Just hours before the opening Democratic National Convention it appears the Obama and Clinton camps have scripted a play within the play whereby Clinton can finally appear gracious in defeat.
The plan is for individual states to declare how their delegates vote -- for either candidate -- until the roll call comes to New York, at which time Clinton would call for the convention's unanimous consent in nominating Obama.
How is it that the two sides took so long to come to some sort of agreement? Clinton backers are said to be like “Japanese soldiers in the South Pacific still fighting after the war is over,” while Obama "has not demonstrated that he accepts the Clintons."
"It sounds like high school kids," said James VandeHei of Politico.
Clinton has said she will "release" her delegates to vote for whomever they want, a classic non-event. "Her" delegates already had that freedom. And anyway, large numbers of them feel committed.
"This is much bigger than Hillary," said Pam Durham, a Clinton delegate from Fort Worth, Texas. "I have a responsibility. I do not own my vote. I have to represent the voters who sent me."
With all the hand wringing their party has done through eight years of the Bush administration, you'd think the two sides would remember that old chestnut: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." But it wasn't until a few hours before Michelle Obama was to take the stage to kick of the prime-time festivities that the two sides made headway on a deal.
That Obama needed to make a deal at this point is absurd. However one may feel about his politics or the cult of personality surrounding him, it's undeniable that the freshman senator from Illinois ran a strategically brilliant campaign in vanquishing his more experienced, far better connected and well known opponent.
