CNN reports today that Barack Obama’s campaign said “that the details of a potentially contentious roll call had finally been hammered out after weeks of discussion with aides to Hillary Clinton.”

The New York senator’s supporters had successfully pressed for her name to be placed in nomination in Denver, and party leaders had feared that the evening vote would make for a crippling public show of divisiveness if large numbers of delegates refused to back Obama.

Frankly, after last night’s powerful and moving speech from Clinton in support of Obama, I am hoping that those hold out Clinton supporters will have thought long and hard about Clinton’s plea for unity.

CNN notes that on a “morning conference call with reporters, campaign officials said that a joint statement from the Obama and Clinton campaigns laying out the roll call process had been sent to state delegation chairs Tuesday night.”

Vote tally sheets have been given to the state chairs, who will distribute them to the members of their delegations. They are reviewing them at state delegation breakfasts in Denver this morning.

The details of the roll call vote are as follows:

From about 5 to 7 p.m. ET – 3 to 5 p.m. MT – the official party roll call will take place. First, a speaker will nominate Clinton, then another will nominate Obama. Two people will second Clinton’s nomination, and three will do the same for Obama. The office of the Democratic National Committee’s secretary will collect the tally sheets, and roughly half an hour of speeches will be followed by a state roll call. After its completion, each candidate’s total will be announced by the state chairs.

But officials did not guarantee that the roll call would continue until it was completed. Sources have told CNN that at some point, Clinton herself may cut off the roll call and move to nominate Obama by acclamation.

A joint statement from the Clinton and Obama campaigns announcing the ”names of the nominators and seconds” is expected to be released soon.

Sadly, the media has been reveling in the “contentious” and “divisive” memes throught out the convention. It’s time for delegates to step up and show our party as unified and put all that to rest.

Filed under: Barack Obama '08, CNN, DNC, Delegates, Dem Convention, Democrats, Denver, Election '08, In The News, Obama-Biden 08, Pamela Leavey, Political News, Politics, Presidential Election, Sen. Hillary Clinton | Get Permalink or trackback |