Clinton's name will be placed in nomination

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's name will be placed in nomination at the Democratic national convention under an agreement announced yesterday by the former first lady and Sen. Barack Obama, the party's presumptive presidential nominee.

The decision to put Clinton's name in nomination at the Denver convention sets the stage for a state-by-state roll-call vote that could highlight the bitter primary battle between the two candidates and blemish the Democrats' goal of party unity going into the fall general-election campaign.

But in a joint statement yesterday, Obama and Clinton said the decision would help bring the Democratic Party together, possibly by mollifying Clinton supporters disappointed by the New York senator's primary defeat.

"I am convinced that honoring Sen. Clinton's historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong united fashion," Obama said.

The Obama-Clinton announcement skipped any mention of the convention's agenda after her nomination, which could trigger an intense outpouring of support from her delegates on the convention floor.

After that, it is possible that Clinton could release her delegates and free them to vote for Obama before the state-by-state roll call begins.

The joint announcement is the latest development in the negotiations between the Obama and Clinton camps about her role at the convention.

Clinton has spoken publicly only in general terms about what kind of profile she hopes for at the convention.

She said last month that her supporters "want to feel like, OK, it's a catharsis." Clinton said her supporters need to "feel that their voices were heard and their views respected."

In the statement yesterday, Clinton said that "with every voice heard and the party strongly united, we will elect Sen. Obama president of the United States."

Clinton also is scheduled to deliver a prime-time convention speech on Tuesday, Aug. 26, and former President Bill Clinton is expected to speak the next day.

During the bruising primary season, Clinton won roughly 18 million votes and came closer than any other female politician to winning a major party's presidential nomination.

According to a delegate count by the Associated Press on Aug. 6, Obama will go to the Denver convention with 2,254 delegates, while Clinton has 1,891, 227 shy of the 2,118 needed to win.

One veteran political analyst, Ross Baker of Rutgers University, said Obama could pay a political price for agreeing to allow Clinton's name to be placed in nomination.

"The one thing you really have to do as a nominee is establish your dominance over the party," Baker said. "People want to see . . . the presidential nominee controlling the convention.

"In the interest of being gracious and avoiding the alienation of the Clinton people, they basically folded," Baker said, because Obama "reluctantly conceded it was safer . . . than having these people walk away from Denver disgruntled."

Joseph Zimmerman, a political science professor at the University at Albany, said Clinton's role at the convention is "a delicate subject for Obama," who must simultaneously appease angry Clinton supporters without alienating his own backers or detracting from his own historic nomination.

"How do you handle this so you don't offend people who don't like the Clintons?" Zimmerman said. "On the other hand, you don't want to offend the Clinton supporters."

Obama may "look better across the nation" by giving Clinton a larger role at the convention, Zimmerman said.