A Look Inside The Upcoming Democratic National Convention

It is vital that we keep the narrative going at the Democratic National Convention–the same narrative that has allowed all the recent major polls released this week to show President Obama is in strong shape heading into the fall election.

 The most innovative – and harshest – element of the preliminary program is a nightly “social contrast” in which two people describe their personal experience with a hot-button issue – one lauding the president’s actions, the other taking Romney to task. “Each paired-testimonial should have an ‘unexpected’ participant,” the documents say. For the gay marriage social contrast, for instance, the documents state the participants should be “not a gay couple” – but a “Parent and gay son or daughter.” Other examples: “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell: Gay soldier and fellow (straight) soldier who served together in Iraq or Afghanistan (ideally the straight soldier was helped by the gay soldier, i.e., medic, in fire fight) … Planned Parenthood: Husband who talks about how a PAP smear saved his wife’s life and his spouse … Immigration: Two young people from the same family, one who was born here, the other a few years older who was not … Choice: A couple who has children, but wants to make their own decisions, not have the government do it for them (or who has confronted a difficult medical situation).”