Denver Diary: Day 3
Such sweet folksy music is present in the ritual of the roll-call, when the different states that make up the United States of America address the Chair and offer their electoral votes to each nominee. “Madam Secretary, Maine, the sun comes out in Maine the first in the nation….”
“Illinois, home of Abraham Lincoln.” “Missisipi, home of the blues.” “New Orleans, home of gumbo.”
Each invocation loudly offers the electoral vote-count (“15 votes for Senator Clinton, and 55 votes for the next President of the United States, Barack Obama”) as a proud, hospitable act. But the bland and cheerful tribute to homeliness barely hides the battles over political real-estate that have preceded this glorious moment.
And today, in the afternoon, when the roll call started inside Pepsi Center, the tension was palpable. It dissipated amidst cheers when the delegates from Arkansas, in a spirit of unity, cast all their Clinton votes in favour of Obama. Later, New Mexico yielded their votes to Illinois, and Illinois yielded, in turn, to the state of New York. And amidst the mystery of this procedure, Hillary Clinton appeared, electrifying the crowd. Or perhaps more than her, it was her act, asserting unity, soothing fears and jangled nerves.
Any event that catches the imagination of the audience is as welcome as a drink during a dry month. But such moments are rare. The floor of the convention is always chaotic, full of people talking to each other or posing for pictures.
The speakers that the viewers at home see on their television are usually addressing only the camera. The viewer at home is saved from the tedium of dead speeches and a circus of self-commemoration—a delegate having a photograph taken with a celebrity like Charles Barkley, or dancing in the aisle with an outrageous hat on the head till the cameraman from NBC looks her way.
But why do I mock? Maybe this is the essence of democracy: every person’s shot at fame comes from the fair opportunity to appear on television.
In this wasteland of the television dream, it is wonderful to find someone like eighteen-year-old Ravi Mulani who has been blogging about the convention for sepiamutiny.com. Mulani read Barack Obama’s memoir, Dreams From My Father, and was struck by its honesty. It gave him a model. “It’s in the teenager’s interest to be painfully honest,” he said.
Mulami was born in Danbury to parents who had migrated from Mumbai, and he grew up in the city of Chicago where Obama had found his purpose. Mulani persuaded all his friends to read the book. He told me, “Barack Obama doubled our debate team.” Later, Mulani went to Washington D.C. to compete in debates, and, because Illinois Senators have a tradition of having breakfast on Thursdays with their constituents, he visited with the young Senator several times.
In the fall, Mulani is going to join Harvard and work on a degree in applied mathematics. When I asked him to tell me about his experience here in Denver, Mulani noted how much more diverse the attendance at the event was. He said, “Whether the country is ready for Barack or not, this convention is showing how rapidly this country is changing. This country has had this feel for a long time, but this is the first time that a convention is showing this reality.”
The 2008 Democratic convention has the largest number of black delegates in history, as well as Asian Americans, and also gays and lesbians. Mulani didn’t say this to me, but wouldn’t it also be a first of a sort that he is here, barely out of high school, reporting on the activism of South Asians?
While I have been writing these lines, dear reader, on the stage to my left, there had been a string of command performances by John Kerry, a very smooth and unambiguous Bill Clinton, and, finally, Joe Biden. Ravi Mulani’s senior colleague from sepiamutiny.com, Abhi Tripathi, is also attending the convention. On the day following Obama’s choice of his vice-presidential running mate, Tripathi had pointed out that that Biden’s expertise on Pakistan was a great strength. For years, Biden has been arguing that Pakistan, and not Iraq, is the seat of terror. The choice of this man meant that one could hope for a better-informed war against terrorism.
There was a surprise appearance, at the evening’s end, by Obama. Tomorrow, he delivers his acceptance speech. While talking to young Mulani, I asked if he had any tips for Obama. Mulani was confident about tomorrow but it was the future he was a bit worried about. He said, “Obama is an excellent speaker, but as a debater he needs to provide a few more catchy sound bites.”
My third dispatch for the Indian Express.
