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Wisconsin allegiance to Obama is clear at Dem convention

John Nichols  —  8/28/2008 6:47 am

DENVER -- Gov. Jim Doyle was ready to tout Wisconsin as he announced the presidential vote tally of the state's delegation to the Democratic National Convention.

No, he wasn't going to say, "Come and freeze in the land of cheese."

The governor was thinking of pitching Wisconsin as the innovation state -- focusing on stem cell research at the University of Wisconsin and other examples of cutting-edge research and development -- as he made the traditional pitch before declaring the votes for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

But Clinton intervened.

The senator from New York had already released her delegates to vote as they chose during Wednesday's roll call vote. And she had announced that she was casting her vote for Obama, the Illinois senator who bested her in the race for the Democratic nomination.

But when Obama's total moved toward a majority midway through the roll call, a wave of excitement swept through the crowded Pepsi Center. Hillary Clinton took the microphone amid the New York delegation. "With eyes firmly fixed on the future, in the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory, with faith in our party and our country, let's declare together in one voice right here right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president," said Clinton, as the crowd roared. "I move Senator Barack Obama of Illinois be selected by the convention by acclamation as the nominee of the Democratic Party."

The crowd cheered. Obama was declared the nominee.

And Doyle never got to give his shout-out for Wisconsin, or announce the vote tally.

Unofficially, Democrats said that the Wisconsin split was 67 for Obama to 21 for Clinton.

That meant that not all of the state's 104 pledged delegates, 16 superdelegates and two "add-on" delegates voted.

But there was no question that some of the state's 37 Clinton delegates voted for Obama.

Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton was one of them.

An ardent Clinton campaigner before and after the Wisconsin primary -- which Obama won by a wide margin -- Lawton said, "I think I always knew that I was going to vote for Obama. As a Democrat, I knew I would do that. But I needed to hear her speech. I needed to hear her say that she was releasing us. That's why we have conventions, to work through these things, and we have."

Lawton was wearing a big "Obama" pin as she spoke.

So, too, did Tim Sullivan, a veteran party leader and AFSCME union activist who was a passionate Clinton backer.

Sullivan, who said he cried when Clinton released her delegates, may have put it best when he said, "I was for Hillary. Oh, I was for Hillary. But Barack Obama beat her. And when he won, when he beat the woman I backed with all my heart and soul, he proved to me that he was ready to be president."

"When I get back to Wisconsin," Sullivan added, "I will be 100 percent for Barack."

For Gov. Doyle, an early and enthusiastic Obama backer, statements like that -- evidence of the unity that the party will need going into a tough fall campaign -- were probably more important than that lost opportunity to talk up stem cell research.

Indeed, when Obama's nomination was secured, and when the loudspeakers started blaring the O'Jays song "Love Train," Doyle was on his feet, hugging other Obama backers such as Madison's Mary Land Sollinger, shaking hands with Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and joining in the chants of Obama's slogan: "Yes, we can!"

John Nichols  —  8/28/2008 6:47 am