The tone was noticeable as well. While all the Clinton operatives were clearly hidden in their hotel rooms, anxiously plotting and planning the strategy they would take after they could delay the inevitable confrontation no longer, their nervous absence exuding a tension in the air throughout the hotel -- nothing could have been more opposite than the demeanor of the Sanders people. They were all relaxed and care-free, not seemingly worried nor necessarily enjoying themselves, as they patiently waited for business to finally get underway.
As I became aware of that context I continued my observations of the actors.
The bar itself, the seating at barstools, was noticeably empty in its entirety. One group sat at the border between the open lobby area seating where the bar began but as soon as it emerged on its right-hand side into the more closed setting most of the stools were empty and no one was standing around in conversation. Two-thirds of the booths that paralleled this length of the bar were vacant. As the far end of the oval curved to the smaller end there were perhaps three people sitting alone. No one other than myself was sitting on the left side that led back to the closed door to the open lobby area.
Behind me, at the bar style tables that paralleled this length, sat the second largest group -- perhaps six and at times eight persons -- who occupied the two tables next to the closed door. Sitting at these tables were the campaign professionals from the Sanders side -- with Jeff Weaver prominently in the center.
The rest of the bar heading towards the back of the restaurant were completely vacant with the exception of a single table in the back left corner where Dr. Cornell West sat with two of his staffers with whom I had the pleasure, later that night, to have a lengthy discussion. West was one of the vocal Drafting Committee members appointed by the Sanders campaign.
As earlier described, if we then circumnavigate back around the bar and again towards the lobby, it is not until reaching the end that one finds another group of people. Here sat prominently James Zogby having a quiet conversation with a few others sitting next to him or standing as part of the conversation. They were the only persons standing at any portion of the bar. Dr. Zogby, President of the Arab-American Institute, was another of the highly vocal members of the Sanders delegation on the Drafting Committee.
The latest rising star among the Progressive community, former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner took a much needed but very brief rest in the lounge area just across from the bar, slinking back into a comfy chair with a few friends seated next to her.
In general this was the atmosphere as the Committee sat in long pause after a morning of doing nothing and into an evening of further delays. There was a total absence of the jovial atmosphere one normally finds at the bar after a long day of "politicking." The Hillary camp was clearly nervous -- hidden in the back rooms of the hotel frantically plotting the next moves. While the Sanders camp sat fairly nonchalant biding their time, without a sign either of celebration or concern, waiting for business to actually get under way.
The bar was sparsely populated and was informally divided into two camps -- but each of them from the Sanders contingent. It was more of a pecking order division, with the professionals and the stars in the back by themselves, and in the public lobby a more boisterous group that turned out to be primarily Convention delegates from Florida who were not voting members of the Committee. They formed what one Hillary official derogatorily described as "the peanut gallery" whose presence seemed to be a large part of the strategic reasoning behind the day-long tactic of delay.
The hierarchical division was not formal, however, as it came more from the hesitance of amateurs to presume to mingle on the same plane with the professionals. While I would eventually return to the more social area leaving my seat at the bar and going through the closed door -- one of the Sanders support crew, a Florida delegate to the Convention, asked me if the door was locked. Every once in a while the "celebrity" Jeff Weaver would emerge through the door and one or two would sheepishly approach and ask for a photograph -- and then the pack would briefly ascend and engage. But mostly the two groups, while united in cause, remained in their respective domains.
There was only one noticeable but slight exception to the careless semi-relaxed atmosphere at the Doubletree bar on Friday evening. One member of the committee was carefully reviewing his notes and the language of the amendments set -- at some point -- to be heard.
Few have the ability to capture the reality of the Democratic Party more accurately than Will Rogers' infamous folksy quip: "I'm not a member of any organized political party ... I'm a Democrat."
But the humorist in Texas' Jim Hightower was not left at home when he made the trip to Florida as a Sanders appointee to the full Platform Committee. This would be clear the next evening when the proceedings finally got to his major contribution -- an amendment offered to declare the Party's firm opposition to the notorious TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership). The highly criticized free trade policy has been pushed by the Obama administration angering the base of the Party.
After the embarrassing declaration in typical bold and blunt Donald Trump language, declaring unequivocally his firm opposition to the trade deal, a reluctant Clinton was led, after shepherding the proposal as Secretary of State, to a sheepishly weak declaration that she now stood opposed to the plan.
During the lengthy pre-business hiatus on Friday night, Hightower sat with two others at a small table in the lobby adjacent to the bar. Donning his signature white Texas cowboy hat, Hightower was the most serious member of the bar area that night -- carefully studying and reviewing his notes and the lengthy list of amendments that, presumably, would eventually be taken up by the Committee. I spoke briefly to the satirist turned Sanders representative and asked if he was preparing to put a comical spin on a process and product that was anything but comical. Yes, he stated, and then quickly dug his head back into his work. The result was obvious when they finally arrived at this section of the platform about 5 p.m. the following day.
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