Barack and his nomination by acclamation

That's it, Barack is the candidate of the Democratic Party for the Presidency. The suspense is over.

Yesterday, the Democrats were in their third convention day, and that was the day that was supposed to remind us what a convention was for. Historically, the convention allowed the delegates of all states to meet and to elect their candidate. That was in pre-media age, of course, since we now know who the candidate is as soon as the results of the primaries are out.

However, to make sure the convention is not only a huge expensive party, the tradition remains and the roll call still takes place. Yesterday, then, the delegates were called one state at a time and were asked to cast their votes.

But an unusual procedure interrupted the procedure. When came the turn of the state of New York, Senator of New York Hillary put a motion forward: "I move that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois be selected by this convention by acclamation as the nominee of the Democratic Party for President of the United States."

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, then asked for a second -- the motion needs to be approved by at least one other delegate -- before asking the convention to approve the motion. The second was met with a roar, and another roar signaled the approbation of the motion.

This procedure is a way to elect a nominee unanimously, so it is of course very powerful as a symbol of unity.

Politics is of course more and more made of symbols. The nomination by acclamation is one of them. The fact that is was moved by Hillary, Barack's opponent for 18 months, is also a symbol.

These symbols are good for the morale of the troops, they are met with cheers, with joyful tears, but can you win an election with symbols only?