The Note: Camelot in the Mountains

Kennedy the inspiration, Michelle the star, Clintons the drama as DNC begins.

ByABC News
August 25, 2008, 11:26 AM

Aug. 25, 2008 -- DENVER --

Michelle will be the evening's star, and Hillary and Bill will always be good for the drama -- but only Ted is the inspiration.

This is one of those rare cases where Sen. Barack Obama won't mind seeing his message overshadowed -- even though it's opening night of his convention, and even though the marquee player is supposed to be his wife. (Every Kennedy moment is a Clinton moment that isn't.)

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., will provide an emotional lift, an all-time convention highlight, a room full of tears, an ovation delegates will never want to end -- plus a cementing of the ties between the Kennedy legacy and Obama.

Kennedy is in planning on being on stage Monday night -- and right there you'll have your event for the evening, maybe for the week.

Says Kennedy spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter: "Senator Kennedy is in Denver and plans to attend tonight's tribute to him. He's truly humbled by the outpouring of support, and wouldn't miss it for anything in the world. Right now, Senator Kennedy plans to attend, not speak."

"Expect a thunderous reception when he takes the stage at the conclusion of the video," per ABC News. "It's likely to be the emotional high point of the evening -- if not of the entire convention."

"The senator has recently told people that he has a speech written for the convention and that he badly wants to come, pending a final medical consultation," Susan Milligan reports in The Boston Globe. "Buzz has built among Massachusetts politicos that Kennedy would come, and yesterday a Bay State Democrat close to the family confirmed that Kennedy has decided to travel to Denver, probably for an opening-night address."

Said Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.: "If he's up to it in the 11th hour and can get the green light from doctors, he might be able to pull it off."

You think that's dramatic? Check back in with the Storyline That Will Not Go Away -- the one not even delegate talking points can subsume.

The peace offerings are nice and genuine; in truth, convention disruptions may hurt Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton even more than they hurt Obama, and the Clinton folks have begun to realize that.

There's the symbolic "release" of her convention delegates, full representation for Florida and Michigan -- and amid the final negotiations, perhaps even a shelving of the roll-call vote Obama never wanted, ABC's George Stephanopoulos reports.

"She's the question of the convention," Stephanopoulos said on "Good Morning America" Monday. Clinton folks "don't want to get blamed for a bad convention."

Too late for that?

Welcome to Denver: "Mistrust and resentments continued to boil among top associates of presumptive nominee Barack Obama and his defeated rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton," John F. Harris and Mike Allen report for Politico.

It's pettier than you think: "One flashpoint is the assigned speech topic for former president Bill Clinton, who is scheduled to speak Wednesday night, when the convention theme is 'Securing America's Future,' they write. "The former president is disappointed, associates said, because he is eager to speak about the economy and more broadly about Democratic ideas -- emphasizing the contrast between the Bush years and his own record in the 1990s."

"Top Clinton advisors privately complain that Obama never even seriously discussed the vice presidency with Senator Clinton," Jonathan Karl reported on ABC's "World News" Sunday.

Joint statement from Clinton and Obama, from the overnight hours: "The fact is that our teams are working closely to ensure a successful convention, and will continue to do so." "Anyone saying anything else doesn't know what they're talking about -- period."

"She and her campaign have been wonderful partners in working on this convention with us," Obama senior adviser Anita Dunn told reporters Monday morning.

Her next chance to make nice: "Mrs. Clinton this morning will address a breakfast meeting of the New York delegation," Russell Berman reports in the New York Sun. "Mrs. Clinton appeared to be working behind the scenes to shore up support for Mr. Obama in the hopes of a public display of party unity at the convention."

The calls Obamaland was anxious to let reporters know about: Obama "had phone conversations with both Bill and Hillary Clinton this week," ABC's Sunlen Miller reports. "The presumptive Democratic nominee spoke at length with former President Clinton on Thursday afternoon. . . . During the time of their phone conversation, Obama had already made his mind up for his VP pick, but did not inform Clinton of his choice on the call."

And: "On Friday morning, Obama called his former opponent, Sen. Clinton, D-N.Y. Presumably, Clinton, who was on the long list of potential vice presidential picks, was informed then that Obama did not intend to choose her. But the Obama campaign refuses to characterize Clinton and Obama's phone conversation as a 'courtesy call' to tell her she was not the choice for VP."

But those who didn't get the memo are making themselves known in Denver: "Nearly 2,000 Clinton delegates flooded into Denver Sunday, some of them wearing 'Women for Hillary' buttons," Amy Chozick writes in The Wall Street Journal. "There's a lot of pain that needs to be addressed," said Laura Boyd, a Clinton delegate from Oklahoma.

Per the Washington Times' S.A. Miller: "You can actually feel this party splitting," Diane Mantouvalos, co-founder of Just Say No Deal coalition, an Internet-based collection of more than 250 groups vehemently opposed to the impending presidential nomination of Mr. Obama at the party convention in Denver. "There is a lot of anger out there."

Miller reports: "The renegade Democrats plan to stage protests outside the convention hall, flood the Internet with live blogs from Denver and air a TV ad challenging the legitimacy of the party's nominating process."

Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa., didn't do anything to change the storyline: "Ladies and gentleman, the coverage of Barack Obama was embarrassing," he said at a forum with the Sunday show moderators. (Not that anyone is saying anything that can be perceived as anything less than fully supportive of Obama.)

"Running for the most important office in the world, Obama got basically a free pass," Rendell continued (warming GOP hearts).

Right on cue, Mark Penn defends Clintonism: "As Barack Obama formally accepts the Democratic nomination, having defeated Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, people regularly ask whether is Clintonism dead," he writes in his Politico column. "No, not by a long shot. It remains the most cohesive and successful Democratic governing philosophy the country has had since Franklin Delano Roosevelt's election 1932 and the advent of the New Deal."

Sen. John McCain has found a (former) Clinton delegate to put in an ad: Debra Bartoshevich of Wisconsin. "Now, in a first for me, I'm supporting a Republican, John McCain," she says in the ad.

The numbers behind the tension: "Fewer than half of Hillary Rodham Clinton's supporters in the presidential primaries say they definitely will vote for Barack Obama in November, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, evidence of a formidable challenge facing Democrats as their national convention opens here today," Susan Page writes for USA Today. "Thirty percent say they will vote for Republican John McCain, someone else or no one at all."