Projo Politics Blog

After craning their necks all week to catch glimpses of the Democratic stars on the faraway stage at the Pepsi Center, Rhode Island's delegation was looking forward to the moment when the national spotlight would find them up in the nosebleed seats.

Alas, Rhode Island was among the states that lost its bit of glory yesterday when the traditional roll call vote on Barack Obama's nomination for president got cut short by the machinery of party unity.

True, it was only a small indignity, and anyhow the old-fashioned call of the roll has long since been pushed out of primetime television hours, so it was visible only to cable-watching diehards around suppertime in the East. Some Rhode Islanders had already felt slighted by the seat assignment of the delegation, which representated Clinton's big primary victory in the state.

But, hey, that's politics. The choice seats go to the states that give their votes to the winner -- and, of course, to the big states and the swing states in the Electoral College contest that matters on Election Day.

All the same, it was a disappointment to hundreds of delegates in Denver -- political people, who like to show their stuff in the public arena -- when the word came about an hour beforehand that the nominating ritual would be shut off after New York cast its votes. As soon as Hillary Rodham Clinton did the honors at the microphone, the convention organizer entertained a motion to suspend the proceeding and nominate Obama by acclamation.

Here, then, for the record, is roughly what Rhode Island House Speaker Bill Murphy would have said if the roll call vote had run to completion:

``Madam Secretary, the great state of Rhode Island, little in size but a giant in Democratic values, is here tonight with many of its elected officials who were elected as delegates.'' (Here Murphy would have read a good few names of the politicians on hand.)

``Our state motto is one word and that word serves us well tonight. That word is `Hope.' We are hoping for a new president, hoping for a new tomorrow, hoping for a better America.

``That's why we are here tonight to pledge our support to Senator Barack Obama.''

At this point, Murphy would have annnounced the delegation's first-ballot tally -- 22 for Obama to 11 for Clinton. Some Clinton backers had opted not to cast a symbolic first-ballot vote for her.

All the Rhode Islanders were prepared to vote for Obama on a second ballot.

 Tags  Clinton Democratic Convention Murphy Obama roll call

Comments

karen anne said:

RI had upfront seats until they were bumped, understandably, for Joe Biden's Delaware.

Link | August 28, 2008 6:37 PM
Report Abuse

---

Leave a comment

Name:

Email:

URL:  

Remember personal info?

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.