Wednesday Night
So it’s Thursday afternoon. Kamala Harris will give the “keynote” acceptance speech tonight, and I’m looking forward to it. I’m also looking forward to getting some sleep: no matter how late my Democratic friends talk, the dogs still are “on the clock” at six in the morning. Coach Walz used the old political campaign line: “We’ll sleep when we’re dead”. But I need to get some snooze time sooner than that.
Last night was amazing. Tim Walz is a natural, a leader, a man who can get others to follow him to the State Championship, to accurately fire an artillery piece, to the Congress, and the Governorship of Minnesota. He now will take his leadership national, and he’s off to an awesome start. Josh Shapiro is a strong speaker, but Pete Buttigieg is even better. Hakeem Jeffries, ” the next Speaker of the House” can rap and rhyme with the best. And while I will always bare a grudge against Bill Clinton, in the end, he still is the “Explainer in Chief”. Oh, and “OOOOOOOOOOOOO-PPPP-RRRR-AH” is pretty good too.
But today isn’t about praising oratory. It’s about the “dirty laundry” of the 2024 Democratic National Convention. I’m going through it all, once, and then I’m done – and it’s back to the candidate of “Joy” (thanks Bill).
Held Hostage
First, let’s talk about what didn’t happen last night. John and Rachel Goldsberg-Polin have a twenty-three year old son, Hersh, held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. They wear the number 320 on their chests, a hard reminder of the days their adult child has been in captivity. Hersh was at the concert in the desert, and lost the lower part of his left arm in the grenade assault that ended in his capture. There have been pictures, taken months later, and John and Rachel believe that Hersh is still alive.
John and Rachel anticipated neutrality or even animosity from the Democratic crowd when they came to the podium. After all, Democrats are trying to get a ceasefire, and not rock-solid secure in their backing of the current Israeli government. And many Democrats express concern for the thousands of civilians casualties in Gaza, bystanders to the violence between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas.
Bring Them Home
What the Goldsberg-Polin’s didn’t realize, is that the thousands of Democrats representing the country in Chicago are just as concerned with the fate of their son, and the other hundred or so still held alive in Gaza, as they are with Palestinian civilians. And when they saw the real tears in the eyes of so many of the delegates, heard the chants of “bring them home”, and felt the warm applause for their statements, they found allies.
Democrats are concerned about the hostages: they know Hamas started this whole cycle of violence on October 7th. It’s not that they support Hamas, it’s concern for the thousands of civilian Palestinians caught in the crossfire. No matter what the MAGA propaganda machine says; Biden, Harris, and Democrats aren’t Hamas sympathizers. They simply want the dying to stop.
Pro-Palestinian (not Hamas)
There are thirty Minnesota delegates who are dedicated to the thousands of Palestinian civilian dead. They are asking (not demanding) that the Harris Campaign give them some time to explain their concerns to the convention. It’s a delicate balance for Harris; Minnesota, and more significantly, Michigan has a large Palestinian/American population. They won’t vote for Trump, but they might not vote for Harris either. And it’s in states where she has a narrow lead in the polls.
So the Harris team has listened to them, arranged meetings for them, and “massaged” them. But they won’t give them time on the podium. Harris has to hope that’s enough, especially when the alternative for them is Trump in the hip-pocket of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, determined to wipe out every Hamas member, even if he has to kill every Palestinian to do it.
Chinese Communist Party
The second issue is the Tim Walz/China connection. As a younger teacher, Walz spent a semester in China teaching English and learning the Chinese language. A lot of teachers take advantage of exchange programs, from Australia to the Philippines to Europe to Asia. Later in his career, Walz led student field trips to China, a deal that many teachers do: you go free or even get paid if enough students pay to go. I seriously considered taking “track trips” to Ireland and the United Kingdom a couple of times, and a fellow teacher and coach now makes a living leading student field trips.
Look, China is a Communist country. Any connection with China; industry, technology, entertainment, and most certainly education; is controlled by the Communist government. The Communist government is made up of the CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY; so if you take kids on educational field trips to China, you’re definitely dealing with the CCP.
But the MAGA-Republicans (like the Chinese Government, there’s no distinction between the two) will tell you that Coach Walz is somehow “in bed” with the CCP. It’s nonsense, stupid, and depends on voter ignorance to “fly”. You’re going to hear it, but don’t fall for that. There’s so much more important stuff to talk about.
Puppet Master
And finally, the media is still trying to stir the story of the “mastermind” Nancy Pelosi pushing Biden out of the Presidential race. She doesn’t deny it; she says it’s just “old news” and moves on. The best I can figure, she did exactly that. And while I don’t like to admit it, it’s better being the Party of Joy, rather than the Party of “please Joe, don’t lose it now”. The President said it best: “When I was elected Senator at 29 I was too young, now I’m too old to be President.”
I love you, President Biden. I love your sacrifice and your courage. But you, and Nancy Pelosi, are right. Bill Clinton looked too-old too, and he’s two years younger than you.
Dirty laundry displaying is over. I look forward to writing about Kamala’s speech tomorrow.
