Will Clinton be overshadowed by her own convention guests?

By scheduling former President Bill Clinton to speak on Tuesday and President Obama to address the convention on the eve of her acceptance speech, Clinton and her running mate, former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, must now compete with two of their party’s most celebrated public speakers.

“Hillary Clinton is not a good speaker,” political commentator Jon Ralston told the Washington Examiner’s media desk. “I’ve seen her when she gives pretty good speeches. But generally she … is just not nearly as dynamic as either Obama or Clinton.”

“She has to worry about being overshadowed by two of the best speakers her party has ever seen,” he added.

J. Matthew Wilson, a professor of political science at the Southern Methodist University, agreed.

“Hillary Clinton does not have the rhetorical gifts of either the two former presidents. And that’s a comparison some people will draw,” Wilson said.

Bill Clinton spoke Tuesday evening at the Democratic convention, and used his lengthy address to praise the former secretary of state as a progressive trailblazer. Though his prepared remarks drew some media criticism, they provoked deafening cheers and applause from the audience inside the Wells Fargo Convention Center, something that may be harder for his wife to evoke.

“I will be very surprised if people say, ‘Wow! Here was the best speech of the whole convention, said Wilson.

But others said it will only help Clinton to have her husband and Obama speak on her behalf.

Presidents 42 and 44 are masters at rallying the base, former Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich
told the Examiner, adding “and whenever they do, it’s timely.” (Asked if the DNC should have considered scheduling Clinton and Obama earlier in the convention, Kucinich just laughed and said, “I think the DNC’s problems are not the schedule here. I think the DNC’s problems run a little bit deeper.”)

Paul Feeney, who served as Massachusetts State Director for the Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., campaign, disagreed the Democrats’ 2016 ticket is in danger of being overshadowed, and said, “This week is where we showcase what we do best. President Obama is an example of that. The Clinton campaign will benefit from that.”

“Secretary Clinton is going to do a great job. These speakers this week are setting her up for that,” he added.

Feeney also claimed Democrats have the exact opposite problem that Republicans had when more than 40 GOP lawmakers, including Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Tim Scott of South Carolina, John McCain of Arizona, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, skipped their party’s convention last week.

“The difference between us and the Republicans in Cleveland is people actually want to come here and speak,” Feeney said.

Mercedes Alonzo, a Sanders delegate from Connecticut, said it is possible Bill Clinton and Obama deliver the convention’s biggest moments. However, she continued, the only people who would likely try to make anything out of it would be Republicans.

“I suppose it might give some fodder, if you will, to the Republicans,” she told the Examiner. But she did agree that the contrast between speakers may lead people to think more about the past than looking forward to the future.

Republicans “will probably latch on to that, and start saying that, you know, ‘Do we want to go backwards?'” she said. “I think the Republicans will focus on this and give it their own spin. As far as the Democrats and how we receive what happens, that remains to be seen.”

Gene Magruder, who heads the Virginia Association of Democratic Chairs, said flatly, “there’s no way to overshadow Tim Kaine.”

President Obama and Bill Clinton may be gifted speakers, he said, but the former Virginia governor has something they don’t.

“Not because [Kaine’s] just so special when he’s speaking,” Magruder said. “They will overshadow with pizzazz, but Tim has a way of relating to the everyday people. He has a way of coming off as a common man.”

“So he has got that type of talk, which they don’t,” he said.

Though split on whether the 2016 Democratic ticket is in danger of being overshadowed by its convention speakers, most of those interviewed by the Examiner agreed on several key points: There was no way to have the convention without the party’s rhetorical luminaries, and that it was wisest for the DNC to give Sanders a speaking slot on the first day of the convention.

“They had to get Sanders out of the way. That was imperative,” said Ralston. “There was no question that they were going to get rid of Sanders early on. They had to get rid of Sanders Monday night. That was very smart, and of course that’s what the Republicans should have done with Sen. Ted Cruz.”

On the third night of the GOP convention in Cleveland, the Texas lawmaker was booed off stage after he failed to offer Republican nominee Donald Trump an explicit endorsement, and instead told delegates to “vote your conscience.”

“Look it, there’s a lot of healing that needs to take place after a primary like we just had, and I think the order of business, the way it has been conducted is a step towards our healing,” Feeney said.

“It is set up nicely,” he said. “Everything will come together and hit a crescendo on Thursday night, and off we go.”

Magruder agreed that it was best to get the Sanders drama over with on the first day of the convention.

“I will say, carrying the Bernie stuff for three more days? It would not have been beneficial to us,” he said.

Because it made most sense to have Sanders go on the first night, there was really no choice but to have Bill Clinton and Obama lead off the following two nights.

“There is no other option,” said Ralston.

Feeney noted, “Conventions are made for TV now. They’re made to fire up and energize the base, and I think the party has done a good job and the Clinton campaign has done a good job, trying to figure out what the flow should be.”

DNC spokespersons did not respond to the Examiner’s multiple requests for comment.