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July 08, 2008

Will Hillary Delegates get to vote for her?

Rick Moran
The nightmare scenario of the Obama campaign involves Hillary Clinton giving a cracking good speech the first or second night of the convention and then stampeding some Obama delegates to vote for her on the first ballot.

Frankly, this is almost impossible these days what with the iron control over one's own delegates a candidate can exercise. If it appears a delegate is wavering, they would have the state chairman pull the miscreant and send in a perfectly reliable sub.

But what does worry the Obama camp is Hillary Clinton stealing too much of Obama's thunder. Hence, negotiations are now underway between the two camps that would define her role at the convention:

Hillary Clinton won a hefty 1,600 convention delegates in six months of primaries. A big question now is whether to let them vote at the Democratic convention.

High on the list of matters that Sen. Clinton and likely Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama are negotiating as her campaign closes down is whether and how her name is put into nomination at the August convention in Denver, said party activists in both camps.

A full roll-call vote that reminds everyone how close she came to being the nominee could reveal party rifts going into the fall campaign, they said.

Also to be negotiated is her speaking slot. If they're smart, they will offer her first out of the box on the first night of the convention. The further away from the floor vote the better.

What about Bill? He may get a plum spot on the night before the floor vote in that he will maintain interest in the event for the public.

The Obama people must feel like they're negotiating with a foreign potentate so powerful are the Clintons in the party. But I'm sure they'll be able to get what they want while satisfying the Clintons.

Posted at 11:04 AM | Email | |

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