Hillary roll call should move Dems forward

Dr. Mark Thrun, Colorado alternate delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

By Mark Thrun. I had dinner last evening with a huge Hillary supporter and local organizer. If my two Obama yard signs were not enough, then the Obama pins scattered around the house had the potential for once again igniting the debate over who should have (should?) get the nomination.

Yet, there was no debate. There were no arguments. My Hillary friend has become an organizer for Obama. We spent the evening discussing details of his get-out-the-vote efforts for the Labor Day weekend.

He was surprised that I had thought there would be debate. In politics sometimes your guy wins and sometimes he doesn't. In this case, he could not fathom not helping Obama. His gal had lost, but it was time to move on. The country needs repairing and Obama is the man to do it.

It appears though that, unlike my Hillary organizer friend, many Clinton supporters still need closure.

By announcing last week that Hillary's name will appear on the roll-call ballot alongside Barack's, Democrats have seemingly opened a can of worms that could potentially eat a hole in the party's Unity plan. Many believe that this move will prolong the division that arose following the long and tumultuous primary process.

In contrast, this move might just be the catharsis needed to move the party forward. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of ardent Clinton delegates will be given the opportunity to openly stand behind the nominee that they were elected to support by their friends and neighbors at hundreds of congressional and state conventions.

Hillary herself has been clear that she stands behind Barack. Allowing her "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling" to be seen and not just glazed over will hopefully bring closure to an historic and monumental nominating campaign. Once being heard clearly, the vast majority of these supporters are likely to stand behind the Dem's official nominee.

Could the decision to allow this vote be simply a choreographed attempt to heighten interest in the Democratic Convention? Possibly. Could it be that Pandora's box will be opened through this process? Perhaps.

Will this help bring closure to the primaries and allow the Democratic Party to focus on electing a new president that will bring hope, reform, and change to the White House? It must.

Mark Thrun is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver and the current Medical Director of HIV Prevention for Denver Public Health where he sees patients and oversees programs and research related to the prevention and diagnosis of HIV. He is a graduate of Xavier University and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He was appointed by Mayor John Hickenlooper to the Denver GLBT Commission and the Denver HIV Resources Planning Council, which he currently chairs, and by Governor Bill Ritter to the Colorado Advisory Council on AIDS. He is the Board President for Project Angel Heart, a non-profit organization delivering meals to persons living with life-threatening diseases. Mark serves as a precinct committee person for HD 5 in the Highlands where he lives with his partner, Geoffrey, and two boys, Zian and Eliot.

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