A Clinton Flip-Flop on Formal Nomination

There is now word that Hillary Clinton’s supporters will formally place her name in nomination at the convention tomorrow night, a process that requires a nominating and a second speech, as well as the consent of the candidate herself.

This may be part of a deal with the Obama camp; negotiations about how exactly to handle Obama’s formal nomination are still apparently ongoing. But with this development, it’s worth remembering that the Clintons drew the line at allowing their opponents’ names to be placed in nomination back in 1992, when Bill Clinton was formally anointed as his party’s standard-bearer. Back then, the Clintons told their two main rivals, Paul Tsongas and Jerry Brown, that they would not be allowed to speak in primetime if they didn’t first publicly rule out allowing their names to be nominated. Tsongas complied and Brown didn’t, so there was a roll call anyway.