[Mb-civic] Anger Management: Kerry's Put The Kibosh On Bashing Bush, But Can He Do Anything About The Outbreak Of Hotel Envy?

[Arianna Huffington]

I'm in Boston this week covering the Democratic National Convention -- and
there is a whole lot to cover (the most interesting parts of which are
going on behind the scenes).  So be sure and regularly check out my blog
(http://www.ariannaonline.com/blog/) for my take on all things convention.
 


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ANGER MANAGEMENT:  KERRY'S PUT THE KIBOSH ON BASHING BUSH, BUT CAN HE DO
ANYTHING ABOUT THE OUTBREAK OF HOTEL ENVY?

By Arianna Huffington

BOSTON -- Forget Disneyland, for the next few days, Beantown is the
happiest place on earth.  Or at least the most civil.

The Kerry campaign has put the kibosh on Bush-bashing, preferring to make
their candidate's positive vision for the country the overriding theme of
the convention.

It's the Anger Management Platform -- and a very sensible strategy.  

Unfettered rage at Bush, his corporate cronyism and his lies about Iraq
(oops, I think that's one of the proscribed phrases; my bad) has fueled
the Democrats since a movement of outraged activists gave the party a much
needed spine transplant during the primary season.  Kerry picked up the
baton in Iowa and has run with it to great effect.  At the moment,
fifty-four percent of Americans feel that the country is moving in the
wrong direction -- and nearly three-fifths say we need to change course.

Now it's time for Kerry to convince voters that he's the one to chart the
new direction, and to define just what that direction will be. 

So everywhere you go here -- or, at least, everywhere the police allow you
to go -- everyone is reading from the same positive playbook.

At a star-studded and jam-packed pre-convention event honoring Bill and
Hillary Clinton -- the A-list affair was so overbooked that many VIPs had
to hover outside the door, waiting for someone to leave before the fire
marshals would let them in -- the former first couple was humble and on
message, with Bill describing himself and Hillary as "foot soldiers for
Kerry/Edwards".  They had clearly gotten the anger management memo, and
the former president, in particular, avoided the more critical stance he
has recently adopted toward Bush.  The only whiff of a dig at W. was
Clinton's assurance that the one thing Democrats could count on was that,
this time, "every vote will be counted" (this must be on the list of
pre-approved phrases; I've heard it a number of times since arriving in
Boston -- and it never fails to draw a cheer).

As Tad Devine, Kerry's senior campaign strategist, described it to me:  "I
tell everyone, 'It's okay to throw the occasional elbow, just avoid the
flagrant fouls'."

The harmonious vibe at the Clinton party was so strong that William
Safire, the New York Times op-ed page's conservative grise, turned to me
after scanning the room and said, "There's so much discipline and unity
here, it feels like a Republican Convention".

If there were one place where you would have expected the kid gloves
approach to fall by the wayside, it would have been at the tribute
honoring the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, held at the Old West Church, on
Cambridge Street.  The event was standing room only, and was attended by
some of the most progressive members of the Democratic Party, including
panelists Jim Hightower, Al Franken, and Leo Gerard, president of the
United Steelworkers of America.  Four years ago, Wellstone had spoken at
the Shadow Convention in Los Angeles, delivering a fiery call to action to
progressive Democrats: "I'm tired of waiting
 It's time for us to find our
own voice, to do our own organizing, to push forward on reform, to push
forward on issues of economic justice, and to make the United States of
America, this good country, even better."

But even among this most passionately anti-Bush crowd, the wellspring of
rage bubbling just beneath the surface remained almost entirely bottled
up. 

You know that the Positivity Party is in full swing when Al Gore, who the
L.A. Times' Ron Brownstein says has been "channeling the Democratic id in
podium-pounding speeches that seem designed to end with the distribution
of pitchforks", takes to the Convention stage and delivers an unfailingly
upbeat message. One of his few discordant notes Monday night was, like
Clinton, a dig at 2000:  "Let's make sure," he said, "that the Supreme
Court does not pick the next president -- and that this president is not
the one who picks the next Supreme Court."  The former VP was quick to
point out, however, that he's made peace with the contentious past:  "I
don't want you to think that I lay awake at night counting and recounting
sheep."  He didn't say anything about lying in bed counting and recounting
dangling chads, however. 

Anger, and the wisdom of keeping it in check, were the subject of a pair
of competing briefings I attended on Monday afternoon at the Four Seasons
hotel, which is the hub of behind-the-scenes campaign activity away from
the Fleet Center.  One featured Harold Ickes of America Coming Together,
which has now raised $80 million, a substantial chunk of which will be
spent in August taking the whip to Bush's hide.  The other featured
pollster Stan Greenberg discussing the mindset of potential Nader voters. 
"Anger," he said, "is the defining characteristic of the Nader voter. 
They loathe Bush but they don't want to cast their vote for the
lesser-of-two-evils.  They want to vote on principle."  In other words, if
Kerry is going to convince them to pass on Nader and vote for him, he's
going to have to show them that he stands for more than just not being
Bush.

I had my own Close Encounter of the Newly Unified Kind when I shared a
stage with Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe at a raucous rally of
over a thousand College Democrats.  It was less than two years ago, after
the Democrats' November 2002 debacle, that I wrote a column entitled
"Bring Me the Head of Terry McAuliffe!"  Now here we were hugging, him
saying some nice things about me, and me giving him my ancient Greek
secrets for helping his battle-ravaged voice to heal ("Don't forget the
cayenne pepper!").

It just goes to show you what four years of George Bush in the White House
can do to bring people together.  I suppose he really is a uniter, not a
divider.

With trashing Bush all-but-verboten, the Dems' natural feistiness has been
routed into other directions.  The most conspicuous of these is the
outbreak of Hotel Envy that has swept across Fortress Boston.  At this
convention, you are where you stay.

Here's the local pecking order: staying at the Four Seasons means you are
a serious power player. Chad Griffin, the Los Angeles-based political
strategist is staying there, as is Rob Reiner, as is real-estate developer
and early Kerry fundraiser Richard Ziman, as is Jonathan Lewis, a major
Democratic donor and fundraiser for America Coming Together, as are
multiple big-time New York Kerry donors.  

"We got numerous calls," Chad Griffin told me, "offering any price for us
to vacate our rooms." And someone inside the Kerry campaign informed me
with mounting irritation that they had received a tidal wave of calls from
big donors complaining that they were given rooms at the new Ritz, and not
at the Four Seasons -- even though "You can throw a sandwich from one to
the other", as the exasperated Kerry staffer put it.

The distinction between the old Ritz on Newbury and the new Ritz on Avery
Street, across the park, is a whole other story, worthy of a PhD thesis. 
For the moment, suffice it to say that the old Ritz is considered much
hotter than the new Ritz, and that Larry King is staying there.

As bad as Hotel Envy is, Skybox Envy is even worse. There are so few of
them at the Fleet Center that even super-high-end contributors Ron Burkle
and Steve Bing have been asked to share one.

Job One of this convention is moving the party faithful from Anybody But
Bush backers to out-and-out Kerry enthusiasts.  On the surface at least,
that task seems to be Mission Accomplished (although such a reference
would probably be vetoed by the powers that be for having too much of an
anti-Bush subtext).

The vital next step is winning over the majority of Americans who have
turned away from Bush but who are not yet comfortable turning control of
the ship of state over to Kerry.  Thursday night's acceptance speech will
go a long way toward determining his ability to sway those undecided
voters. 

David Thorne is convinced he will succeed with flying colors.  Thorne is
one of Kerry's closest friends and the twin brother of Kerry's first wife
-- they were together at Yale and joined the Navy at the same time.  He's
also the mastermind behind Kerry's highly successful Internet operation. 
I ran into Thorne, who has seen The Speech, at the New York Times party at
the Gamble Mansion, and he gave me a preview not of its content but of its
character.

"Have you seen the letters that John wrote to me when we were in the
service?" he asked.  "They show what a passionate, thoughtful, committed
person he was -- and that's the guy you'll be seeing on Thursday night."

The flip side to the Democrats' Anger Management strategy is the
widespread anxiety over whether Kerry will deliver in his big moment. 
Absent the anger, will he be able to convey his passion and his vision for
the country?

And no strategy has yet been invented to manage this anxiety.  Only a
kick-ass speech on Thursday will put an end to it.

© 2004 ARIANNA HUFFINGTON.
http://www.ariannaonline.com/blog/ 

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