"Cranky delegates," lots of passion: Dems head into convention

When Washington Democrats were wrapping up their state convention in June in Eastern Washington, a delegate made an urgent plea.

As the crowd thinned and the business of the convention turned to questions of where to recycle the leftover paperwork, the man said: "Let's leave Spokane in unity because that is the only way we win in November."

But as 110 of those Washington state delegates and alternates assemble in Denver Monday for the Democratic National Convention, unity still eludes those pledged to nominee Barack Obama and those to runner-up Hillary Rodham Clinton.

What is the state of those relations?

"I wouldn't characterize them as cool, but I wouldn't characterize them as warm, either," said former state party Chairman Paul Berendt, who leads the state's Clinton delegation.

"Honestly," he said, "there is a very neutral feeling."

Neutral is for idling. It's not a foundation for building a broad base of support for a presidential candidate.

Berendt and others hope the four-day convention will unite delegates — including those who fought for Clinton to the end and beyond — behind Obama for the final stretch to November.

That could be tough, even with the convention culminating in the historic nomination of the first African American on a major-party presidential ticket. The singularity of purpose that Obama backers are hoping for isn't even the goal for all the delegates in Denver.

"The Democratic Party would like to see unity," said Clinton delegate Shannon de Rubens of Issaquah. "As somebody who is just a regular average citizen, I don't know that I'm really worried about unity."

Short shrift for Clinton?

De Rubens, 35, is a former Microsoft worker. Before this year, she'd never been involved in politics beyond voting. She is passionate about her support for Clinton and was disappointed at the short shrift she says her candidate got at the state convention.

Obama beat Clinton 2-to-1 in Washington's Democratic caucuses in February, setting the stage for a state convention in June that was dominated by the Illinois senator's supporters.

"I felt like Hillary had been airbrushed out of the picture," de Rubens said.

And that's made it hard for her to get caught up in Obama-mania and what his nomination means to African Americans and the history of this country.

"I feel robbed about the opportunity to be excited about that," she said.

Many Clinton supporters say Clinton did not get her due as a history-making candidate herself. No other woman has come as close to winning the presidential nomination of a major party.

Even as late as last week, some Clinton fans were holding out hope that Obama would choose her as his running mate.

After Obama announced Saturday that he'd be sharing the ticket with Sen. Joseph Biden, Clinton praised Biden as "an exceptionally strong, experienced leader and devoted public servant." It's too early to know if that endorsement will make a difference to her supporters.

De Rubens says Obama's eventual victory followed a well-worn path: "A woman, really qualified, worked her whole life for this, did everything she can, and she got cast away for the charismatic male with half the résumé."

Obama supporters think the soon-to-be nominee has gone out of his way to include Clinton and her delegates. Both Clinton and former President Clinton will have prominent speaking roles at the convention this week.

The platform committee, which is controlled by Obama and presents the party's positions on key issues, also compromised to adopt major pieces of Clinton's health-care plan.

And one of the last moves by convention organizers was to agree to a demand by Clinton supporters that her name be entered into nomination for a vote by the full convention.

That decision, said Helen Howell, chairwoman of the state's Obama delegation, "might pave the way for people to unify and to come together and to feel heard."

Howell recognizes that many Clinton supporters will arrive in Denver unhappy with how their candidate was treated. But she doesn't think Obama will feel the brunt of that.

"I think a lot of the upset that I've read or heard about with regard to some of the Clinton supporters was more targeted to the media than it was Senator Obama, particularly."

Some media outlets were accused of favoring Obama and being unfairly harsh toward Clinton.

Berendt said there are some women who backed Clinton based on women's issues and are "grossly disappointed that she isn't the party's nominee. They see that as something as a setback for the women's movement."

Linda Mitchell, chairwoman of the National Women's Political Caucus of Washington State and a Clinton delegate, said many female Clinton backers are excited about having her get a nomination vote and a prominent speaking role. But, she said, "they're remaining vigilant."

There is no contest, of course, left to run between Obama and Clinton. There's nothing solid at stake for Clinton at the convention. Her nomination vote is symbolic, certain to fall short.

Strong passions

But there are strong passions in each camp, even though at times there doesn't seem to be much that separates Clinton and Obama supporters.

Consider de Rubens and her demographic doppelgänger over in the Obama camp, Suzan LeVine. They're in their 30s, former Microsofties now staying home with young children. Neither has been involved in presidential politics before this year, and both have an undying loyalty to their candidate.

De Rubens had been watching Clinton for years.

"I said for a long time that if Hillary ran, I'd support her," she said.

LeVine, who lives on Queen Anne, met Obama in 2005 while in Washington, D.C., on a lobbying trip with the Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs, which calls itself "the pro-Israel PAC with a domestic conscience."

She came home from the trip and told her husband that when Obama ran for president — "there was no if" — she'd do everything in her power to get him elected.

That has meant volunteering, housing staffers, working full time on caucus preparation, becoming a delegate and, for a while, being an unpaid staffer on the campaign.

LeVine is prepared to go to the convention to work at converting intransigent Clinton backers into active Obama supporters.

"There are people who still need to understand and recognize what he will bring to the table and then there are people who need to understand what will happen if he doesn't get elected," LeVine said.

As an example, LeVine mentions recent comments by Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, about abortion and Supreme Court justices. She'll remind Clinton backers about those comments and others from McCain's record that she is busily studying.

"I firmly believe that if someone chooses to sit this out, that is a vote for McCain," she said.

Political veterans, too

One can imagine many passionate, maybe even heated, conversations on the floor of the convention this week. There will be voices powered by the unbridled enthusiasm of newcomers like de Rubens and LeVine mixing with the more seasoned and subdued tones of the political veterans.

Berendt, the former state party chair, attended his first convention in 1980. He was a page for President Carter delegates at a convention where the incumbent was being challenged for the nomination by Sen. Edward Kennedy.

He says he remembers Carter having to chase Kennedy around the stage to pose for a unity photo. It was a tragicomic scene that signaled years of division within the Democratic Party. Carter won the nomination but lost the presidency to Republican Ronald Reagan.

This convention, Berendt's fifth, will be attended by what he calls "a lot of cranky delegates" attached to both Clinton and Obama. He says that without close management, the convention could create problems for Obama come November.

"We lose track of these conventions being important," Berendt said. "If the Democratic Party isn't tight and unified — and not just in a sterile, produced sense, but in an individually committed sense — we're going to have some rough sailing in the fall.

"I just hope we don't have another 1980," he said. "It would be a disaster for our country. That's what I've been thinking about all through this."

David Postman: 360-236-8267 or dpostman@seattletimes.com