"No way, no how, no McCain."

A commentary on Hillary Clinton's address before the Democratic National Convention

(Hillary Clinton's speach, full text)

In her address to the Democratic Convention, Hillary Clinton made an impassioned plea for party unity and placed herself squarely behind Barack Obama, throwing her support in with him entirely. All the speculation as to whether she would "fall into line" behind the chosen candidate ended when she declaired, "It is time to unite as a single party with a single purpose."

She began by declaring herself "...a proud supporter of Barack Obama", for which she received a standing ovation. She then went into some depth about her own campaign for the Democratic nomination, going all "touchy-feely" with the reminiscing, waxing nostalgic about her own failed bid for the nomination. (Her barely failed bid; she came closer that any other unsuccessful candidate ever has to actually winning that nomination.)

Predictably, she talked about the failures of the current administration, saying that, "Our standing has eroded around the world." This is not new at all; indeed, this has been a point that Democrats have been hammering home for weeks now. Months, even. In fact, she hit all the talking points; health care, the war, the economy, energy, global warming, and so on and so on dooby dooby doo.

The question in my mind was this: Has Hillary Clinton’s contentious campaign for Democratic Presidential candidate gone so far in demonizing Obama that the people who carried out that campaign, the foot solders in that bitter contest, cannot see their way clear to now put aside their animosity and support Obama and the causes that Hillary championed? Could they, in other words, work and play well together? That question remains; I imagine that there will still be "Hillary hard-liners" that won’t support Obama under any circumstances for reasons that really don’t matter now. But I don’t think there’ll be that many of them. Not that there ever were, but with Hillary Clinton’s eloquence tonight it makes continuing to oppose Obama seem like the sour grapes that it (mostly) is.

She spent a lot of time talking about herself and her own unsuccessful campaign. She praised her supporters, referring to them all as the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Suits." She talked about all the things she had tried to do with her campaign, talking the same old talking points one more time, talking about all she had tried to do without mentioning Obama until she finally claimed "Those are the reasons I ran for President and those are the reasons I support Barack Obama for President."

Now onto the topic of Obama himself, she was no less eloquent. She cast Obama as a true "working person’s candidate" and tried to tie his hoped-for success to the past success of Bill Clinton. She made it clear that to support everything she stands for her supporters must now support Barack Obama. She said, "We are on the same team and none of us can sit on the sidelines." To her supporters she said, "You never gave in, you never gave up." But she also addressed the dissatisfaction of many of them with Obama, asking "Were you in this campaign just for me?" She spent a lot of time telling her supporters not only that they should support Obama. but why.

I did note that her words about Obama bringing our troops home didn’t get nearly the cheers that talking up his economic wizardry to come did; I think this clearly shows where the American people’s collective mind is at.

She also gave a brief history of the Women’s Movement and the history of women in the Civil Rights Movement. This didn’t really have anything to do with Obama, but it certainly got her supporters listening.

It was interesting to watch how the cameras watched Hillary Clinton. When not focused on her or her family, the cameras focused of various faces in the crowd, either listening attentively or smiling idiotically in idolization. I could almost believe that the camera operators had been given the locations of particular "random" spectators beforehand. Almost; even I am not that paranoid. It was clear, however, the whole event, and its television coverage, was sell scripted. I expected nothing less.

It was a speech full of soundbites for tomorrow's news reports. That’s not entirely a bad thing; in fact, it’s all you hear in a political speech anymore. For example, her observation that McCain and Bush are "awfully hard to tell apart" is one that will be widely quoted tomorrow, as will the line, "We are on the same team and none of us can sit on the sidelines." She also mentioned "faith in God and our country" prominently...I knew she’d have to bring God into it somewhere. We can’t seem to have a secular political speech anymore. (Is that bad? Depends...am I the only Atheist in the room?)

And after the speach, after the pundits have had their say, after the cameras have finally been switched off and the monitors have gone dark, one nagging question remains: I still can’t figure out why they were playing "Disco Inferno" on the convention floor after Hillary’s address.

The Blues Viking

The opinions here expressed are mine and if you don’t like them you can get your own damn blog.