Experts Optimistic About Democratic Party Unity

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Republican Party official says he doubts itby Lesley R. Chinn

Recent Gallup polls have U.S. Senator Barack Obama and John McCain in a dead heat and tied at 45 percent. Both candidates have been closely matched up for the past 11 days with neither enjoying a significant lead.

Usually after the convention, a candidate gets a four or five point jump in the polls, said Dick Simpson, UIC professor and department chair of the political science department.

Coming out of the Democratic Convention, if there is no major gaffe, there will generally be a five percent jump in the polls. All of this should work in Obamas favor, he said.

After a bitter primary campaign between Obama and his former opponent Hillary Clinton, Lee Roupeas, chairman of the Cook County Republican Party, said the Democratic Party is still fractured and divided. Given Senator Obamas treatment of Hillary Clintons supporters, its going to be very difficult for those 17 million voters who went out to vote in the primary to all rally behind him.

Its kind of presumptuous for the Republicans to say that the Democrats are divided when the conservative religious right are refusing to join or and support McCain, said Rev. James L. Demus III, pastor of Park Manor Christian Church and former Clinton delegate and supporter. In the same way that the Democrats have their internal issues, the Republicans have theirs, he said. The Democrats will come together when they come out of the convention and win this election.

The 1968 Democratic National Convention, which took place 40 years ago, still resonates with voters who remember a divided Democratic Party with violence that erupted in the streets. At that time, supporters who backed former candidates Robert F. Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy did not unite behind Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey over issues on the Vietnam War and support for then President Lyndon B. Johnson.

The year 1968 was a classic example of Democrats not supporting the party and it cost them the election, Simpson stated. Unlike 40 years ago, he predicted a different outcome this year even though a recent gallup poll shows Republican less divided.

Although Democrats outnumber Republicans in the electorate, about 84 percent of Republicans polled from August 11 to 17, said they would vote for McCain compared to 79 percent of Democrats who said they would vote for Obama in November. Over the same period, Democratic support has ranged from 78 to 82 percent compared to 83 to 85 percent for McCain. In spite of the gap, Simpson predicted Clinton supporters will come back into the fold to unite behind Obama. The economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are going badly, and the Republicans are seen as having failed on foreign policy and the economy. Although McCain says that he is different from President Bush, voters arent convinced and so he has a big gap to overcome.

With the Democratic National Convention taking shape this week in Denver, Colorado, followed by the Republican National Convention from September 1-4 in St. Paul, MN, Roupeas said McCain will have the

opportunity to clearly state his vision on policies that include renewing the economy and implementing

a diversified energy solution. When we talk about keeping taxes low at a time when the economy is struggling, it will become clear that McCain has a better policy that affects average Americans, he said.

Speaking from the DNC in Denver, State Rep. Al Riley (D-38) focused on the historic significance of the

convention and referenced Dr. Martin Luther Kings I Have a Dream Speech, made 45 years earlier. Dr. King and the sacrifices he made paved the way for todays elected officials. The significance is that America has the opportunity to show the world that when it comes to the things we talk about with regard to a Democracy, we can make it true for ourselves.

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