DNC day three: Minnesota delegation united in backing Obama

Last night Hillary Clinton forcefully endorsed Barack Obama for president and implored her backers to follow suit. This morning the Minnesota delegation’s Clinton supporters declared that they are united in heeding her advice.

“We’ve all spent a lot of time and enthusiasm seeking her nomination to be President of the United States,” said former vice president Walter Mondale at a press conference outside the delegation’s hotel. “Most of us, perhaps all of us, however, never were in it to be against Obama. Now that this decision has been made, our decision … is to support enthusiastically the nomination of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”

Mondale was followed to the podium by Assistant Senate Majority Leader Tarryl Clark. “That was an amazing speech last night,” she said. “We came together last night. We are here together today, indivisible.”

Other notables at the event included House speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, former Sen. Mark Dayton and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. Delegate Rick Stafford, a former DFL party chair, said that he expects most of Clinton’s Minnesota backers to endorse Obama in today’s roll-call vote, but added that a few may still feel compelled to officially voice support for Clinton. “I don’t think it makes any difference if it’s one, two or three who vote for Hillary Clinton,” Stafford said. “We are 100 percent Barack Obama, no matter how we vote.”

Of course there’s never really been any question about whether the overwhelming majority of party activists will ultimately get behind Obama. The remaining uncertainty is whether Clinton’s speech will persuade run-of-the-mill voters to support her former rival. A poll released Monday by USA Today, after all, found that nearly 30 percent of Clinton’s supporters intended to vote for John McCain, another candidate or for no one at all.

Even so, Mayor Coleman (pictured right) expressed confidence that those voters will ultimately come around and questioned the validity of the Obama backlash within the party. “After the very compelling case that Senator Clinton laid out for the reasons to unite behind Obama last night, I’d very careful to question the sources as we go into the future of who the voices of dissent are,” he said. “When the Republicans start running ads in support of Hillary Clinton, the world’s turned upside down. There’s no more food served on sticks at the state fair. We are done. The fact of the matter is Democrats are united.”