Next stop . . . Baywatch!!

Have you thought about blogging one of these interviews? Perhaps, while your being interviewed, you can transcribe the conversation. Might be an interesting experiment

Comments from another blogger at the DNC-FYI

I'm in Boston this week covering the Democratic National Convention -- and

there is a whole lot to cover (the most interesting parts of which are

going on behind the scenes).  So be sure and regularly check out my blog

(http://www.ariannaonline.com/blog/) for my take on all things convention.

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ANGER MANAGEMENT:  KERRY'S PUT THE KIBOSH ON BASHING BUSH, BUT CAN HE DO

ANYTHING ABOUT THE OUTBREAK OF HOTEL ENVY?

By Arianna Huffington

BOSTON -- Forget Disneyland, for the next few days, Beantown is the

happiest place on earth.  Or at least the most civil.

The Kerry campaign has put the kibosh on Bush-bashing, preferring to make

their candidate's positive vision for the country the overriding theme of

the convention.

It's the Anger Management Platform -- and a very sensible strategy. 

Unfettered rage at Bush, his corporate cronyism and his lies about Iraq

(oops, I think that's one of the proscribed phrases; my bad) has fueled

the Democrats since a movement of outraged activists gave the party a much

needed spine transplant during the primary season.  Kerry picked up the

baton in Iowa and has run with it to great effect.  At the moment,

fifty-four percent of Americans feel that the country is moving in the

wrong direction -- and nearly three-fifths say we need to change course.

Now it's time for Kerry to convince voters that he's the one to chart the

new direction, and to define just what that direction will be. 

So everywhere you go here -- or, at least, everywhere the police allow you

to go -- everyone is reading from the same positive playbook.

At a star-studded and jam-packed pre-convention event honoring Bill and

Hillary Clinton -- the A-list affair was so overbooked that many VIPs had

to hover outside the door, waiting for someone to leave before the fire

marshals would let them in -- the former first couple was humble and on

message, with Bill describing himself and Hillary as "foot soldiers for

Kerry/Edwards".  They had clearly gotten the anger management memo, and

the former president, in particular, avoided the more critical stance he

has recently adopted toward Bush.  The only whiff of a dig at W. was

Clinton's assurance that the one thing Democrats could count on was that,

this time, "every vote will be counted" (this must be on the list of

pre-approved phrases; I've heard it a number of times since arriving in

Boston -- and it never fails to draw a cheer).

As Tad Devine, Kerry's senior campaign strategist, described it to me:  "I

tell everyone, 'It's okay to throw the occasional elbow, just avoid the

flagrant fouls'."

The harmonious vibe at the Clinton party was so strong that William

Safire, the New York Times op-ed page's conservative grise, turned to me

after scanning the room and said, "There's so much discipline and unity

here, it feels like a Republican Convention".

If there were one place where you would have expected the kid gloves

approach to fall by the wayside, it would have been at the tribute

honoring the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, held at the Old West Church, on

Cambridge Street.  The event was standing room only, and was attended by

some of the most progressive members of the Democratic Party, including

panelists Jim Hightower, Al Franken, and Leo Gerard, president of the

United Steelworkers of America.  Four years ago, Wellstone had spoken at

the Shadow Convention in Los Angeles, delivering a fiery call to action to

progressive Democrats: "I'm tired of waiting… It's time for us to find our

own voice, to do our own organizing, to push forward on reform, to push

forward on issues of economic justice, and to make the United States of

America, this good country, even better."

But even among this most passionately anti-Bush crowd, the wellspring of

rage bubbling just beneath the surface remained almost entirely bottled

up. 

You know that the Positivity Party is in full swing when Al Gore, who the

L.A. Times' Ron Brownstein says has been "channeling the Democratic id in

podium-pounding speeches that seem designed to end with the distribution

of pitchforks", takes to the Convention stage and delivers an unfailingly

upbeat message. One of his few discordant notes Monday night was, like

Clinton, a dig at 2000:  "Let's make sure," he said, "that the Supreme

Court does not pick the next president -- and that this president is not

the one who picks the next Supreme Court."  The former VP was quick to

point out, however, that he's made peace with the contentious past:  "I

don't want you to think that I lay awake at night counting and recounting

sheep."  He didn't say anything about lying in bed counting and recounting

dangling chads, however. 

Anger, and the wisdom of keeping it in check, were the subject of a pair

of competing briefings I attended on Monday afternoon at the Four Seasons

hotel, which is the hub of behind-the-scenes campaign activity away from

the Fleet Center.  One featured Harold Ickes of America Coming Together,

which has now raised $80 million, a substantial chunk of which will be

spent in August taking the whip to Bush's hide.  The other featured

pollster Stan Greenberg discussing the mindset of potential Nader voters. 

"Anger," he said, "is the defining characteristic of the Nader voter. 

They loathe Bush but they don't want to cast their vote for the

lesser-of-two-evils.  They want to vote on principle."  In other words, if

Kerry is going to convince them to pass on Nader and vote for him, he's

going to have to show them that he stands for more than just not being

Bush.

I had my own Close Encounter of the Newly Unified Kind when I shared a

stage with Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe at a raucous rally of

over a thousand College Democrats.  It was less than two years ago, after

the Democrats' November 2002 debacle, that I wrote a column entitled

"Bring Me the Head of Terry McAuliffe!"  Now here we were hugging, him

saying some nice things about me, and me giving him my ancient Greek

secrets for helping his battle-ravaged voice to heal ("Don't forget the

cayenne pepper!").

It just goes to show you what four years of George Bush in the White House

can do to bring people together.  I suppose he really is a uniter, not a

divider.

With trashing Bush all-but-verboten, the Dems' natural feistiness has been

routed into other directions.  The most conspicuous of these is the

outbreak of Hotel Envy that has swept across Fortress Boston.  At this

convention, you are where you stay.

Here's the local pecking order: staying at the Four Seasons means you are

a serious power player. Chad Griffin, the Los Angeles-based political

strategist is staying there, as is Rob Reiner, as is real-estate developer

and early Kerry fundraiser Richard Ziman, as is Jonathan Lewis, a major

Democratic donor and fundraiser for America Coming Together, as are

multiple big-time New York Kerry donors.  

"We got numerous calls," Chad Griffin told me, "offering any price for us

to vacate our rooms." And someone inside the Kerry campaign informed me

with mounting irritation that they had received a tidal wave of calls from

big donors complaining that they were given rooms at the new Ritz, and not

at the Four Seasons -- even though "You can throw a sandwich from one to

the other", as the exasperated Kerry staffer put it.

The distinction between the old Ritz on Newbury and the new Ritz on Avery

Street, across the park, is a whole other story, worthy of a PhD thesis. 

For the moment, suffice it to say that the old Ritz is considered much

hotter than the new Ritz, and that Larry King is staying there.

As bad as Hotel Envy is, Skybox Envy is even worse. There are so few of

them at the Fleet Center that even super-high-end contributors Ron Burkle

and Steve Bing have been asked to share one.

Job One of this convention is moving the party faithful from Anybody But

Bush backers to out-and-out Kerry enthusiasts.  On the surface at least,

that task seems to be Mission Accomplished (although such a reference

would probably be vetoed by the powers that be for having too much of an

anti-Bush subtext).

The vital next step is winning over the majority of Americans who have

turned away from Bush but who are not yet comfortable turning control of

the ship of state over to Kerry.  Thursday night's acceptance speech will

go a long way toward determining his ability to sway those undecided

voters. 

David Thorne is convinced he will succeed with flying colors.  Thorne is

one of Kerry's closest friends and the twin brother of Kerry's first wife

-- they were together at Yale and joined the Navy at the same time.  He's

also the mastermind behind Kerry's highly successful Internet operation. 

I ran into Thorne, who has seen The Speech, at the New York Times party at

the Gamble Mansion, and he gave me a preview not of its content but of its

character.

"Have you seen the letters that John wrote to me when we were in the

service?" he asked.  "They show what a passionate, thoughtful, committed

person he was -- and that's the guy you'll be seeing on Thursday night."

The flip side to the Democrats' Anger Management strategy is the

widespread anxiety over whether Kerry will deliver in his big moment. 

Absent the anger, will he be able to convey his passion and his vision for

the country?

And no strategy has yet been invented to manage this anxiety.  Only a

kick-ass speech on Thursday will put an end to it.

© 2004 ARIANNA HUFFINGTON.

http://www.ariannaonline.com/blog/

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How `bout some comments from some fundraising events? How many cocktail parties have you been kicked out of? Have you tried any? This is where the real, true American system plays out, and is the only, real reason for a convention.