AAJ and the Presidential Candidates
I am blogging today from the annual American Association for Justice (AAJ) convention in Chicago, IL. Chi-town is beautiful in the summer. Lake Michigan is like an ocean (without the salt). The great thing about a pre-election year convention, is that Presidential political candidates come out to press palms and ask for money from attorneys attending this convention. Republican candidates would not be caught dead at a convention of primarily plaintiff personal injury attorneys (and a few of us Qui Tam, employment law and consumer protection attorneys as well). As a Republican "Civil Justice Prosecutor”, I think the Republican candidates are making a principled mistake based on the fact that they are being told what to think by large corporations and insurance companies. (I will leave that pulpit for another post).
On Sunday, the top five Democratic Candidates addressed a select group of the convention body. Each of the five candidates had 20 minutes to discuss their platform and list of pre-determined questions. The five candidates were Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Joseph Biden, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton.
Universally the feelings of the audience after each candidate spoke and answered the questions were as follows:
Joe Biden was the most articulate and passionate person on the floor. (I met Joe Biden a year ago with his sister on an escalator in Seattle. My associate, Marvin, and I were coming down the escalator and Joe Biden was behind us. We stopped and spoke to him for about a half an hour.) I came away completely impressed by his sincerity and his knowledge and understanding of the issues. I also think he is unappealing to the American people for being a bit too candid in his opinions. Typically, presidential election winners are not usually overly passionate people. Joe is very passionate.
Bill Richardson was the most likeable person I have ever seen running for President. He just seems like the kind of guy with whom you would want to hang out and have a beer. The audience found him to be competent and articulate. However, for some reason everyone believes he is just trying to position himself to be the VP. I am not sure, his last quarter was respectable with $7,000,000.00 raised.
Hillary was cool, calm and confident, but not as passionate. She has taken a position on medical malpractice reform, which is right out of the Bush playbook. She allegedly likes the idea of a national malpractice oversight arbitration board. This is an idea that really would fit in the Democrat pocketbook but is one that will anger the AAJ membership. She conveniently ignored that topic.
John Edwards was good but not inspiring. This was surprising because he came out to a raucous standing ovation. My personal feeling is that he is almost too good looking to be taken seriously.
Finally, we come to Barack Obama. I purposefully, left him last, even though he spoke third. His presentation and the way he answered the questions did not sound polished. He sounded scripted and looked stiff. He appeared out muscled by every one of the other personalities. I am not sure if he was tired, overly scripted or simply intimidated by the audience of trial lawyers, nevertheless, he came off as unimpressive at the event. This is a shame, because I wanted him to be outstanding.
Judging from the competence level of all the candidates, Joe Biden is the best candidate with Bill Richardson right behind him. The race is Hillary's to lose. Hillary has the big money flocking to her. Hillary has the business community and was anointed the business friendly/conservative Democrat in the field. Hillary has presidential presence and toughness, which sometimes looks like feistiness, which is needed to win in this type of election. In addition, wouldn't it be great to have a female president and a female speaker of the house?
Just one more thought: if Hillary does win the presidency, Bill Richardson would make a great VP and Joe Biden woud make a great Secretary of State.
Brian signing off from Chi-town
On Sunday, the top five Democratic Candidates addressed a select group of the convention body. Each of the five candidates had 20 minutes to discuss their platform and list of pre-determined questions. The five candidates were Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Joseph Biden, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton.
Universally the feelings of the audience after each candidate spoke and answered the questions were as follows:
Joe Biden was the most articulate and passionate person on the floor. (I met Joe Biden a year ago with his sister on an escalator in Seattle. My associate, Marvin, and I were coming down the escalator and Joe Biden was behind us. We stopped and spoke to him for about a half an hour.) I came away completely impressed by his sincerity and his knowledge and understanding of the issues. I also think he is unappealing to the American people for being a bit too candid in his opinions. Typically, presidential election winners are not usually overly passionate people. Joe is very passionate.
Bill Richardson was the most likeable person I have ever seen running for President. He just seems like the kind of guy with whom you would want to hang out and have a beer. The audience found him to be competent and articulate. However, for some reason everyone believes he is just trying to position himself to be the VP. I am not sure, his last quarter was respectable with $7,000,000.00 raised.
Hillary was cool, calm and confident, but not as passionate. She has taken a position on medical malpractice reform, which is right out of the Bush playbook. She allegedly likes the idea of a national malpractice oversight arbitration board. This is an idea that really would fit in the Democrat pocketbook but is one that will anger the AAJ membership. She conveniently ignored that topic.
John Edwards was good but not inspiring. This was surprising because he came out to a raucous standing ovation. My personal feeling is that he is almost too good looking to be taken seriously.
Finally, we come to Barack Obama. I purposefully, left him last, even though he spoke third. His presentation and the way he answered the questions did not sound polished. He sounded scripted and looked stiff. He appeared out muscled by every one of the other personalities. I am not sure if he was tired, overly scripted or simply intimidated by the audience of trial lawyers, nevertheless, he came off as unimpressive at the event. This is a shame, because I wanted him to be outstanding.
Judging from the competence level of all the candidates, Joe Biden is the best candidate with Bill Richardson right behind him. The race is Hillary's to lose. Hillary has the big money flocking to her. Hillary has the business community and was anointed the business friendly/conservative Democrat in the field. Hillary has presidential presence and toughness, which sometimes looks like feistiness, which is needed to win in this type of election. In addition, wouldn't it be great to have a female president and a female speaker of the house?
Just one more thought: if Hillary does win the presidency, Bill Richardson would make a great VP and Joe Biden woud make a great Secretary of State.
Brian signing off from Chi-town
