The Obama campaign is trying to reinforce its unconventional candidacy by staging an unconventional convention. Yesterday, Obama received a massive boost from Hillary Clinton. The ritual centre-piece of all party conventions is the roll call, when all the states and far-flung territories of this supra-continental country are paraded one-by-one before the TV cameras. The delegates add up, and slowly and methodically, the candidate becomes the official party nominee.
Not this time. When the roll call reached New York, Hillary Clinton appeared amidst the swarm on the convention floor. The locus of divisiveness within the party, Clinton made a powerful statement of support for Obama by asking for the suspension of the roll call and his nomination by acclamation. Instead of systematically anouncing its delegate votes, the Empire State instead provoked an astonishing moment of US Convention history. I know it was all carefully stage-managed. But as a New Yorker, I can't help but feel a bit of spine-tingling pride that the raucous and potentially historic clamour was initiated by my state.
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