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Passing The Torch To A New Generation

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By MARSHA MERCER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 27, 2008

DENVER - Hoping to win back the White House in November, Democrats in August are, in Obama's phrase, turning the page.

You can hear it from national convention delegates like Bernice G. Scott of Hopkins, S.C., a Hillary Clinton delegate who has moved on to Obama. She has no sympathy for die-hard Clinton supporters.

"The ones who're still disgruntled? I say, get a life," Hopkins told me, shouting over the din of Pepsi Center chatter.
Getting a life for Democrats means putting aside the Clintons, gently. The Democratic National Convention is running on two tracks - honoring the past while forging a fresh identity with a new generation of leadership.

On the convention's opening night, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's emotional appearance signaled the end of one era and Michelle Obama's speech the start of the next.

A moving video tribute recalled the glory days when the Kennedys were young and the champions of civil rights and equal opportunity. The old liberal lion, battling brain cancer, delivered a fiery speech that brought people to their feet. Some had tears in their eyes.

Kennedy, facing death, knows that elections are about the future, and he wanted to point his party on its way.

"There is a new wave of change all around us," he said, "and if we set our compass true, we will reach our destination - not merely victory for our party but renewal for our nation. And this November, the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans."

And so the last surviving Kennedy brother hailed that new generation, epitomized by Barack Obama. He said Obama will work to provide health care, a goal Kennedy has fought for throughout his career.

"Barack Obama will close the book on the old politics of race and gender and group against group and straight against gay," Kennedy said.

To their dismay, Bill and Hillary Clinton have come to personify the old Democratic guard from whom the torch is passing. That's tough for them personally because in 1992, they were the change. Hillary Clinton had expected to be the change again in 2008 after eight years of President George W. Bush.

And, during the primaries, 18 million voters felt more comfortable with the known Clinton than the unknown Obama. That's why former and would-be presidents Clinton are getting kid-gloves treatment this week with prime-time speeches on consecutive nights. The Clintons must get their "propers" as they give up center stage.

They won't disappear, of course, but their roles are changing, much as Kennedy's did after his 1980 bid for president ended in disappointment at the party's national convention in New York.

Clinton had no way to know that an unknown upstart from Illinois would out-change her and her husband. The Clintons now appear to be part of the problems of Washington because they have been of the power scene for so long.

In these days, Michelle Obama told the cheering crowd, "Barack is the change we need."

(What do you think? E-mail mmercer@mediageneral.com or comment at mgwashington.com)

Marsha Mercer is Washington bureau chief for Media General News Service.

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