Naomi Zeveloff's blog

Clinton at the DNC: "Barack Obama Is My Candidate"

2008-08-27T10:36:35-04:00

For all the hoopla about the sometimes-termed “embittered” New York Sen. Hillary Clinton hijacking the Democratic National Convention, the erstwhile presidential candidate embraced Barack Obama during her 25-minute speech at the Pepsi Center on Tuesday night.

“Barack Obama is my candidate,” said Clinton, to cheers. “And he must be our president.”

Clinton’s speech, coming at 8:45 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time to a packed the convention hall, was the most anticipated of the evening; media and guests spilled out into the corridors of the main arena. “Hillary” and “Obama” signs dotted the floor, while others carried “Unity” posters, a rhetorical touch in light of Clinton’s message.

“Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose. We are on the same team, and none of us can sit on the sidelines,” said Clinton.

She also indirectly appealed to her most inflexible supporters, those who say they’ll support Republican John McCain rather than see Clinton’s one-time combatant take office.

“I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him,” she said, referring to a sick soldier she had spoken of earlier in the speech — a man who had urged Clinton during her own quest to take care of his friends still in Iraq and Afghanistan before himself.

Clinton, who had been touted as a potential vice presidential pick, also praised Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, who has curried favor with some high-profile feminists for his work to stop violence against women.

But while Clinton’s prime-time speech echoed Obama’s call for change in the White House, the senator nudged the presumptive nominee to remember the work that had come before them.

Clinton highlighted the efforts of suffragettes in Seneca Falls, N.Y., who gathered in 1848 for the first convention on women’s rights in U.S. history. And she gave tribute to abolitionist Harriett Tubman, whose message to “keep going” should remind Americans that “we’re not big on quitting.” Both allusions garnered wild applause.

Clinton also honored her husband Bill Clinton’s presidency, saying, “When Barack Obama is in the White House, he’ll revitalize our economy, defend the working people of America, and meet the global challenges of our time. Democrats know how to do this. As I recall, President Clinton and the Democrats did it before. And President Obama and the Democrats will do it again.”

Though the theme of Tuesday’s convention proceedings was “Renewing America’s Promise,” Clinton spoke very broadly on ending the war, improving the economy and fixing health care, and opted mainly to plug for Obama and a new White House regime.

Even so, Clinton, 60, has an impressive history of working for middle-class Americans. Here’s a brief look at her past:

Born in Chicago, Ill, in 1947, she attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she pledged herself to the Democratic Party after a brief stint as a Republican. She later received her J.D. degree from Yale Law School and worked as a staff attorney for the Children’s Defense Fund.

In 1978, Clinton became First Lady of Arkansas when her husband was elected as the state’s governor. She solidified her reputation as an outspoken and involved First Lady, chairing the state’s Rural Health Advisory Committee as well as the Educational Standards Committee, while at the same time becoming the first woman to make full partner at the Rose Law Firm.

When Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992, Hillary Clinton spearheaded the Task Force on National Health Care Reform, which failed to instigate major policy changes. She later initiated the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, a federal project to provide underprivileged children with state health care. She launched, and won, a U.S. Senate seat in 2000, and won re-election in 2006.

Clinton announced her run for the presidency in 2007. As the first female contender to come close to securing the presidential nomination, her candidacy opened a dialogue on sexism in the media and in politics. During her campaign, Clinton focused on working families and education, calling for relief for the nation’s housing crisis and more teachers in hard-to-serve areas.

Anti-Abortion Groups Clash at DNC Protests

2008-08-25T08:00:00-04:00

Along with its grisly “truth truck,” the anti-abortion movement is bringing drama and infighting with it to the Democratic National Convention.

Two groups, both claiming the moniker “Operation Rescue,” will descend on Denver to protest Barack Obama’s pro-choice stance. Problem is, one group plans for an in-your-face rally with an illegal sit-in ending in dozens of arrests while the other group wants a peaceful, prayerful demonstration.

Operation Rescue was founded in 1986 by famed anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, known for confronting women outside abortion clinics and throwing his body in front of health centers. Terry split with Operation Rescue more than a dozen years ago and went on to run unsuccessfully for Congress and initiate a career in country singing.

In the meantime, Troy Newman, who spearheaded an Operation Rescue affiliate in San Diego, took over the national organization and moved it to Wichita. But then Terry reappeared on the anti-abortion scene, claiming that Newman had engaged in “identity theft” by registering Operation Rescue with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office in Newman’s name in 2006. Last year, Terry filed suit against Newman.

Now, both men are planning Denver protests. True to his inflammatory style, Terry met with Denver Police on Wednesday afternoon and then told reporters that members of Operation Rescue planned on staging an illegal sit-in and getting arrested.

Terry says that the group will protest on Monday and Tuesday, but will not disclose the location. “I think we will have between 10 and 30 arrested,” he says. The group will also hand out 100,000 anti-Obama brochures at Catholic, evangelical Christian and black churches that support the Senator. One brochure describes a fictitious “candidate Smith” who “shares our values” on immigration, health care and taxes, but also supports slavery.

“There is no candidate Smith who supports slavery,” reads the brochure. “But if there was, would you betray your Christian faith to vote for him — even if you agreed on all the other issues? Or would the candidate’s support of slavery automatically disqualify him from holding office?

“Now; here is a test on ethics: Which is a worse crime: slavery or murder?” the brochure continues. “How can a Christian vote for a candidate that supports the murder of children by abortion?!”

Newman shudders at Terry’s literature, and views it as an affront to the Operation Rescue name. “I thought it was so incredibly racially insensitive I just couldn’t stomach reading it. That is how appalled I was,” he says. “We denounce any form of racial insensitivity, no matter where it rears its head. It will not be tolerated within our organization or in this movement.”

On Wednesday, Newman’s group sent out a press release decrying Terry’s use of the Operation Rescue name, which read “Mr. Terry has no authority whatsoever to imply, nor speak on behalf of, Operation Rescue.”

Terry, on the other hand, says that Newman insists on using the Operation Rescue name because the public still affiliates it with himself. “The long and the short of it is that Troy is using that name because people think they are dealing with me when they see that,” he says.

Even so, Newman says that his tactics during the DNC will differ significantly from Terry’s. “We pray that we won’t be arrested,” he says, “We want to distinguish ourselves from the anarchists, the Code Pink people, the Re-create 68 people who want to create havoc and chaos and disrupt the convention. That is not our intention. We are Christians who are praying for a positive change. You don’t do that by having your end goal as an arrest.”

Newman’s Operation Rescue, as well as other anti-abortion groups, have publicized their DNC protest plans, which begin with a demonstration at a Denver Planned Parenthood on Saturday. Newman plans to pass out literature in support of the Amendment 48 November ballot initiative that seeks to proffer rights to fertilized eggs.

Asked whether Newman is concerned that some of his Operation Rescue activists will accidentally rally with Terry and get arrested, he says, “I think that is Randall’s hope. But Randall has a long history within the pro-life movement. The activist part of the pro-life community is so well networked, there is no concern on my behalf that someone is going to show up at Mr. Terry’s function and think it is ours or someone else’s.”