The whole world is watching, so let Hillary have her vote

It looks like people-pleasing Ed Rendell is trying to use his clout to prevent a movement to put Hillary Clinton's name in nonination and let hundreds of her elected delegates vote for her before Barack Obama goes over the top. Actually, I wish they would do that. You know, there have been three phases of political conventions in this country -- the first 100 years of smoke-filled rooms and multiple ballots, which happened for the last time in 1952 with Adlai Stevenson (and you know how well that worked out); then the phase that I was privileged to witness the tail end of, which was the period of Unscripted Chaos, which peaked in 1968 at Chicago (pictured at top, for anyone under 49) and with McGovern's 3 a.m. acceptance speech in 1972 and lasted through the Reagan and Kennedy challenges in 1976 and 1980.

Then, by the Orwellian year of 1984, political bigwigs discovered there had been this thing called "the teevee," and without fail every four years the party with the most chaotic convention lost. Hence, the era of Unwatchable, Totally Bland and Meaningless Scripted Mush. In other words, the spectacles that you'll see in Denver and St. Paul will be about as real and informative as that Olympics ceremony in Beijing -- they're probably kicking themselves for not coming up first with the idea of a 9-year-old perfect-looking lip-sync artist for the National Anthem.

So, what would be the harm in a country that claims to be the world's greatest democracy of having a, you know, um, vote -- especially for hundreds of delegates who want to tell their grandchildren they stayed strong for the woman who darn near became the first woman president? The Democrats could make a statement -- that we're not phony cyborgs or 3,000 Chinese drummers in unison but real Americans with real differences of opinions that we don't try to cover up -- but at the end of the day we can still come together.

That said, you know they're going to go the phony route. They always do.