Cloud of Disunity Hangs Over Democratic Convention

WASHINGTON — A cloud of disunity hangs over preparations for the Democratic party’s national convention later this month as Barack Obama’s vanquished primary opponent Hillary Rodham Clinton has not ruled out having her name put in nomination for a roll call vote — a potentially major distraction leading into the final campaign stretch against Republican John McCain. Obama and Clinton battled — sometimes bitterly — through state primary and caucus contests until early June, when the first-term Illinois senator secured the necessary convention delegates to assure his nomination when Democrats convene late this month in Denver, Colorado. As news began bubbling that Clinton might not block her supporters from placing her name before the convention — a largely symbolic move, she and Obama issued a joint statement Wednesday night apparently designed to defuse concern over disunity. “We are working together to make sure the fall campaign and the ... (link)