http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62cldY9_CR0

I don’t know what else she was supposed to do. She performed her assigned task. And she certainly exceeded my expectations. After limp and limper embarrassed both themselves and the Democratic Party, it was refreshing to see someone do exactly what they were there to do. To be fair, Bob Casey did manage to serve up a useful line or two. Limiting the Republicans to “four more months” rather than “four more years” was a good line and referring to John McCain as Bush’s “sidekick” was also pretty good.

 

I don’t know whose decision it was to make Mark Warner the keynote speaker, but whoever it was should be given their walking papers. The keynote speaker is supposed to make an impassioned call to arms; instead, El Mealy Mouth decided to make a call to play nice. Maybe if we’re all warm and fuzzy enough, the republicans will suddenly realize how wrong they are and hand over the keys to the White House.

 

It’s conceivable that those two bozos were afraid to steal Hillary’s thunder by going after McCain in ways that might overshadow her speech. If that’s the reason for their lackluster performance, it’s a poor excuse. Hillary was there for one reason and one reason only: to pull the rug from under middle-aged-white-women looking for an excuse not to support Obama. She did that. They now have no excuse whatsoever for withholding their support.

 

As Howard Kurtz pointed out in his column this morning, Hillary will never be a great speaker. But she gave the best speech she’s ever given last night. I expected her to do the usual self-serving, self-important speech she always gives. And she did, but then she took all that self-important, self-serving blather and turned it into the reason she supports Barack Obama. She married her interests to his in a way she’d never done before.

 

I’m always moved when I see a person grow. I got the sense last night that Hillary had grown not as a candidate (she’s not running anymore) but as a human being. She’s somehow managed to get her head around the idea that her campaign for president is over, but there’s work yet to be done and it’s time now to be about the business of doing it.

 

When I read Susan Fulani’s screed in yesterdays New York Times about how terrible it was that Hillary lost and how this probably means a woman won’t be president in her lifetime, I couldn’t help but feel that was so beside the point. For one, I refuse to accept that there won’t be a woman president in my lifetime. For two, that’s no reason not to continue to fight for the things you believe in: things like healthcare, equal pay for women, environmental standards, ending the war in Iraq, etc. But Hillary said it last night better than I ever could have. And she said it to the people who needed to hear it most. I just hope they heard her.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcakDDjz30c

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