Barack Obama Did Not Blink

It’s bad enough when we have the nuts in PUMA groups creating conflict. We also have to contend with columnists such as Michael Goodwin creating trouble. He compares allowing a roll call at the convention to Russia rolling over Georgia and writes:

Obama blinked and stands guilty of appeasing Clinton by agreeing to a roll call vote for her nomination. That he might not have had much choice if he wanted peace only proves the point that he’s playing defense at his own convention.

What does he get out of it? Not much and not for long.

This is hardly appeasement. While the PUMA kooks may be wrong in claiming that Clinton deserves the nomination or that Clinton received more votes than Obama, it is a fact that Hillary Clinton did come in a very close second. She won a large number of delegates and, looking beyond the unsavory Rovian tactics she employed in her campaign, these delegates cannot be ignored. It would have been wrong for Obama not to have allowed the traditional roll call without Clinton’s permission. Losing candidates have been allowed to have their name placed in nomination with far fewer votes than Clinton received at past conventions.

We know there are a lot of nutty Clinton supporters in the PUMA groups who prefer McCain over Obama and would like to sabotage Obama’s campaign, but that does not mean that Hillary Clinton herself is doing anything contrary to Obama’s wishes. Obama would be wise to keep a close eye on her, but that does not mean needing to refuse a reasonable request such as a roll call vote.

Marc Ambinder has reported that the two are getting along in several posts, and today writes, “The evidence is that no one ‘blinked,’ and if you’re still looking for a blinker, Clinton blinked and agreed to what Obama had first proposed in June.”

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