It's on the Teleprompter!

By now, everyone with a television or computer has seen the video from the Democratic National Convention where they took three votes to reinsert God and Jerusalem into the Democratic Party Platform.  My opinion from the outset was that it was more honest for the Democrats not to mention God or to put phony language about Jerusalem in their platform (as long as Pres. Obama supports creation of a Palestinian State and wants Israel to return to its pre-1967 borders).  Furthermore, putting God's name in a platform that endorses the redefinition of marriage and unrestricted abortion is just window-dressing.  In fact, it is using God's name in vain.

Nevertheless, stung by public opinion regarding the omissions, the platform committee put forward an amendment to add God and support for Jerusalem as the capital of Israel back into the platform.  As numerous commentators have noted, the change did not seem to gather even a simple majority of delegates on a voice vote, much less the two-thirds majority needed to pass the amendment.

Convention Chairman, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, acted as if he didn't think the motion had the necessary two-thirds majority either. In one of the most awkward moments ever seen in a televised political convention, he had the delegates cast their voice vote three times.  Finally, looking nonplussed, Mayor Villaraigosa stated, "In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds have voted in the affirmative, the motion is adopted, and the platform has been amended as shown on the screen."

The good mayor may have been from Los Angeles, but this Convention was being played according to Chicago rules: Keep counting the votes until you get the result you want.  Even the stalwart Democratic delegates on the floor responded to the ruling of the chair with boos.

But tonight, Sean Hannity added this shocking detail: the decision that Mayor Villaraigosa issued, declaring that the amendment passed, was scripted and already on the teleprompter!  This is the reason for Mayor Villaraigosa's awkwardness: in the face of a voice vote that obviously didn't carry, he already had his orders. It had already been decreed that the amendment would pass.