The DNC: Democrats Going for McCain

I was lucky enough to get one of the coveted purple wristbands at the "Women Count" event put on by a newly-formed PAC of the same name. The PAC was founded after the primaries, seemingly in response to the outcome for Hillary Clinton. It didn't take a genius to know I was out of place. But Senator Clinton herself was reportedly going to make an appearance, and, never having been in her presence I really wanted to be there to see her up close.

The eight Obama-related buttons on my jeans jacket drew a lot of attention, and I wanted not to appear confrontational -- after all, though I'm an Obama delegate I have great respect for Hillary Clinton and all that her campaign achieved -- so I removed all but one of the buttons. But then I found myself feeling incognito, like I was lurking or infiltrating.

Try as I did not to stand out, I did stand out for reasons I cannot hide. Of the 600 or so people gathered, 15 or 20 tops were of color. It was the whitest event I've been to in a long, long time. Maybe the women of color had other places to be. Maybe the ticket price was out of the range of a lot of women of color. Maybe the outreach to those communities just hasn't happened yet. But no matter the reason, the fact was incontrovertible. And I felt it. And it made me wonder.

The speakers were all good, and the crowd was upbeat, but as the minutes wore on I was struck that, though we were in Denver and the Democratic National Convention is taking place all around us, no one was mentioning Barack Obama. The urging was toward electing women, for the sake of electing women. The loudest cheer came when a speaker referred to the "sexist caucus process." I'm not even sure what that means. But the crowd knew, and cheered their hearts out.

About 20 minutes into it, my friend Elspeth whispered that the guy next to me was wearing a "Noobama" sticker. I turned to look and saw it on his upper left lapel. I asked him if I could take a picture of it, and he let me.

When Senator Clinton finally came on, she spoke of the importance of unity and of the need to ensure we don't have four more years of Republicans. It was so much more unifying than anything to that point, and it was perhaps as much as those gathered could take. But, infiltrating incognito that I was, it wasn't enough for me.

At the end I went up to the "Noobama" man and his wife. They are from Houston, TX. We talked. I asked them if the "Noobama" concept meant they would vote for McCain. The woman responded, "Well I'm not voting for Obama, ever." We then had a pretty lengthy conversation, one which I will not relay here except to say it is so clear that this woman and I come from such different perspectives that we will probably never agree. I tried to bring up the issue of race with the woman and was promptly informed that she has black grandchildren and that black people need to stop acting like victims. I hope those black grandchildren saw Michelle Obama speak last night.

After the woman from Houston, I encountered two Oregonians who are going to vote for McCain. (One, historically an Independent, the other, historically a Democrat.) They said Obama has zero experience and is a "racist radical" due to the church he was affiliated with for 20 years. We reached an impasse quickly and they just turned and walked away. To her credit, the woman from Texas was much more cordial.

I don't think Hillary would have been comfortable with any of this. I am certainly not trying to attribute these opinions to her. But it was interesting to meet and hear from people who are probably the fringe element of Clinton supporters. It brought to mind Hillary's self-proclaimed triumphant victory in West Virginia which John Stewart and others have caricatured as being "proud to have the white racist vote." I couldn't tell if any of that was present today. There was a lot that was really unclear.

On the way back to the hotel in the free trolley bus that takes you from one end of the main thoroughfare to the other, while wolfing down a dry sandwich, I met Carl, also from Texas. Carl, an African American, is an actual Clinton delegate (the others I've mentioned above are not delegates). Carl is in fact a proud Clinton delegate. But he is also a Clinton delegate who believes in the importance of Democratic unity, and who will be supporting Obama through this convention and into November. I thanked Carl, having learned in these past two days not to take such things for granted.

I wanted to get this out quickly, but now I'm late for the Pepsi Center, where after hours of other people speaking Senator Clinton will finally get her turn. I want to be in my seat for that historic moment, so, I'm signing off for now.