The day before the convention officially opened, the America Israel Public Affairs Committee and some other Jewish organizations sponsored an event at the Sony Studios lot for Joe Lieberman and Bill and Hillary Clinton. It will not go down as a landmark in the history of political advance work. The reporters and camera crews were penned in a hot, sun-beaten triangle of grass, and then were kept waiting for nearly two hours as the Clintons dillydallied at a Barbra Streisand fund-raiser across town.
The podium from which the speakers would speak had been erected in front of an advertisement for Sony's forthcoming movies, as a way for the studio to cadge a little free publicity. But if an enterprising photographer crouched low, he could get a splendid picture of Clinton or Lieberman with the phrase "Hollow Man" looming above his head. These Democratic advance men have got to become more irony-conscious.
At last the guests of honor arrived. Hillary's remarks were an automatic-pilot campaign pitch, and Bill's defense of the recent Camp David talks was strictly pro forma. The interesting speeches came from the cabinet secretaries. They went out of their way to lavish praise on their boss, with the kind of competitive suck-upsmanship that second-tier pols specialize in. The chorus of flattery spiraled upward, until it climaxed, if we can use that word in an item about the president, with Dan Glickman, who some people may remember as the secretary of agriculture. (Ag secretaries do not routinely deliver climactic speeches.) Clinton, said Glickman, is "one of the most extraordinary people of all time." Let's see: Moses, St. Augustine, Isaac Newton, Bill Clinton. This must be the Democratic National Convention!