The Obama Show

The New York Times reports on the lineup of main speakers during the Democratic National Convention that will begin August 25 in Denver. This schedule further illustrates what I've written here and elsewhere, regarding the current state of the parties' national conventions.

The Republican convention, to be held the following week in St. Paul, Minnesota, will be similarly structured.

In the olden days, a keynote speaker was designated, who would give a major speech early in the convention agenda. Then the convention would conduct actual business, including the adoption of a platform, and the nomination of presidential and vice-presidential nominees. Then, those nominees would give their acceptance speeches on the final night.

These days, the speeches are just about all there is. Often, a theme is designated for each evening, to give structure to the TV show.

There are a couple of interesting aspects to the Democratic agenda, which bring to mind historical comparisons.

First, there is the issue of demonstrating party unity after a hard-fought nomination battle. The scheduling of Hillary Clinton's address is an attempt to provide the proper forum for the candidate who came so close to winning the nomination, while not upstaging Obama.

A show of party unity is easy when an incumbent president is renominated unopposed. The Republicans had that situation in 1984 and 2004, as did the Democrats in 1996. But defeated candidates are not always cooperative in displaying unity at a convention. At the 1980 Democratic convention, President Jimmy Carter was humiliated by being made to chase Sen. Ted Kennedy around the podium in a futile effort to get him to do the hands-raised-together unity gesture.

Another historical parallel involves Obama's plan to move to an outdoor football stadium for his acceptance speech. John Kennedy did the same thing, when the Democrats nominated him for president in 1960. Kennedy accepted that nomination at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It was during that speech that he introduced the theme of the New Frontier.

UPDATE: I misread earlier reports to mean that the Democrats would not designate a keynote speaker. Now the Washington Post reports that former Virginia Governor Mark Warner has been given that role. The article includes speculation that the designation of Warner signals that Warner's successor Tim Kaine won't be Obama's running mate (because they wouldn't give prominent speaking roles to more than one Virginian). But, in light of Virginia's importance to Obama, perhaps he's brought in Warner because he does want to highlight two leaders from that state.