Opinion: Michelle or Teddy? 16th Street picks Michelle
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‘Dude, she was awesome!’
‘Yeah, dude, she rocked, but was it enough?’
‘Dude, it was so totally enough.’
That was the kind of thing you heard walking down 16th Street in Denver Monday night. Twenty-somethings who had had maybe one too many designer brews, holding forth from outdoor pub tables, debated the awesomeness of Michelle Obama after she addressed the Democratic National Convention. Lots of use of the word ‘dude,’ and lots of praise for the wife of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama, who on Thursday is expected to--
OK, wait. ‘Presumptive’? Why are we all saying that? Is there some suspense hanging in the air? Excitement, maybe, but no suspense. A couple weeks ago we could have said, ‘Michael Phelps, presumptive 2008 Olympic gold medalist,’ because there was theoretically an outside chance that Phelps wouldn’t win everything in sight, though we presumed he would. But enough with the ‘presumptive’ for Obama.
Sorry. Where were we? Oh, right, Michelle Obama, who clearly beat Teddy Kennedy in the made-for-TV adoration sweepstakes among the drinking young in downtown Denver (see Mark Z. Barabak’s Times story on the two speeches and other highlights of the convention’s first night). Different story as you walked toward the big hotels, where the crowds got older and the number of credential badges around necks grew larger. ‘It was good to see Teddy so well’ was the sort of thing people waiting for taxis said to one another.
But not all of them. Downstairs from the Pinnacle Club at the Grand Hyatt, where folks like San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and other VIPs from the California delegation were partying late into the night -- courtesy of AT&T -- several women with Ohio delegate floor passes were standing in the taxi line and coming close to blows.
‘You can’t be serious,’ said one, staring down her acquaintance. ‘Get over it. It’s not going to be Hillary this time, and because of that you’re telling me you would vote for McCain?’
‘I’m saying it’s not right,’ came the answer. ‘It was taken from her.’
For all the Obamania, there are in fact, strong hints of -- is it OK to call it Hillarity? -- in town. I still say we shouldn’t use ‘presumptive,’ but there seem to be lots of Clinton delegates who think even that’s too strong. See the Times story.
Earlier in the day, at the California delegates’ breakfast, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shook her finger at the crowd (which is weighted heavily toward Clinton supporters) to remind delegates that McCain is, well, a (gasp) Republican.
The photos of Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama were snapped by Keith Bedford/Bloomberg News and Charles Charapak/AP, respectively.