Word: clinton
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...first glance, most observers could be forgiven for thinking the Democratic National Convention will turn out to be a divisive, knock-down, drag-out affair. Not only is the party still licking its wounds from the tough primary battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but the Republicans are doing their best to stoke the tensions of race, gender, class and age exposed by the drawn-out contest...
...easy stuff is still relatively hard, but at least it's entirely under the Obama campaign's control. Any non-incumbent's most important convention goal is to introduce the candidate to the country. (To paraphrase what was said about both Al Gore and Hillary Clinton when they launched their presidential campaigns, Obama is famous without being well known.) Under a spotlight more intense than anything he has experienced in his remarkable four-year rise from the Illinois state senate to White House contender, Obama must contextualize himself for the many voters who are just tuning in - to tell them...
...order to maximize his post-convention momentum, Obama has got to make sure that the manifestly bad feelings between his campaign and the Clinton team never rear their head in Denver. If any ill will enters the convention hall, there's a real danger that the rift could become the media's story of choice, and Obama can't afford to lose control of the narrative - let alone risk the support of Senator Clinton's very loyal followers...
...clear from last week's NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll that Obama still faces a good deal of skepticism from those Clinton backers; Denver is the place where fences will be mended and votes secured - or where disunity on the convention floor could become a threat to his candidacy...
That wasn't enough to impress Clinton in the primaries. She enjoyed noting that Obama was chairman of a Senate subcommittee yet had never convened a substantive hearing. John McCain's campaign will not be any more dazzled. In a sense, the question of Obama's preparation hinges on data that are still being gathered, because his greatest accomplishment is this unfolding campaign. For a man given to Zen-like circularities - "We are the change we seek" - the best proof that he can unite people to solve problems might be his ability to unite them to win an election...