Washington - With only two weeks left before Democrats meet
in Colorado to nominate Barack Obama, much of the debate this week
has been on what Hillary and Bill Clinton will do during the August
25-28 party unity event in Denver.
Late Thursday, it appeared that former president Bill Clinton, one
of the Democratic Party's most important figures, has been invited by
Obama to be a lead speaker on August 27, the evening before Obama
accepts the nomination, media reports said.
But that still hasn't resolved the question of what to do about
Obama's ousted rival for the nomination, the former first lady, and
her disgruntled supporters, even as she heads to Nevada on Friday to
campaign for him.
And Obama still hasn't declared his vice presidential candidate,
teasing hopes among her supporters.
It's unusual for so much to be left up in the air this near to the
convention. Traditionally, a candidate has sealed the nomination by
April or May, and spends the summer raising money and consolidating
the party base. There's a break in campaign rhetoric until September.
But this year's all-out scramble for the Democratic presidential
nod has broken all records. The final outcome went into June. The
party is poised to nominate the country's first African-American
candidate of a major political party, after he narrowly beat the
first woman candidate for the same honour.
Obama, 47, has been intensely engaged in a daily exchange of
campaign barbs with Republican nominee-designate Senator John McCain.
Now, there's the Clinton issue again.
Clinton, 60, is caught between demands by her supporters that she
put her name up for nomination for a formal round of recognition of
her historic candidacy and Obama's need to keep the limelight on him.
By all accounts, although no formal announcement had been made, it
appeared that the Obama campaign was prepared to offer Hillary the
keynote speaker honour for August 26, the 88th anniversary of the
passage of the right-to-vote for women.
In exchange, Clinton was expected to keep her name out of the
state-by-state roll call, party insiders said.
By Thursday, however, an unauthorized film clip of Clinton
speaking to supporters in California surfaced. She suggests that if
she put her name in for nomination and a roll call vote, the party
would 'come out stronger if people believe that their voices were
heard.'
'That is a very big part of how we come out unified. People want
to feel like - OK, it's a catharsis. We're here, we did it, and
everybody get behind Sen. Obama.'
Obama dismissed the idea of 'catharsis.'
'I don't think we're looking for catharsis. I think we're looking
for energy and excitement about the prospect of change in this
country,' he told reporters on board his campaign plane.
A show of party unity is vital for centre-left Democrats to get
the all-important bounce out of the convention and toward the
November 4 general elections.
Clinton's supporters note that she has already withdrawn from the
race and thrown her support behind Obama, and see no harm in formal
recognition.
In the past, such candidates as Senator Edward Kennedy -
who is suffering from brain cancer and will deliver a videotaped
message Monday night at the convention - and civil rights activist
Jesse Jackson were named in the roll call vote.
Party officials are uneasy over the number of Clinton supporters
who have vowed not to vote for Obama. One group calls themselves PUMA
(Party Unity My Ass).
Another group, '18 Million Voices Rise Hillary Rise' - a reference
to the poetic endorsement by African-American poet Maya Angelou and
the 18 million people who voted for Clinton in the primaries - plans
a parade and rally in Denver on August 26 to celebrate Clinton's
accomplishments.
Mary Boergers, a Maryland state senator and Clinton delegate,
said a number of fellow Clinton delegates were thinking about a
protest vote during the state roll call vote.
'If they don't allow us by the rules to vote for Hillary, we will
vote 'present',' she said in an interview.
For Boergers, the prospect of not being able to declare 'yes' for
the first woman to come so near to a presidential nomination is
'greatly' distressing.
'It diminishes really the value of all of these primaries and all
of these caucuses. It makes the convention a coronation and makes the
convention really meaningless,' she said.
According to a recent poll, most of Clinton's women supporters
have come to terms with her defeat and her absence from the Obama
ticket. Only 18 per cent say they will not vote for Obama,
considerably fewer than right after the final primary in June.
But the poll also showed that women hold an important key to
winning the elections, because neither Obama nor McCain has yet won a
majority of women voters into their corner.
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