By Ana Marie Cox, CQ Special Correspondent

During the roll call vote this afternoon, Hillary Rodham Clinton was mentioned as much as Barack Obama in the speeches, as she richly deserves, though she only received a symbolic number of votes. As I watched, Fox News made much of the fact that the California delegation passed on its chance to put in its 204 votes for Hillary Clinton when its turn came up, because at the time, that probably would have put her vote tally over Barack Obama ’s. Yesterday, noted master of subtlety Gloria Allred (and Clinton delegate) wore a gag to protest the lack of representation of Hillary supporters at the California delegation’s breakfast meeting. And, of course, drama of HRC versus Obama and the enticing possibility that something dramatic might happen (like a floor fight! Or rebellious delegates!) has captivated the media, dominated the coverage, and annoyed the heck out of most the more understated Clinton supporters.

Yesterday, I spoke to some of those California delegates, including one of their 166 Obama supporters. Given the animosity I keep being told to expect, I asked the Obama delegate if he felt any tension, or if he felt like anyone would wind up voting for McCain and he rolled his eyes. “No, of course not,” he said, before two other delegates — both for Clinton — chimed in and agreed. “I have no idea where they” — the media — “find those people.”

And while it’s easy to find Clinton supporters who are unhappy, or angry, or who think Obama is the wrong choice, it is quite hard to find a serious, non-crazy actual delegate who is certain that he or she will vote for McCain in the fall. Even my good friend Anne-Marie couldn’t quite go there, despite her pessimism regarding Obama’s chances in general.

It is easy to find crazy people who will go there. The Republican National Committee is especially eager to point them out to you. On the convention’s opening night, they held a “Happy Hour for Hillary” for Clinton supporters who say they will vote for McCain. It was rather a sad little affair, given the ratio of reporters to civilians. There were zero delegates and several handsome young men in McCain T-shirts who, in any other situation would have been assumed to be the grandchildren of half a dozen or so elderly angry white ladies who were there to talk about switching their votes. I joined one of the media scrums interviewing one of them, got there just in time to hear her talk about how Obama “is not actually an American citizen” before I decided my time would be better spent at the bar.

As interesting as Democratic infighting is to reporters — me included — the story we all came to cover has refused to, you know, happen. And despite the number of times you hear the sentence, “27 percent of Hillary supporters say they will vote McCain” (and you hear it a lot) it doesn’t make that number any more definitive.

In fact, there’s good reason to believe that number is off by at least 10 or 15 points; I think even an earlier poll that showed McCain taking a slice of 16 percent is probably too high. While supposedly both numbers were found in CNN polls, the network has not made the internal data on that question available anywhere I can find. That data would answer important questions, like how CNN found these supposed “Hillary supporters” — did they describe themselves that way, for instance, or did they ask a series of questions to narrow down a larger pool? Think: “Are you a Hillary supporter?” for the first method versus “Did you vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary in your state?” Either method would embed certain biases in the results, from the squishiness you’d get with the first (what does “support” mean?) to the disproportionately enthusiastic results you’d expect with the second. Further, a poll CNN apparently conducted at the same time was of 900 or so “registered voters” rather than “likely voters,” a difference that has historically Clinton to begin with — and that tends to trend conservative in general.

But I have to go now, the RNC, which has its surrogates here in Denver, says there’s going to be a parade!