Democratic National Convention, 2004

The 2004 Democratic National Convention convened from July 26 to 29, 2004 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston, Massachusetts, and nominated Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts for president and Senator John Edwards from North Carolina for vice president, respectively, in the 2004 presidential election.

The 2004 Democratic National Convention was famous because it included the keynote speech of Barack Obama, who would go on to be elected President four years later. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson served as chairman of the convention, while former presidential advisor to Bill Clinton, Lottie Shackelford, served as vice chairwoman.

The 2004 Democratic National Convention marked the formal end of the active primary election season, although all meaningful primary elections had finished months earlier. After the convention, John Kerry and John Edwards were defeated by the incumbent George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in the general election. , this was the most recent time that the Democratic Party nominated a ticket of two white men.

Convention themes

The 2004 Democratic National Convention featured a theme for each day of the convention. The first night of the meeting focused on the theme "Plan for America's Future" with speeches devoted to building optimism for John Kerry's candidacy. The second night of the meeting focused on the theme "A Lifetime of Strength and Service" devoted to John Kerry's biography and his path to his nomination. The third night of the meeting focused on the theme "A Stronger More Secure America" devoted to issues of homeland security and the global war on terror. The last night of the meeting focused on the theme "Stronger at Home, Respected in the World" devoted to the overall agenda of the party to secure the borders, improving domestic welfare while at the same time promoting international cooperation in world affairs. The phrase "Help is on the Way" was often repeated by speakers such as John Edwards.

This was the first major party presidential nominating convention to be held since the terrorist attacks of September 11 attacks. During the convention, there was a memorial service to honor the victims of the attacks. Haleema Salie, who lost her daughter, son-in-law, and unborn grandchild on American Flight 11, spoke.

Party platform

The 2004 Democratic National Convention successfully passed an official party platform. A forty-three page document, the party platform was entitled "Strong at Home, Respected in the World" – also the name of the theme conveyed on the last night of the convention. The first part of the platform was called "A Strong, Respected America". The section defined specific goals and actions to defeat terrorism, to keep weapons of mass destruction from the hands of terrorists, to promote world peace and security, to strengthen the military, to achieve energy independence and to strengthen homeland security. The second part of the platform was called, "A Strong, Growing Economy". The section defined specific goals and actions to create what the party called "good jobs" and "standing up for the great American middle class." The third part of the platform was called, "Strong, Healthy Families." The section defined specific goals and actions to reform the healthcare system in the United States, to improve education and to protect the environment. The final part of the platform was called, "A Strong American Community." It stressed the diversity of the nation and the importance of upholding civil rights as a major tenet of the party.

Site selection

After an initial notice to 34 cities, 10 cities requested the RFP to host the convention: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Miami, New York City and Pittsburgh. Of those, Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Miami and New York City submitted bids. Baltimore's bid was considered a long-shot. The city lacked a conventional venue with enough space to accommodate the convention, and was proposing the prospect of erecting a temporary canopy at Oriole Park at Camden Yards (which would have likely necessitated the baseball team tenant to vacate the venue for a roughly two-month period of their season). Baltimore was eliminated. Boston, Detroit, Miami and New York City were selected as the finalist cities. Each of the finalist cities received visits from members of the Democratic National Committee during the site selection process. Boston was announced as the host of the convention on November 13, 2002.

The 2004 Democratic National Convention was the major party presidential nominating convention to held in Boston. With John Kerry arising as the winner of the primaries, it ultimately was one of the few presidential nominating conventions that was held in the home state of the party's nominee.

As a result of the selection of Boston, organizers of the Reebok Pro Summer League had to fold the league into the upstart Las Vegas Summer League due to a lack of lodging in the Boston area.

As of the 2020 presidential election, 2004 is the last time that either major party held their convention in a state that was not considered to be a swing state (the Republicans held their 2004 convention in New York City, New York).

Logistics

Security

During the convention, U.S. Capitol Police, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other governmental organizations took many security measures to protect the participants of the Democratic National Convention. Security measures included bomb-sniffing dogs, 7-feet high metal barricades, a ban on corporate and private flights at Logan airport, along with the shutting down of Interstate 93.

Police union

Other Bostonians took advantage of the meeting as a national stage for specific agendas. The police union, for example, gained attention with threats of picketing of delegates from entering and exiting functions – a dilemma for Democrats as the party has traditionally been an ally of organized labor. Having worked without a contract for two years, the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association struck a deal with Boston mayor Thomas Menino for a new contract, avoiding a major embarrassment for the party.

Barack Obama's keynote address

State Senator Barack Obama, the Illinois Democratic candidate for United States Senate, delivered the convention's keynote address on Tuesday, July 27, 2004. His unexpected landslide victory in the March 2004 Illinois U.S. Senate Democratic primary had made him overnight a rising star within the national Democratic Party, started speculation about a presidential future, and led to the reissue of his memoir, '' Dreams from My Father''. His keynote address, although not carried by the commercial broadcast television networks, was well received, which further elevated his status within the Democratic Party and led to his reissued memoir becoming a bestseller.
As the keynote speaker, Obama set the tone for the party platform. His speech, proclaiming the unnecessary and artificial divides in American culture and politics, was reminiscent of John Edwards's "Two Americas" stump speech: "There's not a liberal America and a conservative America—there's the ''United States'' of America." Obama emphasized the importance of unity, and made veiled jabs at the Bush administration and the news media's perceived oversimplification and diversionary use of wedge issues: "We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the red states. We coach Little League in the blue states, and yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, all of us defending the United States of America."

Obama noted his interracial and international heritage: he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to a Kenyan immigrant father and a white mother from Kansas. He emphasized the power of education, recounting the privilege of attending the exclusive Punahou School and Harvard Law School despite his family's poverty, and criticized the perception that poor black youths who read books are " acting white." He went on to describe his successful career in law and politics while raising a family in Chicago. "In no other country on Earth is my story even possible", Obama proclaimed. Towards the end of his speech, he emphasized the importance of hope in the American saga, and he illustrated how that hope manifested itself in the lives of John Kerry, John Edwards, and even his own personal life, as "a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him too." According to Obama, the "audacity of hope" is "God's greatest gift" to Americans, allowing him to feel optimistic that the lives of average Americans can be improved with the right governmental policies. Following the speech political commentator Chris Matthews rightly predicted "I just saw the first black president".

Edwards' address

Not yet formally nominated for the Vice Presidency, John Edwards took the stage at the Convention to give the first major national speech of his political career. Delegates raised red-and-white vertical "Edwards" banners and chanted his name. The theme of Edwards's address was the divide between the "two Americas", his populist message throughout the primary campaign and now one embraced by Kerry. He tied the division to his own roots in North Carolina, and introduced his family to the audience. Edwards addressed his parents from the podium: "You taught me the values that I carry in my heart: faith, family, responsibility, opportunity for everyone. You taught me that there's dignity and honor in a hard day's work. You taught me to always look out for our neighbors, to never look down on anybody, and treat everybody with respect."
Edwards went on to define the two Americas he claimed to exist, one for the rich and one for the poor

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases