Clinton Wins Student Mock Convention

The results are in, and the students of Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Va., are staking their 100-year reputation of being an almost always accurate presidential candidate predictor on the first viable female candidate in history—Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. The former first lady, they decided at this weekend's Democratic Mock Convention, will clinch the Democratic nomination over rival Sen. Barack Obama.

For the past century, every four years, the students have gathered for a mock convention where they have chosen who the party out of the White House will pick as its nominee. They've selected the candidate correctly every year—but one—since 1948, with an overall record of 18 correct predictions out of 23.

On Saturday, after a colorful parade, fun college parties, and riveting speeches by both established and up-and-coming politicians, Clinton won on the first ballot, earning 2,117 delegates. Obama came in second with 1,642 delegates and Edwards came in a distant third with 288. For 2½ years, students at the Virginia college had planned for the event. They meticulously monitored polls and news from each of the 50 states and some territories too, trying to figure out the results of primaries and caucuses before many occurred.

Richard Friedman, a senior biology major who served as the convention's general chairman, noted that research won out over student preference. While Clinton won the mock nomination, Obama seemed to be the favorite of the students. "If you were on the floor and were listening to the roll call votes, Obama actually got the loudest cheers from the student body," Friedman says. "It was an affirmation for me that the system we have in place at this Mock Convention does work—the research is the sole defining characteristic."

The students also added rising Democratic star and favorite Mock Convention speaker Harold Ford Jr. to Clinton's ticket as their (not-so-serious) pick for vice president. Ford appeared as a speaker alongside former Rep. Charlie Wilson, Sen. Jim Webb, and Govs. Tim Kaine (Virginia) and Joe Manchin (West Virginia), to name a few.

At the end of the convention a familiar voice filled the gymnasium. Bill Clinton called to thank the students for nominating his wife. "The pressure was lifted once the balloons dropped, we had a nominee, and Bill was on the phone," Friedman says. Now all the students have to do is wait and see if they are right.