Hillary Clinton will be symbolically put forward as a presidential candidate at the Democratic convention later this month even though she narrowly lost the nominating battle to Barack Obama, the two campaigns said on Thursday.
Obama encouraged Clinton’s name to be placed in nomination as a show of unity, the campaigns said in a joint statement that noted the two senators "are looking forward to a convention unified behind Barack Obama as the party’s nominee."
Clinton, a former first lady who would have been the first female nominee of a major party, narrowly lost the nominating battle to Obama in a drawn-out campaign that ended in June, months after John McCain wrapped up the right to represent the Republican party in the November election.
Clinton later endorsed Obama, the Illinois senator who would be the first black U.S. president, and urged her supporters to line up behind him.
But the hard-fought campaign left many of Clinton’s supporters bitter and wanting some recognition of the New York senator at the party convention in Denver beginning on August 25 since her chances of being picked as the vice presidential candidate have faded.
Clinton is scheduled to speak on the second night of the convention, August 26, two nights before Obama accepts the 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, unified fashion," Obama said in a prepared statement.
A Clinton aide said there will be a roll call vote for the nomination but details were still be working. Such a procedure would allow Clinton’s supporters to vote for her on the convention floor, even though they would not have enough votes to deny Obama the nomination.
The Obama campaign hopes the move will dispel any lingering tensions, but it could also highlight those tensions to a national television audience. Clinton has privately supported a floor vote recently but Obama has been less enthusiastic.
"I don’t think we’re looking for catharsis," he told reporters on his campaign plane earlier this month.
Democratic strategist Doug Schoen said he thought the move would help to unify the party, though a floor vote might be taking things too far.
"I don’t think that the roll call would necessarily be that productive," said Schoen, who served in the administration of Clinton’s husband, former president Bill Clinton.
"As long as it is a symbolic act designed to recognize her accomplishments, then I think it is a good thing," he said.
28 thoughts on “Obama caves to Hillary’s demands”
Perhaps Obama just wants to see Hillary storm out of the convention and into a free speech cage where she can protest all she wants.
Democrats, if you want my vote, take down the cages and restore America as a free speech zone. Prove it or lose it.
Sherry, what makes you think Obama NEEDS yout vote?
Forget the Clintons and their “backstabbing ways”. It is the Hillary supporters who will not support Obama regardless of “Hill’s tactics”
Hill supporters have been beat up way too much to sing the song of unity now.
I have personally taken plenty of hits prior to the primaries ending. Some of you looked like thugs in your diehard support of BHO. Fine. Don’t blame Hill because there is no way on this earth I would ever vote for your man.
Don’t blame Hill because Michelle Obama said, “if she can run her own house, she can’t run the white House”
Does that mean Michelle plans to run the White House too?
What an utterly frightening thought.
And while you are dredging up dirty tricks, remember the O man came straight out of the Chicago machine. May I say more?
Mr Shaw:
Why did I address it to Mr. Plutarch?
Because I thought he signed his post Plutarch.
Inasmuch as the poster did not put quotation marks around the preceding line and since he did not follow any more or less acceptable convention to tell me that it was a quote, I think you might, if you were to give me just a little leeway, understand why I did so.
As to my tag line, it’s about the anagram; it’s also a weak (very weak and very stretched) allusion to plutocrat. Forgive me, Mr Shaw, for I have sinned.
Churlpat — a plutarch by any name is still a plutarch
new Submitted by churlpat on August 15, 2008 – 7:14pm.
The poster above is not I!
No. Obviously not. You are “churlpat”.
It was Submitted by RafaelApollo on August 15, 2008 – 6:39pm, clearly stated at the top of the posting. Why did you address the poster as “Mr. Plutarch”?
The philosopher, Plutarch (approx 45 to 125 AD), said “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted.”
Plutarch was a Greek biographer and Neo-Platonist philosopher. He wrote Parallel Lives, a collection of paired biographies of famous Greek and Roman figures that Shakespeare used as source material for his Roman plays.
Your “tag line”, “a plutarch by any name is still a plutarch” makes no sense.
— Kent Shaw
Yes Onama IS very intelligent and NO I am sure He DOES NOT want a fight on the floor… but when you let a ‘tame’ lion in the back door because he is so nice and friendly.. watch out for what he eats for dinner. IMHO this is what awaits Obama for all his gentle spirit and niceties. I have been behind him since he announced his desire to run for president. He has run a splendid campaign, but I still think he needs to watch his back around the Clintons. I just do not want to see the old adage of’Nice guys finish last’ written on his political career.
ECT.
Capitol Hill Blue give your head a shake…your headline is NOT GOOD JOURNALISM.
USA citizens…Obama is an intelligent man who knows all about the Clinton’s tactics. TRUST his judgement with his allowing the Clinton’s their apparent need for a bit of sunshine in their bleak lives. After all much to both their surprise…they lost the election.
This decision that Obama has made…shows not only his intelligence…but also his love of Country, his respect for all people, his offer of change, and his commitment to the Democratic Party.
Do not fail this man that wants to restore not only the USA’s once great reputation. But, also wants to give each and ever citizen the right, and chance that we all deserve. A better place to live in, economy, jobs, oil / gas costs etc. And an end to the nasty Washington’s 71/2 years of Republican mauipulations that brought about todays economy disaster. And let us not forget…the illegal invasion of another country…with War and all it’s horrendeous aftermath.
Vote OBAMA /08
Sincerely EileenCT.
RafaelApollo,
“Clinton was removed from office”
I think you should get some professional help. You are starting to believe your fantasies.
The poster above is not I!
And I have a question for him:
Mr. Plutarch,
You said, “Clinton was removed from office-not because of Lewinsky but because of his Executive Orders.”
Could us poor ignorant slobs have a bit more background on this particular assertion?
Once I read that I stopped reading because if you make such a statement as that then how am I to have ANY trust in the rest of your post?
Churlpat — a plutarch by any name is still a plutarch
deleted by poster
This headline is ridiculous.
You need to know the back story. Hillary is just Bill’s front-man (and the jury is still out on that one) and that’s all she is. If you had 2 terms in office and papered the country with a flurry of unconstitutional executive orders -one, in particular, that had eliminated the 10th amendment and you had been found out, removed from office and made a pariah-how would you get back in? Why through a back-door. And that is just what Hillary is.
She’s a masthead on a ship and behind the wheel on that ship is Bill steering with everything he has straight to the White House. And behind him is George H.W. Bush and the Rothschilds, among others. You have to dig deeper.
You have to look at Bill’s blizzard of unconstitutional Executive Orders-especially 13083-which eliminated the powers of the states (and the 10th Amendment) and handed them over to the Federal government. The Mayors and Governors of several states demanded this order be done away with. It was but you never knew it.
You probably slept through PDD 25 too-which granted the President the right to assign foreign commanders province over our troops.
Most of you slept through it because you were supposed to. Clinton’s reaction was to issue a snowstorm of E.O.’s-probably because he knew he was going to be taken out of office and expected to be removed before he was caught with his hand up the backside of the constitution.
I learned that Clinton signed 13083 in 1998-in England and I called him a traitor at a broadcast luncheon in Boca Raton. I did not know that one of Hillary’s friends was in the audience. Shortly after that people started coming up to me and threatening me.
My reaction was to have my organization (which was a legislative watchdog group) circulate a petition for treason against Clinton demanding impeachment. We garnered 12,000 signatures in two days. Beginning to get the picture? Clinton was removed from office-not because of Lewinsky but because of his Executive Orders. His power grab was enormous. Essentially he was taking full control, unto himself, of every right in this country. He was making himself a King.
Hillary, somewhat disguised as a woman-is a torpedo headed right into the middle of the political process and every time some group of zealots raises its wild-eyed head it plays into the whole scenario. You have to understand the strategy at hand here. It’s called smokescreening. She mentions “catharsis” and they start howling. It’s not about losing. That would never occur to them. It is about upheaval.
Everyone pays attention to the event at hand-her little ploys for more time in the spot-light at the convention-the PUMAS, the several small splinter groups all lining up to irritate and nag and bother everyone at the convention and all the rest of the snide little games that are played.
She has not got many of those howlers left, in actuality. Her eighteen mil is melting fast. They may have been captivated by her temporarily, but most see through her now and won’t vote for the creepy misogynist McCain.
Obama, in essence, short-circuited their little game. Quite honestly he neutralized it. Nothing better than chaos for those guys behind the scenes. Their motto is “divide and conquer.”
In the background is the would-be King, just salivating at that one next chance to get back in there again because he has an agenda and it has nothing to do with Democrats or the political process or anything else. His job is to keep the tyrannies spinning-the Bush-Clinton dynasty from being challenged and removed.
And Obama- who was not supposed to have gotten anywhere-what with the strange goings on in different Primary states and the “insidious”-oh, yes, that’s the right word for it-Rovian tactics run on him with proximity voting machines and various other situations that were supposed to have stemmed the tide and shut him down and out-just kept floating back to the top.
So now here is Poppy Bush (Billy’s golf buddy) and the rest of the frothing players, offstage, at a loss as to how to stop this Obama juggernaut. My! My! It was never supposed to have happened this way. For all their clout and money and manipulation-Obama got across the finish line first.
Not even their big fraudulent hero McCain can pull this one out for them. Trust me, they always play with their bases loaded.
Now they have set out the Piranhas (PUMAS)-laying in ambush in Denver. I have a feeling that this is going to be very interesting, indeed, because they can’t stop this.
Whether it is the Clinton’s karma that has them ensnared (no matter what maliciousness they get up to) or the combined karma of the Bushes and Clintons, etc.-or just plain divine intervention-they are going down the tubes. And in front of the world. For all the clamor-they have painted themselves into a corner and cannot get out. I don’t think they have Obama on the ropes. I think it’s the other way around.
The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be lighted.
Plutarch
Very smart move on his part, but it won’t matter because McCain is going to win anyway. The damage has already been done.
Promising a $1000 tax credit to counter the high cost of gasoline in a blatant attempt to purchase votes, as was the $600 rebate check from the republicans (I’ll see your $600 and raise to a grand)? $150 billion. Outspending Clinton during the primaries? Hundreds of millions. The look on Obama’s face as his delegates vote for Clinton? PRICELESS.
— Kent Shaw
Ms Belle:
The very last thing Obama wants is a big fight on the convention floor, since that might well lead to Hillary taking her delegates and walking out of the convention. In this respect I refer you to the damage done to the Republican Party in 1912 when the “progressive” wing walked out and established the Bull Moose Party. Of course an obscure university president named Woodrow Wilson took advantage of that.
Do you want some obscure Senator named McCain to benefit from a major split in Democratic ranks? The result for the country might well be worse that that which befell our nation under Wilson, who has my vote as among the worst presidents in our history.
Churlpat — a plutarch by any name is still a plutarch
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