As a measure of a party united, the Florida delegation will be seated just off to the left of the Delaware folks, the Michigan delegation just off to the right from Illinois. There was a time, during the contentious party primaries, when none of those delegates might even have been promised a seat here. [source]What is not clear from these early news reports is whether the delegations are being seated as the voters in Michigan - that is with no Michigan delegates going to Senator Obama, who was not on the ballot there and with Senator Clinton's 4 add-on delegates in place.
At least one news source is falling for the party line: a tightly scripted convention geared to the outcome party leaders keep saying is a done deal, an Obama-Biden ticket for this fall. McClatchy News writes:
The step won't make any difference in the outcome, even though most of the delegates' involved are pledged to Hillary Clinton; Barack Obama already has enough delegates to win the nomination.But Senator Obama does not in fact have enough delegates to win the nomination. He is in the same position as Senator Clinton. Neither won enough pledged delegates during the primary season to qualify as the automatic nominee, presumptive or otherwise. Since the party is allegedly holding a roll call vote with both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama's names in nomination, superdelegates - who will decide the contest and who may vote for either candidate on the first and any subsequent ballots could treat the press, the public, and the DNC Party leaders themselves to surprise. Sure, a Clinton nomination would be an upset, but elections have produced upsets before.
Meanwhile, the DNCC official press releases do not discuss the roll call nor the specifics of the Michigan/Florida seating. Instead we learn that a tribute to Senator Edward Kennedy will take place - but no word from the DNCC on whether Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones will get any sort of recognition - and that the DNCC and Obama campaign have announced Women's Caucus speakers in a press release that makes nary a mention of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Pretending that Senator Obama has won the floor vote smacks of trickery. The other measures being taken all point to the Party's misguided efforts to downplay Senator Clinton, her top surrogates, her delegates and her rank and file supporters. The DNCC, Senator Obama, and the DNC are of course free to try to confuse and deceive people with such measures. But even if they manage to put on a boring if predictable TV series next week, the best that can do is create the illusion of consensus in the Party. I continue to believe in and fight for the procedural measures that I think might actually bring about the sort of durable, real consensus that could land a Democrat in the White House in November.
