Opinion: Hillary Clinton and the roll call ... the mystery continues

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DENVER -- With those 18 million votes during the Democratic presidential primary season that she so often mentions, Hillary Clinton has substantial leverage at the Democratic convention now underway in Denver. But in one important matter, she has little or no influence: the mechanics of the roll-call vote.

On Wednesday, delegates will formally vote to make Barack Obama the party’s nominee. But exactly how that roll-call vote will unfold is still being worked out.

A Democratic National Committee member familiar with the matter told The Times’ Peter Nicholas that as part of the Clinton and Obama negotiations leading up to the convention, it was agreed her name would be entered into nomination. But the Obama campaign was given full power to determine how the roll call would proceed.

Will the vote be cut short so as not to prolong the image of a party divided between Obama and Clinton? Will it play out in full? Or, as the Denver Post reported, is there a chance it will take place outside public view, at a hotel breakfast meeting on Wednesday (which won’t exactly sit well with Clinton backers).

Said the DNC member: ‘Whether or not there will be a roll call -- and. if so, under what conditions -- is entirely up to the Obama campaign. And they have not yet decided what the roll call is going to look like.’

A little matter that you’d think would have been hashed out by now.

-- Don Frederick

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