that you don’t always get to have or keep great things without putting up a fight. He really was the seed of whatever political commitment I’ve had these last twelve months.

Lock Down/Aunt Alice saves the day

The weather has been spectacular here, warm, not hot, clear fall days, often even warm at night. But since I left California, the weather forecast for Election Day in Cincinnati had been rainy and cool. As the week went on, the forecast grew gloomier, predicting thunderstorms. I have been worried all last week.

Rain reduces turnout, and low turnout typically favors Republicans. Combine that with unprecedented voter registration, a long ballot, and anticipated organized Republican challenges to voters at the polls. In Ohio a voter can be challenged on the basis of citizenship, age or residence. This could all add up to a perfect storm of long, slow-moving lines to vote outside in cold, driving rain.

There was a lot of effort at Democratic headquarters to get people to go vote and vote for Kerry. I kept asking who was worrying about *keeping* people at the polls long enough to vote. My idea was to buy large quantities of cheap umbrellas to either loan out or give away. But people either thought it wouldn’t be a problem, or they couldn’t focus on it as a priority.

Sunday, as the forecast grew worse, I finally realized that if I really thought this was important I had to put it to someone who was in the position of making a decision. Despite having been working there every day for almost a week, I had no idea who was in charge. I went to Jerry Walsh Kelly and Rich Gatto (the headquarters headmaster and the political consultant running things) and put out my concerns and my idea about umbrellas. Jerry asked how much we were talking about. I told him I didn’t know, but I figured if you could get an umbrella at Walgreen’s for $5, you ought to be able to get them wholesale for $1 or less. Jerry said, find out and get back to me, and here are some contacts of people who might be able to help you.

Monday morning, in between arranging housing for out of town people, I made a million calls and found about 1,000 umbrellas for about $3 each, from two different sources. One half of them had to be ordered by 2:30 and picked up by 4:30. I went to Jerry and Rich and they gave the go-ahead. So at 2:30 I made the call. That all sounds so simple when I write it, but you have to imagine this occurring in a chaotic beehive of activity. But there was one big problem. No one at headquarters, including me, could go get them. We were locked down.

See, they knew that Ohio was a battleground they were winning, and on Sunday the Kerry Edwards campaign decided that John Edwards needed not just to come to Cincinnati, but to come down to the campaign headquarters. But no one could know, because they didn’t want a big crowd, they wanted staged “campaign headquarters” photo ops with limited people. There’s another story that ends up with me at a huge warehouse store at midnight searching for caution tape to block off the parking lot, but I’m rambling. At 12:30 pm they started kicking people out of the headquarters so Secret Service would have time to come ahead and “sweep” the building. By 2:30 no one could leave or enter the building. It was really intense. First they’d tell you, go into one office and stay there. Then they’d tell you, go back to your office and stay there. Then, everyone had to get out of the hallway (which was like a main artery for the entire place) and stay in essentially your staged place. All activity stopped. Edwards was supposed to be there at 4:00 (he showed up earlier), so I knew no one could go get the umbrellas. With the inability to leave and being seemingly arbitrarily shuttled from room to room, and all activity stopped and no one around me able to do anything, there was this terrible feeling of being trapped and helpless and I was really panicked.

What trusted and reliable person could I call to go get them? My parents can’t drive anymore. My Republican sister-in-law Carol, who was campaigning for Kerry, was working. Emily’s Mom and Dad were somewhere in the Middle East. Of course! Aunt Alice is retired and can find someone to get them for me. Fortunately she was home and she said, “I’ll get them!” So, Auntie trucks off to the warehouse and strong-arms them into giving them to her. Let her tell you, it wasn’t easy to get the warehouse to give it up. But never mind Texas, don’t mess with Alice, if you know what’s good for you! She saved the day.

The weather on Election Day started out warm and grey at 6:30 a.m. as the polls opened and I felt stupid. But within a couple hours it was raining and later in the day there was a short period of drenching rain. The umbrellas were lifesavers and genuinely convinced many people to stay long enough to vote. All due to Aunt Alice!

Thursday, 10/28/2004: Report from the Battleground

Sorry for the wide distribution. I haven’t been in touch with some of you for awhile, some of you aren’t US citizens or aren’t here, but I thought you might be interested since this election will decide the kind of world we’re all going to live in. So that brings me to writing you from here, my parents’ home in Cincinnati, Ohio.

I’m here working at Kerry campaign headquarters for the duration. I got here Monday night. After three days, I’m such an old hand that I get a permanent badge, not a sticky one! I think I’m on the volunteer management team. They don’t call it that so I’m not sure that there is such a thing, but if there is, I’m on it. In addition to doing many random things, I’m in charge of finding and arranging housing for people visiting from out of town who need a place to stay. There are a LOT of out-of-towners here, many with their own housing arrangements. There are folks from next-door Kentucky and Indiana, and other states that don’t swing, like New York and tons of people from California. There’s folks from San Leandro, Pismo Beach, Oakland, and Healdsburg. And there are a lot of out of work computer people, from California and elsewhere.

To give you an idea of the culture here, I’ll tell you about a TV ad I saw for Nick Clooney, who’s running for congress in Kentucky. Cincinnati is on the Ohio River. Northern Kentucky is just across the river, so their ads run on Cincinnati tv stations. A Republican Party attack ad against Nick Clooney states, “Nick Clooney believes religion has no place in our schools.” Not prayer. Religion. Wow, what an un-American guy! Just in case you thought the divide in America was something pundits made up.

It is really intense here. There are TONS of political tv ads, as many as 7 in a row. And people, even Democrats for Kerry, can be rude on the phone because they’re so sick of people calling them. Cincinnati is Ohio’s most conservative city and it is very divided. The more rural counties around here aren’t divided at all. Unfortunately. Gloria Steinem and Michael Moore were here yesterday, Jesse Jackson was here today, and I heard that Paul Newman would be stopping by the headquarters tomorrow. Sunday President Bush is holding a huge rally at Riverfront Stadium, with a Halloween theme. Scary. The focus now isn’t on convincing anyone, it’s on clearly identifying Kerry voters and getting them to the polls on Tuesday and making sure they get to vote and that their vote counts.

Personally, it’s a little weird for me being here. After over 20 years in California, and having not lived here since 1973, I still know more people here than in California. Relatives and family friends are either at the office, or on the housing or volunteer list, or someone knows my parents or another of my relatives. It’s like a small town in a biggish city.

All I can say is, pray. And if you decide to come out here at the last minute, we need you and I can find you a great place to stay!

Amy Pearl Parodi