The 'village' of Hillary operatives behind Kamala Harris

Daily Point

NY Clinton alumni reunite at DNC

The legendary lost cause to make Hillary Clinton the first female president means a circle of her New York veteran operatives are in Chicago this week — all looking to help catapult Vice President Kamala Harris into the White House.

Karen Persichilli Keogh, who was Sen. Clinton’s chief of staff long before her current role serving as Gov. Kathy Hochul’s top aide, noted the different circumstances in embracing the quickly launched Harris-Tim Walz cause.

"The Democrats are so united, so excited, so jubilant like never before," Keogh told The Point at the state delegation’s daily breakfast meeting on Wednesday, in the run-up to the evening’s appearances by Walz and former President Bill Clinton, among others.

"I think that’s because the stakes are so high given the other side’s choice. It’s palpable, and electric," she said. But can that hold up through Election Day? "Absolutely. Seventy-six days to go. People understand what’s at stake," said Keogh, who grew up on Long Island.

KPK, as she is known, worked on the Bill Clinton-Al Gore reelection campaign in 1996, joined Hillary Clinton’s Senate staff, and worked on her presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2016.

Christine Quinn, the former New York City Council speaker who endorsed Clinton, gave a similar response: "It feels more urgent than Clinton 2016," and because of that, Quinn predicted Harris would succeed. Part of the difference may be timing. Because the Harris campaign began so late, after President Joe Biden dropped out, supporters are working with a shorter window, perhaps leaving the candidate less critically examined than Clinton had been for many years. They also favor attacking Trump more aggressively this time to answer his constant flow of personal ridicule.

Other veteran Clintonistas in the room were Resi Cooper, now a consultant, who was a key Clinton contact on Long Island during the latter’s Senate tenure; Erin Stevens, a deputy to state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli; Leecia Eve, a partner at Ichor Strategies in Brooklyn; and Kara Hughes, now with the Albany firm O’Donnell & Associates.

Hillary Clinton, who got as far as becoming the first female presidential major-party nominee eight years ago, endorsed Hochul in her first run for a full four-year term in 2022.

"Isn’t it about time we elect a woman as our governor," Clinton asked in 2022. The former secretary of state made much the same pitch Monday night for a Harris presidency.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

Pencil Point

A parting thought

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/0824weeklytoons

Reference Point

Echoes of the DNC's summer of '68

The 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago — one of the most infamous political conventions in our nation’s history — has been invoked often as a possible comparison point to the event unfolding this week in the Windy City. Much of that has centered on the possibility of confrontations between Chicago police and pro-Palestinian protesters in an echo of the bloody clashes between police and anti-Vietnam War protesters 56 years ago.

The minor skirmishes that have taken place so far fall far short of the 1968 mayhem, but other parallels exist.

Then as now, the sitting president chose not to seek reelection because of his perceived unpopularity — Joe Biden now, Lyndon Johnson then. Newsday’s editorial board applauded Johnson’s decision on Aug. 28, 1968, the third day of the convention, for the way his act "dampened much of the bitterness and rancor surrounding his role as commander-in-chief, and has marked him for history as a man who put country ahead of personal pride. He will be remembered for this act of self-abnegation ..."

Johnson’s move did little to quell discontent within factions of the party over the war in Vietnam, an unrest captured in Newsday’s political cartoons from the first two days of the convention. The first, on Aug. 26, featured the Democratic donkey carrying a basket and standing on a blanket in a field under a cloud adorned with labels like "PARTY SPLIT," "PROTEST MARCHES," and "PLATFORM FIGHT," with the title underneath: "This Is No Picnic!"

The following day’s cartoon depicted a building labeled "DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION" straddling a wide chasm, the edges of the building resting precariously on the canyon’s rims, with the title "Shaky Foundation."

Newsday lampooned the struggle to find a unified message on Vietnam on the convention’s third day with a cartoon from the Buffalo Evening News. An irate donkey is trying to build a "DEM PLATFORM" structure with four ill-fitting pieces labeled "VIETNAM PLANK" sitting on the floor with nails sticking out. Underneath are the words: "I Wish These Things Would Come Already Assembled."

The editorial that appeared that day titled "The Vietnam Plank" blessed the party platform committee’s proposal supporting the war as one "that keeps faith with America’s fighting men and serves notice that the U.S. will not abandon the people of South Vietnam to Communist aggression."

The board noted that "The Democratic Party’s struggles over the plank on Vietnam reflect the deep divisions that exist among Americans on the war issue," much as many Americans are divided over the current conflict in Gaza.

After Democrats agreed to nominate Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota as their presidential candidate, Newsday’s board praised Humphrey for his "continued support" of Johnson’s Vietnam policy, which essentially was the plank that was adopted. And it welcomed Humphrey’s condemnation in his acceptance speech of the violence in the streets that had marred the convention, calling his words "the healing balm of courage and determination in the face of political turmoil."

Neither the Vietnam plank nor Humphrey’s nomination improved the Democrats’ lot in November, as Humphrey lost narrowly to Republican Richard Nixon, 43.3% to 42.7%, hurt partly by the third-party candidate, former Alabama Democratic Gov. George Wallace, taking 13.5% of the vote.

— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com

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