After Bernie Sanders spoke at the convention, and after about two minutes of sustained cheering for Bernie, the announcer said we would now have Lincoln Chafee.
Lincoln Chafee came to the podium as 70% of the attendees were filing to the exits. As he spoke the room emptied out. I stayed to watch, as did the people in the front, the registered delegates to the convention. What a dispiriting way to give a speech, to the backs of people filing out of the room, slowed by the congestion at the exits.
Chafee has been a Mayor, a Senator, and then a Governor. He has been in Rhode Island politics for a lifetime and he has not been indicted, which sounds like a joke or faint praise, but in RI it is actually an achievement.
Chafee is an experienced pro, so I feel presumptuous to criticize his speech, but will do so anyhow. He used the time to list policy positions in which he was correct (opposed Alito for Judge; opposed Iraq war) but there was no overarching theme of any kind. He was introducing himself to Democrats, but there was no theme. No explanation of his past which informed and shaped his political career, no description of the challenges he faced, no description of his aspirations, nothing whatever for me to grab onto so that I had some insight into him or his character.
I have a video clip of him, but it is unintelligible for the reason that the sound quality is terrible. And it is terrible because I was surrounded by people standing and talking and exiting the building. If you click on that video, the takeaway for you will not be the content of his speech, but rather than the speech was made to people who were paying essentially no attention and they were talking about Bernie Sanders as they were leaving the room. Politics is a tough business.
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