Quin Hillyer
The obviously positive reaction throughout the convention hall to Hillary Clinton’s speech had been predicted the night before by U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, who has known the Clintons for many years. Not only would the Democrats leave the convention unified behind Barack Obama, Lincoln told the Examiner, but “Hillary will be the one that helps make that happen.”
But Carl Jeffers, Seattle-based columnist and radio host writing in the Huffington Post, complained that too much attention had been placed on the Clintons’ tasks than on Obama’s. He wrote: “How about what Barack Obama has to do in his speech on Thursday — could we focus just a bit on that and not what the Clintons have to do on Tuesday and Wednesday. Obama is the candidate, and it is his convention — and all those voters and supporters of other candidates are out there waiting and prepared for him to win them over — not for someone else to just hand them over.”
Jeffers continued: ” Senator Obama’s failure to define himself to the American people in general is still a core component of the problem he is now having in poll numbers all over the country – both in general numbers and in specific key battleground states where he should right now have a 10 to 15 point lead given the state of the Country. And that failure to adequately define himself has allowed others to define him to the American people instead as they have filled in the gap.”
