Law enforcement search for armed suspect, Vance Boelter, in fatal shooting of Minnesota lawmaker.

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Democrats were poised to formally deliver the
party's presidential nomination to Barack Obama on Wednesday,
making him the first black nominee of a major party. While the
historic outcome was certain, suspense remained over how a vote of
delegates would proceed, and for how long.
     

 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, presiding officer of the Democratic
National Convention, predicted roll-call voting after the names of
both Obama and one-time rival Hillary Rodham Clinton are put in
nomination, would go "very smoothly."


      "Are you ready for victory? Then you must be ready for unity.
That is the only way we are going to win and have this victory,"
she told Iowa's convention delegates.


      Many details remained unknown, however, including how many
states would vote before somebody - probably Clinton herself - asks
the delegates to give the nomination to Obama by acclamation.


      Clinton, who made a ringing, unqualified endorsement of her
former rival in a prime-time convention speech Tuesday, planned to
meet with all her delegates in early afternoon and was expected to
make a statement at that time. She won 18 million votes in
primary-season contests but failed to earn her party's nomination.


      Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who had been a Clinton supporter,
said he expected the New York senator to say that she would cast
her vote for Obama.


      "I'm going to cast my vote for Senator Obama if Hillary Clinton
says she's going to cast her vote for Senator Obama," Rendell
said.


      Later, Rendell suggested in an interview with The Associated
Press that some delegates will vote for Clinton no matter what the
New York senator says, and that any motion to move to an unanimous
convention ballot would draw "a few no's."


      Rendell gave the Obama team an "A-plus" for tact in its
treatment of Clinton delegates. Any remaining outpouring for her
abandoned candidacy "is not anti-Barack Obama. It's very much
pro-Hillary Clinton," Rendell said.


      Obama, who was due to arrive in the convention city
mid-afternoon Wednesday, will give his acceptance speech on
Thursday to as many as 75,000 people at nearby Invesco Field at
Mile High Stadium.


      Then, on Friday, Obama, his wife Michelle and running mate Joe
Biden and his wife Jill will embark on a bus tour of battleground
states Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.


      Biden was to address the convention Wednesday night, as was
former President Clinton, whose support for Obama has seemed tepid
at best. Earlier this month, for instance, the former president
sidestepped a question on whether Obama was prepared for the White
House. "You could argue that no one's every ready to be
president," Clinton told ABC News.


      Representatives of the Clinton and Obama teams struck a deal
setting ground rules for Wednesday's roll call vote that will hand
the nomination to Obama, but will also allow Clinton supporters to
express their support for her.


      Advisers to Clinton and Obama sent a joint letter to state
delegation chairs instructing them to distribute vote tally sheets
to delegates Wednesday and return them before the vote gets under
way.


      The letter, first obtained Tuesday night by The Associated
Press, said Clinton would have one nominating speech and two
seconding speeches, followed by Obama's nominating speech and three
seconding speeches - totaling no more than 15 minutes for each
candidate. Then the roll call will begin, said the letter signed by
Obama senior adviser Jeff Berman, Clinton senior adviser Craig
Smith and convention secretary Alice Germond.


      The roll call will continue until all votes are counted or
someone asks the delegates to give the nomination to Obama by
acclamation.


      Democratic officials close to Clinton say they plan to have
someone - perhaps the senator herself - cut off the vote after a
few states.


      Yet to be announced: who would make the nominating speeches and
how long the roll call vote would be allowed to proceed.


      Kathleen Krehbiel, an Iowa delegate who had supported Clinton,
credited the New York senator's convention speech for finally
persuading her to cross the line and vote for Obama.


      "My horse is out of the race. I'm getting out to work for
Obama," Krehbiel said. But, she added, "I think there are a few
delegates who need to vote for Hillary to reach that point of
closure."


      In a sign of unity, Obama adviser Berman and Clinton adviser
Smith told delegates on Wednesday that they have been working out
of the same office all week to ensure a smooth convention.


      "The story is that we are working as a team," Berman said.


      Anticipating Wednesday night's focus on national security at the
convention, Republican John McCain contended in a new TV ad that
Obama showed he was "dangerously unprepared" for the White House
when he described Iran as a "tiny" nation that didn't pose a
serious threat.


      "Iran. Radical Islamic government. Known sponsors of terrorism.
Developing nuclear capabilities to 'generate power' but threatening
to eliminate Israel," says the ad, which was being run in key
states. "Terrorism, destroying Israel - those aren't 'serious
threats"'?


      Missing from the ad was the context of Obama's remarks last May
in which he compared Iran and other adversarial governments to the
superpower Soviet Union. "They don't pose a serious threat to us
the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us," he said in arguing
for talks with Iran. "You know, Iran, they spend one-100th of what
we spend on the military. If Iran ever tried to pose a serious
threat to us, they wouldn't stand a chance."


      Bill Clinton in his speech was expected to criticize McCain and
on the Bush administration, particularly on the state of the U.S.
economy.

Gallery

Democrats were poised to formally deliver the
party's presidential nomination to Barack Obama on Wednesday, making him the first black nominee of a major party.

Democrats poised to give Obama historic nomination

Go Deeper.

Like this?