2008 Democratic National Convention
The 2008 Democratic National Convention was a quadrennial presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party where it adopted its national platform and officially nominated its candidates for president and vice president. The convention was held in Denver, Colorado, from August 25 to 28, 2008, at the Pepsi Center. Senator Barack Obama from Illinois gave his acceptance speech on August 28 at Invesco Field in what the party called an "Open Convention". Denver last hosted the Democratic National Convention in 1908. Obama became the party's first nonwhite nominee, and nominee of African descent, for president. Senator Joe Biden from Delaware was nominated for vice president.
Obama officially received the nomination for president on August 27, when his former opponent, U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, interrupted the official roll call to move that Obama be selected by acclamation. Biden accepted the nomination for vice president on the same night. Obama accepted his nomination the following night in a speech at Invesco Field before a record-setting crowd of 84,000 people in attendance.
Leadership
presided over the political party in his capacity as Chair of the Democratic National Convention. From the national committee, Leah D. Daughtry served as chief executive of the Democratic National Convention Committee. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi served as permanent chair of the convention. Sharing in her responsibilities in the convention were three co-chairmen: Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, Texas State Senator Leticia R. Van de Putte, and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.Schedule
Choosing to hold the convention the day after the Beijing Olympic Games concluded, the Democratic Party convened in Denver in the last week of August, a week before the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. The decision was made, according to the party, to "maximize momentum for our Democratic ticket in the final months of the Presidential election". Customarily, the party of the incumbent president holds its convention after the opposing party has held theirs.The Democratic National Committee presented themes for each day of the convention. The August 25 theme was "One Nation". The August 26 theme was "Renewing America's Promise" while its August 27 theme was "Securing America's Future". The August 28 theme highlights Obama's campaign motto, "Change We Can Believe In". Featured speakers crafted their messages to the theme of the day.
Early party division
With close delegate counts for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, there was early speculation of the first brokered convention in decades. Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean sought to avoid such a circumstance.In addition to the possibility of a brokered convention, a dispute over seating delegates from Florida and Michigan led some to compare the year's convention with the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which ended in a divided party and unhappiness over the outcome. This speculation ended when Obama was declared the presumptive nominee on June 3, 2008, and Clinton officially announced later that week that she was suspending her campaign and was fully endorsing Obama.
Rules
On February 2, 2007, the Democratic Party published "Call for the 2008 Democratic National Convention," the rules governing the convention. There were 3,409.5 pledged delegates, those committed to vote for a particular candidate, selected by primary voters and caucus participants. There were about 823.5 unpledged delegates, those free to vote for any candidate, colloquially known as "superdelegates", for a total of about 4,233 delegates, requiring 2,117 votes to constitute a majority of the convention. The superdelegates consisted of DNC members, Democratic Congress members and Governors, and other prominent Democrats.The pledged delegates were allocated among the states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, according to two main criteria: 1) proportion of votes each state gave the candidate in the last three presidential elections; and 2) percentage of votes each state has in the Electoral College. Fixed numbers of delegates were allocated for American Samoa, Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, and Democrats Abroad. Under the party's Delegate Selection Rules for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, delegates were awarded through proportional representation with a minimum threshold of 15% of votes in a state or congressional district to receive delegates. The delegate population must reflect the state's ethnic distribution, and at least 50% of the delegates must be women.
Results of delegate voting
Along with presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama, former opponent Hillary Clinton's name was also placed in the roll call vote for nomination. The Los Angeles Times noted that this has occurred before: Jerry Brown's name was entered into the roll call after losing to Bill Clinton in 1992; Jesse Jackson and Gary Hart also had their names added after losing to Walter F. Mondale in 1984; while Jackson's name was also entered into the roll call after losing to Michael Dukakis in 1988. In 1980, Senator Ted Kennedy's name was entered into the roll call after losing to Jimmy Carter. In addition, Clinton became only the fourth woman to have her name placed in nomination for president at a major party convention. Clinton would have her name placed in nomination for president once more, in 2016, along with Bernie Sanders.President
Part way through the roll call, Senator Clinton of New York stated, "Madame Secretary, I move that the convention suspend the procedural rules and suspend the further conduct of the roll call vote. All votes cast by the delegates will be counted, and that I move Senator Barack Obama of Illinois be selected by this convention by acclamation as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States." This was done and the verbal roll call vote was halted. Earlier the same day, Clinton had released her delegates, allowing them to vote for Obama. Along with the verbal roll call, a paper ballot was taken. The results were 3,188.5 for Obama and 1,010.5 for Clinton. There are an additional 219 votes that were not cast.Vice president
was nominated by acclamation.Venue
Site selection
In late November 2005, 35 locations were invited by the DNC to bid for the right to host the 2008 convention: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Miami-Dade County, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Nashville, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, St. Louis, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.Eleven cities originally accepted the invitation to bid for the convention in January 2006: Anaheim, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Minneapolis–St. Paul, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Phoenix, and San Antonio. A formal request for proposal was mailed to participating cities on February 27 and the deadline for cities to respond was May 19, 2006.
Only three cities submitted final proposals to host the convention: Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and New York. New Orleans had submitted an initial bid, but on July 12, the city dropped out. The cities were visited by a 10-member Technical Advisory Committee in June 2006. On September 27, the Republicans announced they would have their 2008 convention in St. Paul, removing it from consideration and leaving only Denver and New York as potential hosts. Despite hard lobbying by New York party boosters, then-Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg dealt the campaign a major blow when he announced the city lacked the financial means to support a convention. Denver was chosen as the host on January 11, 2007, as Democrats looked to make gains in the "Purple West" states of Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico.
Preparations
The work to prepare Pepsi Center for the Democratic National Convention was expected to cost $15 million. In addition, a temporary building to be used by the media was built near Pepsi Center.Convention organizers, including the Democratic National Convention Committee and the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee, expected 50,000 attendees, of whom 5,000 were delegates and 15,000 media personnel. However, they anticipated 75,000 people coming to watch Obama accept the nomination on Thursday.
The stage erected at Invesco Field for the convention's final evening featured doric columns meant to evoke the White House's neoclassical architecture. Some critics criticized this design as evoking imperial imagery.
Labor issues
The head of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local No. 7, Jim Taylor, refused to sign a no-strike agreement for the convention. Pepsi Center normally uses nonunion labor, but used Taylor's union during the convention, and Taylor wanted Pepsi Center to use his union for all events.Security measures
As with past political conventions since 2000, the Democratic National Convention was designated a National Special Security Event by the United States Department of Homeland Security.The Denver Police Department doubled in size to 3,000 officers for the DNC, by including other police from 52 neighboring law enforcement agencies. Police were equipped with riot gear in preparation for unorganized protests. Throughout the event, a total of 152 arrests were made for offenses related to the convention.
Principal speakers
Monday, August 25
The theme for the day was "One Nation," with Michelle Obama as the "headline prime-time speaker." She was introduced by her brother, Craig Robinson. In her speech, she explained how her husband embraced the "One Nation" idea:
See, that's why Barack's running: to end the war in Iraq responsibly...
... to build an economy that lifts every family, to make sure health care is available for every American, and to make sure that every single child in this nation has a world-class education all the way from preschool to college.
That's what Barack Obama will do as president of the United States of America.
He'll achieve these goals the same way he always has, by bringing us together and reminding us how much we share and how alike we really are. You see, Barack doesn't care where you're from, or what your background is, or what party, if any, you belong to. See, that's just not how he sees the world.
He knows that thread that connects us – our belief in America's promise, our commitment to our children's future – he knows that that thread is strong enough to hold us together as one nation even when we disagree.
Also, Maya Soetoro-Ng spoke briefly on growing up with her older brother Barack Obama, and brought an Asian-American presence to the stage for the first time. The Work to Come: A Tribute to Senator Edward Kennedy, directed and produced by Mark Herzog and Chris Cowen in association with Ken Burns, was introduced by Kennedy's niece, Caroline Kennedy. Consistent with the theme of the evening, Former Republican congressman Jim Leach gave his public endorsement of Barack Obama. His speech was introduced by Senator Tom Harkin, a fellow Iowan. Senator Kennedy was not expected to attend the convention due to his illness, but nevertheless made a surprise appearance and speech in the evening. A video about former President Jimmy Carter's humanitarian work was also shown, followed by a brief appearance by the president himself.