This is impressive , because it is all about the state of the Democratic Party. The political unpopularity of the platform as it came out of committee has appeared to be a bit of scandal in the news, but I thought that was simply because I read more right-leaning news sources than left-leaning. Then this morning I did see something about historic fact-facing of the party, that it could finally run a candidate without mentioning the “G” word as well as not mentioning Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel.
Listen, as an amendment is rammed through by Ted Strickland, no doubt with the support of the Obama campaign who had to be in a panic. The platform as it had been was not a problem at the convention; you can hear the way the vote goes. Those who know had to be aware that while those omissions might be correct for the party, they would be a big problem in the election. How would they keep the Jews, the Catholics, the evangelicals? How would they appeal to middle America?
I hope this gets wide play. It is almost fun and I can’t decide if I should be upset or delighted. I think I’ll be delighted for awhile.
Update: In the comments, I responded to djf with “now I predict there will be a story in the New Yorker or the NYT about how the president prevailed in this battle, pressing Ted Strickland to overrule his committee in this procedural way. I’ll be he did, too, but principle had nothing to do with it. He can be the hero in that narrative, standing against extremists in his party. Maybe Michelle turned up in tears? Or there were courageous phone calls made. Wanna bet?”
I am so out of date. There is a story just like that, but it is on Politico.
