Hou Chron:Tx Clinton Delegates Want to Vote.

by: texan4hillary

Sat Aug 09, 2008 at 01:46:25 AM EDT

WASHINGTON - Contrary to the party's persistent, somewhat elusive theme of unity, Texas delegates to the Democratic National Convention are debating placing Hillary Rodham Clinton's name in nomination for the presidency.

"There is still a very strong contingent of Hillary delegates in the Texas delegation," said Carol Alvarado, a Houston delegate and Democratic candidate for state Senate. "There are still delegates that want her to be nominated and want to vote for her."

For Clinton, one advantage in remaining coy on a roll call vote is that it gives her some leverage with Obama's campaign, which is still determining her role at the convention.

She is not expected to get a vice presidential nod.

Even so, Clinton won the Texas primary and has deep roots in the state. Alvarado, a Clinton delegate, said Clinton has not released her to vote for Obama, and she wants a chance to cheer for Clinton one last time.

read what the party chair of houston says about bill clinton:

Complicating all this talk of cohesion, however, is former President Bill Clinton, who gave a pair of interviews over the weekend that seemed to damn Obama with faint praise of his qualifications.

"You could argue that nobody is ever ready to be president," Clinton said when pressed by ABC News on whether he thought Obama was qualified.

Among Democrats, there is a nagging worry that the former president has yet to turn the corner on the bruising primary race.

While Hillary Clinton is raising money and campaigning for Obama, Bill Clinton has remained on the sidelines.

It all feeds the perception of a rift within the party that worries Harris County Democratic Party Chairman Gerald Birnberg.

"Bill obviously doesn't seem on board," Birnberg said.

The chairman surmised that Clinton, once so beloved by black Democrats, severed many of those ties during the difficult primary season and is smarting over the hit to his legacy.

"Is it reconcilable?" Birnberg asked. "This may be the sadder observation, that it may not even be relevant."

julie.mason@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/stor...