A friend who is a historian made a witty comparison between the DNC in Denver and an event that happened in the year 532 in Constantinople, called The Nika Riots.
Justinian I, the emperor, was a somewhat weak willed character, much like Bill Clinton. His wife, the empress Theodora, however, was very strong willed and fearsome, not unlike Hillary.
Constantinople itself was divided into four factions, ironically what today we would think of as sports fans, but far more political. Each of the four factions were associated with a color, whose shirt they wore.
Now Bill Clinton, or really Justinian I, was a supporter of the blue faction, or the blue States, as it were. Aligned with them was the more radical green team, that maybe today we can think of as the far left, environmental-agitator type anti-war Moonbats.
The other two factions, the red States, or team, and the white faction, which Howard Dean pointed out recently, were far more conservative, and less inclined to make trouble.
Some of the blues and the greens, who broke the law and got away with it, and were protected by the church sanctuary movement, were also protected by the Democrats, or blues and greens, who demanded that they be given pardons for their crimes, which Bill Clinton was willing to do.
Well, the blues and the greens, with the help of some treacherous congressmen, or really senators, tried to impeach him while President Bush was trying to negotiate peace with the Iraqis, or in this case, the Iranians, who were called Persians at the time.
Their leader, Hypatius, or Obama, that the extremist greens wanted to become the new emperor, met at the great gathering at the Hippodrome in Denver, called by Theodora, Hillary, as peace and unification talks of their two factions.
But Al Gore, the popular eunuch, named Narses, passed out gold to
Hillary’s supporters, so that at a given moment they walked out of the convention, leaving behind the surprised Obama supporters in the middle of Obama’s coronation and nomination as the new emperor.
Then imperial troops led by retied General Weseley Clark stormed the Hippodrome in Denver and slaughtered 30,000 Obama supporters.
Hypatius was executed, and the offensive congressmen Pelosi, Murtha, Reid and others were exiled for supporting the riots outside the convention hall.
Then after some lesser riots in cities around the nation, John McCain was able to restore order and the rule of law as the new President.
Because of her vicious and treacherous supression of the greens, Hillary, or Theodora, insured that her nation would continue for many years, even though she herself never got to really rule, since the empire didn’t permit female rulers.
FAscinating - I have a read a historical novel about Empress Theodora ,by Gillian Bradshaw who is also clasical scholar, and your parallels are really stunning.
I had read this story before, and your comparison is quite relevant.
A reincarnation perhaps?
On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, in a downtown high-rise conference room lined with two-way mirrors, 21 undecided Colorado voters sit trying to decide whether they have more doubts and reservations about Barack Obama or John McCain... The group has been convened by the pollster Frank Luntz, who usually does this sort of thing on live television but has instead organized the session at the behest of the American Association of Retired Persons and the related activist group Divided We Fail... after two hours of talking, and a pre-convention buildup here in Denver in which Democrats have received lots of positive coverage in this critical swing state, you’d have to say that the news is pretty good for McCain... At first, the atmosphere seems quite friendly for Obama. Luntz asks the Democrats in the room to raise their hands. Four people do so. Then he asks for the independents; about 15 hands go up. And then he asks for Republicans to raise their hands. There are none.AARP hires a pollster who assembles a group consisting of no Republicans? Stop the presses!!! ;')