The Note: Contact Sports

Aug. 26, 2008 -- DENVER --

The narrative is (or isn't) coming together, the family was glowing on stage, the schedule is holding tight, Teddy and Michelle hit them out of the park . . . and still there are the Clintons.

For all those 18 million cracks in the highest glass ceiling, a frosty divide still needs chipping away at, even as Obama is set to lose the "presumptive" from his title.

It comes to this for the rivalry for the ages: Neither Sen. Barack Obama nor Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has any possible sane, rational reason for wanting tensions to continue.

They need each other, and they know it. If Clinton supporters don't come to Obama's side in greater (near-unanimous) numbers, he loses the presidency. If Clinton is seen as doing anything less than everything for the Obama-Biden ticket, she loses stature in the Democratic Party.

And yet. . . . the relationship is complicated as ever. As Sen. Clinton prepares for her speech on Night Two of the Democratic National Convention (with Chelsea Clinton narrating an introductory tribute video, on a night where the theme is "Renewing America's Promise"), those "Hillary" signs and pins dotting Denver carry a message -- and Clinton and Obama carry (mixed) messages of their own.

Did we need this reminder, this week of all weeks? "Remember: 18 million people voted for me -- 18 million people, give or take, voted for Barack," Clinton, D-N.Y., told reporters Monday, per ABC's Eloise Harper. (Give or take?)

Then there's the Clintons' most recognizable surrogate/adviser, going on television Monday night to basically declare one-fourth of Obama's convention a messaging disaster.

"Well, if this party has a message it has done a hell of a job of hiding it tonight I promise you that," James Carville said on CNN Monday night, per ABC's Jake Tapper. "I look at this and I am about to jump out of my chair."

"The non primetime part was not particularly impressive," Carville added Tuesday morning, on ABC's "Good Morning America. "The other stuff was completely void of any message" -- adding that the Democrats' streak of not bashing President Bush at Democratic National Conventions now stands at five nights.

(A night that was strong in the details was less so on the grand themes. This is an extremely damaging storyline that the Obama campaign needs to address immediately, now, pronto. If Democrats don't start talking about McCain/Bush very quickly, they will all be talking about John Kerry shortly -- and not in a good way.)

(Obama adviser Anita Dunn swings back in the campaign's morning conference call: "Everyone else to have felt it was a very, very successful first night of the convention, so [Carville] seems to be out there in the minority." And stay tuned: "Clearly tonight as we move toward the economy you will see some very sharp contrast because there is a real difference between him and John McCain," Dunn added.)

Look for Clinton's speech to take on Sen. John McCain in a way no one did Monday. "What you didn't get last night you're going to get tonight from Hillary Clinton," ABC's George Stephanopoulos said on "Good Morning America" Tuesday.

The latest plan for the floor vote splits the baby: Clinton will have her named placed into nomination Wednesday, and the roll call will be halted midway through -- allowing Obama's nomination by acclimation.

"The deal would allow some states to cast votes for both Obama and Clinton before ending the roll call in acclamation for the Illinois senator," the AP's Nedra Pickler reports. "Clinton herself may cut off the vote and recommend unanimous nomination of Obama, according to Democratic officials involved in the negotiations."

She may get it, even if He does not: "An official familiar with conversations between the Obama and Clinton camps said Hillary Clinton fully realizes it would hurt her politically to be seen as anything other than 100 percent behind Obama. Bill Clinton 'is not as far along' in reconciling himself to his wife's loss, said the source," Pickler writes.

"Bill Clinton is not over it," writes Politico's John F. Harris. "His resentments from the bitter campaign battles of last winter and spring are many and diverse, and people who have spent time with him recently said they fester just below the surface."

Harris continues: "For the next two days, a convention that belongs to Obama will be dominated by the same two people who dominated the Democratic Party for the last generation and who have come to Denver in much different roles than they wanted. . . . But Obama, too, is part of the Denver psychodrama. Some Democrats with high-level ties to both the Clinton and Obama camps said they were surprised that Obama has not done more to make the Clintons more enthusiastic about his candidacy."

Very many Theys aren't looking for direction from anyone -- Bill and Hillary included: "Some Clinton delegates said they were not interested in a compromise, raising the prospect of floor demonstrations that would underscore the split between Obama and Clinton Democrats," per the AP's Scott Lindlaw. "I don't care what she says," said Mary Boergers, a Maryland delegate who wants to cast a vote for Clinton.

"It may take a while. We're not the fall-in-line party," Clinton told the New York delegation Monday.

You can argue they've had a while already -- though no amount of time might have changed this: "Clinton-watching has become the mesmerizing sideshow of the Democratic National Convention that will nominate Barack Obama," Susan Page writes for USA Today. "Their words, actions, even body language are being parsed for clues about how aggressively they'll help the rival who shattered their dreams of moving back into the White House."

"Sometimes dealing with the Clintons is like dealing with Brett Favre," says former Clinton chief of staff Leon Panetta.

But why is Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., looking for the Clinton to have their "Pee Wee Reese" moment? "In interviews with delegates and aides to the rival camps, it was clear Monday that tensions have only swelled since the heat of a primary competition fraught with racial, gender and generational differences," Peter Wallsten and Peter Nicholas write in the Los Angeles Times.

"The question is, are the Clintons ready?" said L. Douglas Wilder, D-Va., the nation's first elected black governor.

Maybe not so much: "As one political dynasty was celebrating its legacy and ceding the political stage on Monday night, the other dominant family of the Democratic Party was struggling to protect its legacy and accept its own exit from the spotlight," Patrick Healy writes in The New York Times. "At one point she told aides the Obama campaign could end the bad blood with her husband by simply acknowledging his policy accomplishments and efforts at racial reconciliation in the 1990s -- in amends for what the Clintons saw as a lack of respect from Mr. Obama during the primaries."