Clinton To Be Nominated At Convention - It's official.

By Elizabeth Benjamin - The NY Daily News - August 14, 2008

Word that a deal had been reached between the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns to put both of their names into nomination at the convention in Denver has been percolating around the Web all morning.

Now there's a joint statement from the Obama and Clinton press offices that confirms the agreement.

Since June, Senators Obama and Clinton have been working together to ensure a Democratic victory this November. They are both committed to winning back the White House and to to ensuring that the voices of all 35 million people who participated in this historic primary election are respected and heard in Denver.

To honor and celebrate these voices and votes, both Senator Obama's and Senator Clinton's names will be placed in nomination.

“I am convinced that honoring Senator Clinton's historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong united fashion,” said Senator Barack Obama.

Senator Obama’s campaign encouraged Senator Clinton's name to be placed in nomination as a show of unity and in recognition of the historic race she ran and the fact that she was the first woman to compete in all of our nation’s primary contests.

“With every voice heard and the Party strongly united, we will elect Senator Obama President of the United States and put our nation on the path to peace and prosperity once again,” said Senator Hillary Clinton.

Senator Obama and Senator Clinton are looking forward to a convention unified behind Barack Obama as the Party’s nominee and to victory this fall for America.

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Clinton Will Be Nominated
by Steve Kornacki - The Politicker - August 14, 2008

Per Marc Ambinder, we now have formal word of an agreement between the Clinton and Obama campaigns that calls for both candidates’ names to be placed in nomination at the convention in order to “honor and celebrate” all of their supporters, according to a joint statement.

As I wrote yesterday, the Obama campaign didn’t have much choice here. The official purpose of a convention is to nominate a presidential candidate, and that can only be done two ways: by acclimation or by a roll call of the states.

If the Obama campaign had gone the acclimation route (as a way of avoiding a formal vote in which hundreds of Clinton delegates might dissent), the protests from Clinton’s die-hard delegates (there are many of them) would be deafening and would produce video clips that would be played over and over, completely defeating the purpose of an acclimation motion.

That left the roll call option, which is traditionally used (even when the nominee is unopposed). But even if Clinton had – as the Obama campaign would have liked – instructed her delegates not to nominate her (and refused to consent to being nominated if they went ahead and did so anyway), it would still be permissible for her delegates to vote for her in the roll call of the states. One way or another, the Clinton delegates who want to vote for her were going to be heard. With this compromise, the Obama campaign is finally recognizing this.

Now the questions will begin: Will Hillary explicitly urge her delegates to vote for Obama anyway, as a show of unity? And how many of them will listen if she does? And will any of this mollify the PUMA crowd, some of whom are still talking of wresting the nomination for Clinton in Denver? And, perhaps most importantly: Will we be talking about any of this once the convention is over?

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Maybe not as running mate, but Obama still needs Clinton

Jaime Castillo - My SA News - Aug. 3, 2008
The long slog known as the Democratic presidential nominating contest was all but over.

Hillary Clinton had just conceded the floor, and the 2008 nomination, to Barack Obama.

Yet state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, a co-chairwoman of the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Denver, couldn't ignore the obvious.

“He's still got a lot of work to do with la gente,” said Van de Putte, using a common Spanish euphemism to refer to the Hispanic community.

That was several weeks ago.

Have those wounds, particularly the hurt feelings of older Latinas who saw their own struggle in Clinton's historic candidacy, had enough time to heal? Does it make a difference now that the buzz out of Washington, D.C., is Clinton almost assuredly won't be Obama's running mate?

“If you drive through my district, those Hillary signs aren't coming down yet,” said Van de Putte on Friday. “My hope is through the convention and shortly thereafter to make them (Hillary supporters) feel more comfortable.”

It is a unique position for the veteran lawmaker, who also backed Hillary's candidacy in the primary.

Here she is gearing up for the Democratic Party's ultimate national pep rally later this month and she's still concerned about the enthusiasm level in her predominantly Hispanic district, which covers pretty much all of western Bexar County.

It is a tougher problem for Obama as his race against Republican John McCain is tightening in some national polls. Older Latinos, particularly those of Mexican-American descent in the Southwest, tend to be solid Democratic voters, so any lack of zeal for Obama within any sector of the community could be problematic for his candidacy.

“I really believe they're going to vote for Senator Obama,” Van de Putte reasoned, “but I want them to have the level of engagement and excitement they would have had for a Hillary Clinton ticket.

“I think it will take a while,” she said.

Local political consultant JoAnn Ramon has built a career on cajoling area Democrats to vote straight-ticket in partisan elections. And she sees the same hurdles for Obama among “more experienced” Latinas in her South Side stomping grounds.

“The Latinas have been very adamant,” Ramon said. “If (Obama) doesn't take Hillary, they're going to skip that race on the ballot.”

The 64-year-old Ramon conceded that even a party loyalist like herself needed “a grieving period” to get past the end of Hillary's presidential candidacy.

“It's hard,” she said.

What Obama needs, Van de Putte and Ramon agreed, is for Clinton to vouch for him in person in heavily Hispanic areas. And it must go beyond the featured role that Clinton will be given at the national convention.

“You've got to believe it to sell it,” Ramon said. “Hillary is really going to have to say something, and she's really going to have to campaign for him.”

Van de Putte said it helps, but it's not enough, to simply acknowledge that Obama emphasizes the same priorities as the larger Hispanic community — education, health care and the economy.

To hear it from Hillary's lips, on the stump, could make all the difference in the world.

“It's like our attitude toward faith,” Van de Putte said. “We're never presumptive enough to bargain with God ourselves.

“We pray to saints and ask the virgen (Virgin Mary) to intercede on our behalf,” the senator said. “If Hillary does that on a political level for Obama, it could make a huge difference.”

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