Clinton Releases Delegates, Sets Stage for Smooth Obama Nomination

[jefferson_dem]

Clinton Releases Delegates, Sets Stage for Smooth Obama Nomination
By Adriel Bettelheim, CQ Staff

Hours after her declaration of unqualified support to her former rival from the convention podium, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesay formally released her delegates from their pledges to vote for her, essentially removing the last nettlesome obstacle to Barack Obama ’s path to formally receiving the Democratic nomination for president.

The historic roll call vote — which will result in the first African-American nominee of a major political party in american history — was scheduled for later in the aftternoon, the first order of business on the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Following brief nominating speeches for both Clinton and Obama, an hour has been set aside for the traditional roll call. That’s much less time than calling out the names of all 50 states and a half-dozen territories and recording their delegates’ votes, a sure sign the tradition will be suspended at some point before the totals are announced. It was not known, however, how many states would vote before somebody, perhaps the New York senator herself, appears on the floor and makes a motion to deliver the nomination to Obama by acclamation.

At a flag-bedecked midday reception for her pledged delegates at the Colorado Convention Center, Clinton said: “It is traditional that we have a nomination, that we have a roll call.... As part of that tradition, I am here today to release you.”

After cries of “no” went up from the crowd, Clinton added said “I am not telling you what to do,” but she said she had turned in her written ballot to the New York delegation clerk with her vote cast for Obama.

Clinton amassed about 45 percent of the delegates -- 1,889 have been pledged to her an 2,254 to Obama after one of the most hard-fought presidential nominating battles in modern times. Four other delegates were pledged to John Edwards, and 17 more were uncommitted.

During a prime-time address on Tuesday evening, Clinton urged her followers to “unite as a single party with a single purpose” and pronounced herself a “proud supporter of Barack Obama .”

For most of the Clinton delegates in the cavernous ballroom, that was enough for them to unite behind the winner.

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