Barack Obama's agenda so far is a no-show
NEWS ANALYSIS
The Clinton situation is blocking discussion of the economy.
DENVER — This week's Democratic convention sought to relaunch Barack Obama's presidential campaign by doing three things: Healing the party's internal rift, showing voters who Obama is, and spelling out more clearly what he would do as president, especially on the economy. But at the halfway point, the convention still seemed, at best, to have accomplished Step 1.
Hillary Rodham Clinton made a major effort in her Tuesday night speech to bring her supporters fully into the Obama camp, insisting that "the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose." Obama's wife, Michelle, aided by her telegenic daughters, Malia and Sasha, made a modest start Monday at showing the nominee's side as a family man.
But as for how Obama would tackle the voters' top concern, the nation's slumping economy, the convention has barely made a mark. And that has even some Obama backers fretting.
"We'd rather be talking about his economic program, sure," said an Obama advisor who spoke on condition of anonymity because the campaign has sought to portray an air of serene confidence. "We'll get there," he added grimly.
Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell, a former Clinton backer who now supports Obama, said the party was now on its way to unity.
"We are 99% united," he said on the convention floor just before Clinton's speech. "If you ask those [former Clinton] voters who they want to be for -- Barack Obama or John McCain? -- they would say Barack Obama overwhelmingly."
But Rendell acknowledged that he remained antsy about the Obama campaign's difficulty connecting with traditional, working-class Democratic voters -- the ones most concerned about the economy.
"We're all worried, because we should as a party be doing better," the Pennsylvania governor said.
Obama backers said they expected the Illinois senator to spend a good part of his acceptance speech Thursday talking about his economic plans. And some Tuesday speakers at the podium, like former Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, did pivot toward the economy.
But in most media coverage of the event, the divisions among Democrats got in the way of the messages the Obama campaign sought to convey.
