Amid the Tumult, a Call for Unity

There's a lot going on, but somehow Terry Carson manages a quick kiss from his wife, Janet, Tuesday. Photo by Mark T. Osler

With thousands of Democrats waving a sea of white “Hillary” signs, this was the moment that could have been.

Headline speaker Hillary Rodham Clinton, who came closer than any woman in history to a major party’s presidential nomination, could not quiet the enthusiastic crowd of supporters on day 2 of the Democratic National Convention—supporters like delegate Terry Carson of Ohio.

But it is the denouement of Clinton’s unsuccessful primary run against Barack Obama. And, Democratic leaders hope, the beginning of “unity,” as the tall blue signs at the convention say.

Carson, a Clinton delegate who plans to work hard for Obama, says he hasn’t been too wistful about how this could have been Clinton’s nominating convention. But after hearing Clinton’s speech, Carson thinks she might be wistful herself: “I could almost see that in her face: ‘Hey, I’d like to be the one.’ It wasn’t in a selfish kind of way.”

“She said all the right things, and you could tell she had real conviction and really wants Barack to win,” says Carson, 57.

Carson’s wife, Janet—also a Clinton delegate—says she’s still disappointed and feels “disrespected” that Obama didn’t choose Clinton as his running mate. But she adds that Tuesday’s speech and the entire convention process are motivating Clintonites to work hard for Obama.

Whether they will, of course, remains to be seen. It’s possible that enough former Clinton voters, in remaining resistant to Obama, will hurt the Democrats' chances. “There is going to be a huge—over 4 or 5 percent—defection,” Terry Carson says. “Because McCain is seen as a maverick, it’s easy to flip the switch.”

He expects Clinton’s speech to be less crucial to the presidential campaign than Obama’s own speech Thursday night because it’s more important for the candidate to familiarize voters with himself and his platform. Obama, Carson predicts, will be able to show voters that McCain has “all the wrong policies.”

Wearing an Obama button on one side and a Clinton pin on the other,  Carson says he listened for nuances in Clinton’s speech and is curious to see what she’ll do next in her own career. Clinton is young enough to be back someday for her own nomination.

Meanwhile, he and other Clinton delegates will gather today—the day formal votes are cast—to hear Clinton release her delegates to Obama.

A first-time delegate, Carson is still busy taking in the sights around him. The machine gun-toting security forces took awhile to get used to for this guy from Geauga County outside Cleveland. And he’is a bit appalled by the antiabortion rights protesters shouting at delegates through bullhorns: “It was pretty crazy.”

Still, Carson says, he likes to watch things unfold. He is in his element here amid the convention chaos, long hours and soaring oratory. It is the catbird’s seat for watching political drama unfold.