Why the California delegation passed on the Democratic roll call ...

DENVER -- The mystery of why the California Democratic delegation, despite having a chance to do so, didn't publicly announce its preferences in the roll call that led to the historic nomination of Barack Obama for president has been solved.

And the answer has nothing to do with the complicated calculations we presumed might be at work. Instead, according to Bob Mulholland, a senior advisor to the state party, California passed simply because a tally of its 441 votes had not been completed when the state's name was called.

For political junkies, it would have been fascinating to see how many delegates -- in a state whose primary Clinton won by a solid margin -- had gotten with the support-Obama program that was evident soon after the roll call got underway.

But by being unable to get its business done in a timely manner -- thereby withholding what would have been a hefty chunk of support for Obama, regardless -- California allowed several other delegations to publicly announce their votes.

In all, 32 delegations were called until Obama teetered on the magic number needed for the nomination and Hillary Clinton, speaking for the New York delegation, moved that he receive the prize she had so vigorously sought.

Clinton did not receive a majority in any of the recorded tallies -- and in most, Obama's backing was overwhelming. But Clinton's support was notable in a few instances, including Arizona (40 votes for Obama, 27 for her), Kentucky (36 for him, 24 for her) and Massachusetts (65 for him, 52 for her).

Clinton won the primaries in all of those states -- in the case of Kentucky, overwhelmingly.

-- Don Frederick

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Comments

[Women hate Obama]

Hilarious how Clinton keeps ripping Obama in MA

Even with the good ole boys ganging up, i.e. loathsome Ted Kennedy who took out a personal beef on her, John Kerry, and that other guy, and the other Kennedys, she is still ripping Obama there.

PLEASE, PLEASE John McCain win.

Obama is so heinous, we dislike him more than we dislike Bush.

Clinton 2012.

[Matooso Ferrara]

This dog and donkey show is over tomorrow. Obama better hope he gets a 15 point bounce. I am so tired of the media and Obama. I hope he loses and goes back to south Chicago.

[George Hitchcock]

During the Carter administration many people got bumped around and I expect to see a lot more people get bumped around if Obama is elected President. Yet even without the lack of cooperation with Democrats on the part of the Bush administration and that prospect if John McCain is elected President its the arrogance toward people coming from the John McCain even toward his supporters that is becoming hard to take. Even though my Black neighbors remained completely invisible until one of them became a Peeping Tom they were completely trusted. If Obama is elected one thing is for sure it won't be a bunch of Whites guys like Biden that get government jobs.

[Toni]

Interesting that California is saying they didn't have a tally ready. I figured the Hillary motion was orchestrated, and California passed because they didn't want Obama to receive the 2010 he needed before Hillary had a chance to make the motion. Her motion not only was another chance for her to promote party unity, but also to look like a gracious loser. Of course, her motion also put a stop to her having to hear the small numbers of votes being cast for her, and in that way, saved some face for her. The end result is for the good, and that's what counts.

[Back From Iraq]

There is probably no mystery here; maybe Californians know a Chicago Con Job when they see it.

--John McCain for President '08--

[ann]

Obama snubs Latinos when he snubs the only Latino mayor of an alpha city. Los angeles mayor villaraigosa wields more influence than most governors, yet obama's campaign fails to give any serious recognition to Latino Democrats

[Sean Hennessey]

I'm embarassed as a Californian if our delegation passed on the roll call vote because we didn't know our delegate count. If the reality is that by passing we allowed Sen. Clinton to call for Sen. Obama's nomination, then it was a gracious move all around. I am also embarrassed to read posting after posting by racists and old fashion rednecks putting down Mr Obama. Grow up people, it's the 21st century, not the 18th century ( in case you can figure that one out, that was the century BEFORE the civil war....)

[LongHairSteve]

Sean Hennessey -
Agree with your post, and will add that Arkansas made the vote obvious by casting all their votes for Obama "at the request of HRC".

As far as putting down Obama comments (Republican Spam Tweets), remember payback time is next week at the RNC show; or a half dozen other rich man's mass media channels on TV pretending to have unbiased news coverage right now, concurrently. Don't let a few paid reporters out shout The People's Party - social networking evens the playing field a little.....spread the word to join the fun.