Democrats leave Reno with common goal

RENO -- The mood Friday evening between Clinton and Obama delegates at the Democratic State Convention was still cooler than the ice cream station during a Western-themed reception.

Sen. Hillary Clinton's delegates mingled freely with each other, still talking about how hard it was going to be moving forward if their candidate of choice didn't win the nomination.

"If" wasn't really part of the vocabulary in the other camp, so the happier delegates representing Sen. Barack Obama were clearly more fired up.

Before the convention opened Saturday morning, you could tell Obama had won the registration game. The line for a breakfast co-sponsored by state Sen. Steven Horsford, the public face of the Obama campaign in Nevada, was snaking so far out of the appointed room it neared the entrance to the convention floor down the hall.

It wasn't really until Bill Clinton spoke, though, that reality came into focus for the Clinton stalwarts. Although Clinton was greeted with hearty applause, his call for unity drew plenty of "O-ba-ma" responses. Clinton soldiered through his remarks with a nod to last-minute efforts his wife's campaign had made to stop the hemorrhaging of her delegates' support.

"I understand some of you rode all night on a bus to be here," he said, trying to honor the sacrifice Clark delegates had made in the face of an increasingly inevitable Obama nomination.

The Republican brand was attacked by just about every speaker at the convention, while the brazen pro-Clinton or pro-Obama narrative witnessed at the county conventions was all but left for the hallways. Nevada Rep. Shelley Berkley, a fervent Clinton supporter and superdelegate, hammered Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, for as a "disaster for Nevada and a disaster for our country."

The convention's best line came from state Treasurer Kate Marshall, who took on Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons. "We have a governor who is divorced from reality," she said to huge applause.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stayed so strictly on message, the crowd could almost say the next Democratic talking point before he did. McCain, he said, is a "George Bush clone." He'd bring a "third term." "He's a flawed candidate." "He has the wrong temperament."

Reid also threw in some general Republican attacks for good measure. "These people are vicious. They still have Karl Rove in the background manipulating things." In brief remarks to reporters after his speech, Reid went even further: "The Republicans are a party that has no soul," he said. "No heart."

After the party broke for lunch on the news that Obama had won an extra delegate thanks to the lackluster turnout by Clinton supporters, some stormed away angrily.

"I'm so sickened right now I might never go back down," one Clinton delegate from Nevada's 3rd Congressional District huffed as she rode the elevator back to her room. There were many others who said they just weren't yet ready to cross over and support Obama. None of the dozens of Clinton delegates I talked with, however, said they would vote for McCain.

Some turned their anger toward a new target, saying they might go to work for Dina Titus in her congressional race.

Titus drew a standing ovation when she took the microphone announcing, "I'm back. I am back." And she kept the applause coming when she mentioned her opponent, GOP Rep. Jon Porter, "has been carrying George Bush's baggage long enough."

"Jon Porter spends a lot of his time back in Washington playing in a rock 'n' roll band," Titus said. "I say we've heard enough of his same old song. It's time to change the music."

By Saturday night, the battle of attrition had worn out many of the Clinton delegates. The party's business was mostly completed, and the last delegates were being selected to represent Nevada at the Democratic National Convention, to be held in Denver Aug. 25-28.

The compromise between the two campaigns resulted in Rusty McAllister being selected as the add-on delegate. McAllister, a firefighter union leader, was announced as an unpledged delegate, even though he awkwardly told reporters he caucused for Obama in January.

The Obama campaign had the delegates to push through a delegate clad head to toe in Obama gear. Instead, in a show of restraint, they went with McAllister.

Shortly after 10 p.m., the tired delegates had really calmed down, many heeding the refrain of the Grateful Dead's "Friend of the Devil" -- "If I get home before daylight I just might get some sleep tonight."

The votes giving Obama an extra delegate and a 2-to-1 edge in elected official delegates were nearly unanimous. There would be another day for battling, and another target.

They lit out from Reno with a common goal. And with a little time and a little distance, they may actually be able to vote for it.

Contact Erin Neff at (702) 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.