Compromise keeps roll call out of limelight

"Let's declare together in one voice -- right here, right now -- that Barack Obama is our candidate, and he will be our president," Clinton told raucous delegates in the Pepsi Center.

So ended Clinton's 2008 presidential bid.

Wednesday's roll call proved to be a tricky bit of theater.

Since the convention opened Monday, party leaders have wanted to project an image of unity. And while there was no suspense as to the roll call's outcome -- Clinton quit the race more than two months ago and had endorsed Obama -- both campaigns wanted to signal to her supporters that the bitter primary fight had reached a fair end.

The traditional convention hall vote of delegates was one way to do just that -- and the negotiations over precisely how it would unfold played out right up until the roll call.

Clinton seemed intent on giving her supporters a vehicle to vent their frustrations over her failed candidacy, a moment, she said, of "catharsis."

Obama campaign aides worried that a televised state-by-state roll call -- with Clinton picking up a large share of delegate votes -- might give the impression of internal feuding.

A compromise emerged, with the Obama camp agreeing to a roll call, but before prime-time television coverage and in an abbreviated form.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat who supported Clinton during the primary season, said in an interview that Obama's campaign had "the veto pen on this . . . it's entirely up to them."

So after 32 states and U.S. territories had announced their tallies, Clinton, the junior senator from New York, asked party delegates to declare Obama the nominee by acclamation -- sending a message to her supporters that the fight was truly over.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) quickly put the motion to a vote. After an approving chorus, she asked for any "no" votes but left no time for delegates to register an objection. Just like that, Obama became the nominee.

Even stalwart Obama supporters were impressed by Clinton's gesture.