He (she) who gets booed

I doubt that anyone, Republican or Democrat, watched the entire session of the Democratic convention yesterday, except for those who are paid to. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post is paid to report, from a leftist perspective, on the human comedy. Thus, he apparently watched the whole thing.

Here, from Milbank’s column, is a list of folks who were booed yesterday when they mentioned Hillary Clinton’s name.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen
Richard Trumpka (AFL-CIO head)
Andriana Espaillat (formerly an illegal immigrant, now a candidate for Congress)
Ben Jealous (former NAACP head)
Rep. Marcia Fudge
Nancy Pelosi
Rev. Cynthia Hale
Sara Silverman (comedian)
Eva Longoria (actress)
Elizabeth Warren (there were chants of “Goldman Sachs” during her speech)
Bernie Sanders.

Milbank, no shrinking violet in the human comedy, found the booing unjustified. He called it “hooliganism.”

I found the booing pleasantly surprising. One would expect the left-wing mob outside the convention hall to be unruly, but the delegates to be much better behaved. After all, I would have thought, even Sanders delegates are politicians.

I’ve seen it suggested, though, that the Clinton machine caused the selection of unruly Sanders delegates. The theory is that members of the political class were so afraid of reprisals from the DNC that they tended not to stand as Sanders delegates. The void was filled by true grassrootsers.

I expect them to be raucous tonight, especially during the roll call vote, which Sanders says he’s looking forward to. I expect them to be raucous on Wednesday night, especially when Tim Kaine, their new bete noire, speaks.

Will they still be raucous on Thursday night when it’s Hillary’s turn? That’s a question that should be keeping the nominee up at night.

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