The WikiLeaks revelations that the Democratic National Committee had tried to undermine the candidacy of Sen. Bernie Sanders weren't exactly shocking, but they've put a serious dent in the prospects of party unity as the convention begins in Philadelphia.
So now all eyes are, once more, on the senator from Vermont.
He's one of the featured speakers during the convention's opening night tonight, and if he delivers a rousing enough endorsement of Hillary Clinton, that might help calm the waters a bit.
But on the streets and in the arena, the Bern is still being felt, big-time.
CL's Kate Bradshaw and photographer Joeff Davis captured the mood at an anti-fracking rally that took place in Philly's Germantown neighborhood on Sunday. Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover were among the big names who spoke there, but despite an intentionally low level of Hillary-bashing, the support for Sanders was still strong. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the dethroned queen of the DNC, felt the Bern herself when she dared to appear at a Florida delegation breakfast this morning and got booed out of the room by Bernie supporters outraged by anti-Bernie sentiments in the leaked emails.
And today, during a delegates-only come-to-Jesus meeting with Sanders himself, and in the opening hours of the convention proceedings, the enmity toward Hillary Clinton, the Democrats' presumptive nominee -- and the boos that duel with the cheers at every mention of her name -- has verged on shocking.
Sanders's speech to his supporters earlier today at the Convention Center may have been intended to shore up support for Hillary among Bernie-philes, but by all reports it didn't do the trick. In fact, it may have riled up the anti-Hillary contingent even more. When Sanders threw the red-meat lines to the crowd -- stop the TPP, institute single-payer -- the cheers were loud. But when he urged those present to vote for Hillary, the boos were huuuuuge.
And they haven't stopped, even greeting the Rev. Cynthia Hale when she finished the convention invocation at the Wells Fargo Center with a shout-out to HIllary. Later, during a barn-burner of a speech by Maine Rep. Diane Russell, a strong Bernie supporter who fought to abolish super-delegates from the Democratic Party nominating process, the roars of support were so loud it seemed like the convention had turned into a Bernie rally.
It remains to be seen whether this negative energy toward Hillary (and the never-say-die support for Bernie) will carry through even into her acceptance speech, or will dissipate after Sanders speaks tonight. That depends a lot on what he says -- although as the boobirds for Bernie showed earlier today, they are not above booing their own favored candidate.
Which made at least one guy a little sad. I saw Chris Davis leaving the Bernie delegates' meeting and noticed that he was crying. I thought perhaps it was because he had finally realized his guy wasn't going to be president, but no. A 23-year-old delegate from Colorado, he said that the main reason he was crying was that Bernie's supporters had been booing... Bernie.
"I was very disappointed," said Davis. He'd long hoped for a progressive movement like the one Sanders has spearheaded, but in that meeting Davis saw members of the movement resorting to the same tactics they had been fighting against. Check out a video interview with Davis below.
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