Democrats In Disarray In Philly

English: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Congressman from Florida's 20th congressional district (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The bell has rung on the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.  Hillary Clinton is set to make history in a city full of it, becoming the first woman to accept a major party's nomination for President.

But first, the former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State has some fires to put out.

• Even though Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has endorsed Clinton, it's still going to take some work to convince his supporters to go along.  Sanders won almost as many states in the primaries and caucuses as Clinton did, but it also seemed as if the deck was stacked against him.  Well, Sanders won a belated victory when Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned as chair of the Democratic National Committee.  Leaked e-mails (courtesy of Wikileaks) detailed how the party screwed Sanders and favored Clinton, which was long suspected anyhow.  The DNC blames the leaks on Russia, believing that its president Vladimir Putin and Republican nominee Donald Trump are best buds and want to steer the election his way.  Wasserman Schultz, meanwhile, has landed on her feet with a major role in the Clinton campaign.
• Clinton also has to overcome GOP and conservative skeptics who thought she got away with it when it came to those classified e-mails and what really happened at Benghazi--neither of which she was guilty of anything incriminating.  Look no further than the Republican convention delegates chanting "lock her up".
• Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia is Clinton's vice presidential pick.  He's moved up the political food chain having first been mayor of Richmond, then serving as governor of Virginia and currently its U.S. Senator.  Kaine sounds like a nice, enthusiastic guy who agrees with most (if not all) of  Clinton's positions.  But he's considered a safe pick, just like Trump's choice of Indiana governor Mike Pence.  Some pundits and progressives thought Clinton could have done much better with Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, or even with Sanders.

Most of all Clinton, with an unfavorable rating second only to Trump's, has to prove to the delegates and the voters on Thursday that she isn't in this just to chase history.  She needs to make the case  that, unlike Trump in Cleveland last week, America is not headed for an apocalypse and that better days are ahead.  Good luck with that.

The last time the Democrats convened in Philadelphia was in 1948.  That was the year TV carried extensive coverage of both parties' conventions for the first time.  Hubert Humphrey, then the mayor of Minneapolis, made his landmark civil rights speech.  Southern Democrats walked out of the convention because of the party's reversal on the segregation issue.  And President Harry Truman won the nomination despite negative numbers that rivaled Clinton.

Maybe Hillary Clinton and Harry Truman have something in common.