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Democratic National Convention - Day 2

(The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation)

Democratic National Convention - Day 2

Guest: Richard C. Harwood, Special to MSNBC

Welcome back Mr. Harwood.

Good to be back!

THE_RAGING_PATRIOT-g says: Why does the democratic convention seem so borring, they use to be exciting but they seem to have lost their edge with the Youth

steve_baxley-guest says: I thought the conventions were about as interesting as a riot at a BMW deaership, where is the spontaniousness, were is the chuspah!..WHERE IS THE EXIT!!!!!!!!!!

Did they really used to be so much better or are our expectations too high?

I don't think expectations are too

high. I think that there's been so much a beating up on the conventions by the news media and the opposing political party that I think we've all come to jump on the bandwagon now and complain endlessly about these conventions. If you look at news coverage of the convention, much of it is on how boring they are and how little is taking place as opposed to covering what is taking place and what it might mean for voters this year. That said, the conventions have become too much of a television show and even with that, they've become silly in ways. For example, the panel discussion at the Democratic convention with "real citizens".

What about the "lost their edge with the youth" part? Should Mtv run these campaigns?

I think politics has lost its edge with the youth. Politicians seem to believe they "know" society including younger voters because of focus groups and surveys they hold. They seem to be tone deaf on the depth and feel of American voters and particularly among younger voters and that shows.

StormyMS1 says: Do you still think the Al Gore needs to re-read his book to "find" himself, or is it too late?

guest-essen34 says: why would a man of algore 's age have to re-invent himself ?

I don't think Al Gore should reinvent himself at this point in his life or necessarily needs to. I think what he does need to do is put forth himself and let the chips fall where they may. There's no guarantee when you run for President or any office and there's not this time either. About his book, I suspect he has gone back to re-read it and if he hasn't, he should because after years of public service and of working as hard as he does, you can lose your bearings. And I think his book is an expression of who he really is, unvarnished focus group without any surveys conducted for him.

18 - pop-guest says: Will what we do not need is all the analyst tom pick about someone speech,what we do need is someone that is not bais and to show the difference btween Bush and Gore

Is the media doing a good job?

Is it doing ITS job?

I do believe that analysts pick apart candidate's speeches too much in that they tend to look for the politics around the speeches and how someone looks as opposed to how someone is presenting their record, whether it's consistent with their past, how it's similar or different to the other party's nominee. So I think the news media can do a lot better job in covering these conventions. One example - if you've noticed how correspondents on the convention floor end each interview with someone, they tend to make a passing remark, giving their own commentary about what the person is or what they said, I think the correspondents ought to let people speak for themselves.

Rich, with that answer you just won the votes of everyone in the room I think :)

One of the things that the news media doesn't seem to quite get which we find in our research with them is that people don't look to the news media for a final answer, they only look at the news media as another source in the ability to make their own judgments about what they think and believe and value. The news media ought to pull back on some of its analysis and frankly cheap shots at some of the people who are engaging in public service or at least trying to.

linn35-guest says: what is a deadcat bounce?

bruce-guest says: i will ask this again if there is poll now that shows al gore ahead by one point why is that not quoted in your last report.the harris poll released 8/14 shows gore 43 bush 42.but you only quote polls that the story

I think it's because of the way the Democrats framed their convention, for instance, who's been speaking each night and what they're talking about. I don't think it surprising that they haven't received or may not receive yet the bounce that many people might anticipate. I think the bounce for the Dems will come only after Al Gore makes his speech tonight and frankly over the next few weeks in whether or not the VP can sustain people in taking another look at him and then potentially moving over to his side.

RD-guest says: To Hoch: If Gore loses he can blame the loss on the Democrat Senators (including Lieberman) who voted to keep an impeached Clinton. If had been removed Gore would be a sitting president and much harder to defeat in the coming election. If Gore had replaced Clinton in '98, he would be entitled to 10 years as president. The Democrats screwed up when they voted to let Clinton continue in office.

Things have already unfolded so we can't change those. But I happen to disagree with the question. I think once the VP makes his speech tonight and goes back on the campaign trail, people will see clear differences both positive and negative between him and Clinton. People will make up their minds on Al Gore. I think the days of people only seeing Al Gore through the lens of what Bill Clinton did, in terms of the Monica Lewinsky affair, is not as important as it once was.

Dont_Stop-guest says: You have to be joking! McCain got cancer as a trick to spear the Dems????? What a pathetic thing to say!

I don't believe that and I don't want to believe that. I think the question and the rumors running around tell us just how deep the mistrust about politics can get in this country.

pop-guest says: pop question,can one debate be do for the people and not the politicans where the question are not staged and go from the local poeple and not the local politicans

I think we saw that in the Richmond debate in 1996 to a limited extent. There is a move afoot among many civic organizations to hold political debates in the way that you're talking. But the candidates and their handlers want so much control over how debates are put together and staged that many candidates simply won't do it. I'm reminded now of the Bradley-Gore debate in New Hampshire which had a fair amount of citizen participation and where the two candidates could respond to each other. I thought that format showed some promise.

mitch-guest says: Most non partisan folks i have met usually had a liberal leaning, how about Mr Harwood. What is educational backround

People are very skeptical when I say "non-partisan"

I've a BA degree in political economy from Skidmore College in upstate NY and a Master's Degree in public affairs from Princeton University. But many of my thoughts that I'm talking about today have come from years of work in communities and with people from across this country in the Harwood Institutes research and projects. You can check us out at http://www.theharwoodinstitute.org/

Before we let you go Mr. Harwood, let's talk about tonight.

Is tonight Do or Die for Gore, and what would make a "do" and what would make a "die."

I don't think it's necessarily do or die. I think there've been lots of campaigns where people came back from the "dead" to win an election. I do think what Gore needs to do tonight is demonstrate his character for people. I don't mean in the way we talked about Bill Clinton's character or to tell us about his personality. What I mean character in terms of telling Americans, and I have a piece on NBC on this coming up, what is the calling he believes America must respond to now. What's given rise to the need for such a calling? And what does that calling mean for individual Americans and his policy proposals? The Democrats keep talking about JFK and MLK and the callings they sounded for America. Gore wants to put himself in that group so what's the calling he's talking about today.

Thanks very much Mr. Harwood for taking all of this time with us during these conventions.

Thank you very much.

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