Monday August 25, 2008
It’s pushing 5 p.m. in the East, meaning that the Denver Ds are gettin’ close to gaveling the Obama/Biden convention.
The Blogster just got off the phone with a couple of the Connecticut Democratic suspects, who, despite the choreography that could rival Merce Cunningham, aren’t really sure what kind of public display of support Sen. Hillary Clinton will be allowed.
“I know that Sen.Clinton’s delegates are not released at this time and it’s my understanding that they will be released Wednesday at the convention,” said Nancy DiNardo of Trumbull, the Democratic state chairwoman, who threw a bash Sunday night for the Connecticut contingent.
She said there will be some kind of “paper ballot” for delegates Wednesday morning, prior to Clinton’s official release of her delegates to support Sen. Barack Obama.
“I would have to say people are very excited to be here,” she said over the phone. “There are many in the delegation for whom it’s a first-time experience.”
She anticipates the Clinton delegates to get behind Obama. “I truly get the sense that delegates who are Hillary supporters know it would be disasterous to vote for John McCain because it would mean four more years of George Bush and they recognize the country can’t afford that. Many of the Hillary delegates who are women realize having John McCain as president would be a setback to women and women’s rights.”
Susan Cocco, a Ridgefield marketing executive who is Connecticut’s Hillary whip, anticipates “some sort of roll call” on the convention floor, but at this point, it’s not clear how it will manifest itself.
She said that Sen. Clinton will meet and acknowledge her 1,900 delegates Wednesday at 1, after the morning balloting. “I presume at some point during that meeting and discussion she’ll release her delegates,” Cocco said. “Ther’s no doubt that the Democratic party is moving with Barack,” she said.
Attorney General Dick Blumenthal, a Clinton delegate, said this morning before his flight to Denver that he fully anticipates supporting Obama.
The next presidency is at stake, he said.
“This issue is much more simple than may meet the eye,” he told three reporters. “It really is a matter of Democrats feeling powerfully that there must be chance in the White House from the Bush policies of the last four years that would be continued by McCain for the next four years. And that will be a very compelling rallying point for Clinton supporters, which I was,as well as everyone else in the Democratic party who may have preferred other candidates.”
Blumenthal said that McCain’s overtures to disgruntled Hillary supporters will snag no more than a tiny percentage of Democrats.
“The vast majority of the people I know who supported Clinton are absolutely enthusiastically and energetically behind Obama because the choice between him and McCain is so stark,” said Blumenthal, who has known Clinton since Yale Law School. “They’re going to be an energetic for him as they were for her.”