Article on Democratic Convention

An attempt at writing an election coverage piece. Enjoy.

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All eyes are on Denver, Colorado this week, as the city prepares to host the 2008 Democratic Party Convention. Over 65,000 people are expected to attend the convention which will see Sen. Barack Obama become the first ever African American to be elected as the party’s Presidential Nominee. The convention will set the tone for the rest of the election campaign as Obama seeks to unite the his party, divided by his long and bitter primary battle with Sen. Hillary Clinton.

The convention comes at a critical time for the Obama campaign, as political polls show the race between Obama and his rival, Republican Senator John McCain, tightening to within the margin of error. A CNN poll from the 24th of August shows the candidates tied, each winning 47% of the vote. One area in which Obama is weak is his appeal to those Democrat voters who favoured Sen. Clinton in the primaries. Recent polling shows Sen. Obama winning just 79% of Democrat voters, with many of Clinton’s supporters now choosing to vote for McCain rather than the man who unseated Clinton as the Democratic Nominee. By comparison 2004 Democrat Nominee John Kerry was able to win 89% of his party’s voters. Obama’s failure to galvanise Democrat voters has meant he has been unable to capitalise on his party’s identification advantage over the Republicans, with 7% more voters identifying themselves as Democrats than Republicans.

If Obama is able to convince another 10 to 15 percent of Democrat voters to support him, he could open up a substantial lead in the polls.

In order to do this, the Democrats must present a united face at this weeks convention, where Hillary Clinton will publically ask her supporters to vote for Obama. Clinton, who won 17 million votes over the course of the primary contest, is scheduled to headline the first night of the convention, with a speech on the subject of “Renewing America”. Her husband, former president Bill Clinton is scheduled to give a speech on the conventions second night on the topic of “Securing America’s future.”

The Clintons will also attempt to help Obama increase his support amongst white working class voters, a group he struggled to appeal too in the primary contest, and is still lacking support from.

Winning votes amongst this key voting bloc was an important factor in Obama’s decision to pick long serving Democrat Senator Joe Biden as his Vice Presidential Candidate. Biden, who has over 25 years of experience in the Senate, has a strong appeal to the working class with Obama introducing Biden as a “a scrappy kid from Scranton”, a working class city in Pennsylvania. Obama also described Biden as “a statesman with sound judgment who doesn’t have to hide behind bluster to keep America strong.”

Biden is scheduled to address the Democratic Convention on the same night as former President Clinton, giving a speech on the subject of National Security, seeking to offer a counter to Vietnam War veteran John McCain’s’ perceived advantage when it comes to experience in foreign policy.