Spring Break
The Daily OrangeDemocratic party finds peace at last
By Kevin Eggleston
Posted: 9/4/08, 12:52 AM EST Section: Opinion
"Hank Aaron, she did it. She did it! Right out of the park," exclaimed C. Michelle Bryant of Wisconsin towards the end of Sen. Hillary Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. While I was at the convention, I noticed Bryant's opinion was widely accepted among the other guests and delegates.
Just prior to the Democrats' mass gathering in Denver, a CNN poll found that 27 percent of Hillary supporters were planning to vote for McCain in November. Indeed, the interminable feud between supporters of Sen. Barack Obama, the democratic nominee, and Hillary was beginning to feel like the 100 Years War.
Some saw the fact that the Clintons had negotiated to headline two consecutive nights of the convention as a weakness on Obama's part. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote after the lineup was announced that "Bill and Hill were able to drag No Drama Obama into a swamp of Clinton drama."
The Clintons did bring the drama. They brought it in the form of inspiring rhetoric and seemingly authentic endorsements of the nominee, as well as Hillary's theatrical releasing of her delegates to Obama onto the convention floor. Both went all out to convince their supporters to vote for the Illinois senator, and based on reactions on the floor and here at Syracuse University, they just might have succeeded.
Members of the SU Hillary for President group, Hillblazers, agreed that Hillary's speech was instrumental in uniting the party. Melissa Marrone, a graduate student in the College of Human Ecology, was one of Hillary's more fervent supporters. When Hillary asked "were you just in it for me?" it registered to her as "the unifying moment" of the convention.
Michelle McClafferty, a senior policy studies, religion and sociology major, attended the convention and watched Hillary speak live. The words of the Clintons and the unifying experience of the convention energized her support for Obama: "I am ready to campaign for Obama in place of Hillary," she said.
Just prior to the Democrats' mass gathering in Denver, a CNN poll found that 27 percent of Hillary supporters were planning to vote for McCain in November. Indeed, the interminable feud between supporters of Sen. Barack Obama, the democratic nominee, and Hillary was beginning to feel like the 100 Years War.
Some saw the fact that the Clintons had negotiated to headline two consecutive nights of the convention as a weakness on Obama's part. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote after the lineup was announced that "Bill and Hill were able to drag No Drama Obama into a swamp of Clinton drama."
The Clintons did bring the drama. They brought it in the form of inspiring rhetoric and seemingly authentic endorsements of the nominee, as well as Hillary's theatrical releasing of her delegates to Obama onto the convention floor. Both went all out to convince their supporters to vote for the Illinois senator, and based on reactions on the floor and here at Syracuse University, they just might have succeeded.
Members of the SU Hillary for President group, Hillblazers, agreed that Hillary's speech was instrumental in uniting the party. Melissa Marrone, a graduate student in the College of Human Ecology, was one of Hillary's more fervent supporters. When Hillary asked "were you just in it for me?" it registered to her as "the unifying moment" of the convention.
Michelle McClafferty, a senior policy studies, religion and sociology major, attended the convention and watched Hillary speak live. The words of the Clintons and the unifying experience of the convention energized her support for Obama: "I am ready to campaign for Obama in place of Hillary," she said.
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