A Democratic Paean To Average Folks

By Craig Staats/AllPolitics

CHICAGO (AllPolitics, Aug. 26) -- With politicians about as popular as used-car salesmen, no one wants to listen to a lineup of them yakking nonstop. So Democrats opened their convention by featuring different voices, including a Chicago policeman, a Toledo plant worker, gun control activist Sarah Brady and actor and disabled activist Christopher Reeve.

"You'll see how real people's lives have been affected by the Clinton Administration," promised Peter Knight, Clinton's campaign manager.

That may have been stretching it, but focusing on "real people," rather than the same old politicos who usually dominate the debate, is nothing new.

Republicans did the same thing in San Diego earlier this month. Both parties are trying to convince swing voters that we're like you, we understand you, we are you.

The Democrats offered a homage to working people, introducing a parade of workers who marched in to the strains of the old Huey Lewis and the News' song, "Working For A Living." Many carried International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers signs.

If you're a union man, it was a tribute. If you're a Republican angry about the AFL-CIO's multi-million-dollar advertising campaign on behalf of the Democrats this year, it was another bit of evidence that Clinton is in organized labor's hip pocket.

The United Center's stage, of course, wasn't totally a politico-free zone.

South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle, credited for going toe-to-toe with Republicans on the minimum wage hike, called the delegates to action in a short but rousingly partisan talk.

"We're as diverse as any political party can be, and tonight we are as united," he said.

Another of the early speakers, Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, pointed to a huge photograph of Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, the Democrats' Senate Whitewater nemesis, projected on the wall behind him. Kerrey asked if it wasn't time to elect a replacement. The crowd roared its approval.

But the focus was regular folks, like Chicago police officer Mike Robbins, who was shot 11 times when he and his partner were ambushed. Now Robbins campaigns against handgun violence.

"I'm not a politician, and I don't consider myself to be a hero," he told the crowd. "I'm just a victim of gun violence who happens to be a police officer. We all truly appreciate what President Clinton has done in this fight.

"He's fought to ban assault weapons that have no place on our streets," Robbins said. "And he's been working hard to keep the guns out of the hands of felons and to rid our country of cop-killer bullets."

When Hillary Rodham Clinton showed up late in the evening to listen to Brady and Reeve, the crowd began to chant: "Four more years."

The evening's highlight was Reeve, who said he's struggled to figure out what "family values" means. "We're all family -- and we all have value," Reeve said.

Reeve, who is paralyzed from the neck down, said President Franklin D. Roosevelt showed that a man who could barely lift himself out of a wheel chair "could still lift this nation out of despair."

"Amd I believe, and so does this administration, in the most important principle that FDR taught us: America does not let its needy citizens fend for themselves," Reeve said. "America is stronger when all of us take care of all us."

Again, it wasn't a politician saying we're right and they're wrong. It was a different voice, endorsing some core Democratic beliefs, reaching out to a jaded audience. The question is, can they keep it up for three more days?

Sights & Sounds

Day 1 Gallery -- Aug. 26, 1996
Ron Brown Tribute -- Aug. 26, 1996
Sarah Brady On The Brady Bill -- Aug. 26, 1996

A Democratic Paean To Average Folks

Sights & Sounds

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