to my mind, she did exactly what she needed to do last night. she explained why she was in the race, she hit on the themes that excited her supporters, and she pivoted all that to believably encourage her supporters to support barack obama.
it was a great speech, and to my mind laid to rest all the mindless speculation about a rift. she’s gone far beyond what any other “second-place” candidate has ever done, and for that she should be appreciated and congratulated.
the one sore point everyone keeps mentioning is this whole business of not refuting her argument that he isn’t ready to be commander in chief. you know, the 3am thing. i maintain that for her to say something like, “he’ll be ready at 3am, and 4am, and 5am” or whatever would have sounded craven and inauthentic, and would have blunted the effect of what was an outstanding effort.
it makes perfect sense for bill clinton to make that argument tonight. he should be the one to persuade people that obama is ready to be commander in chief, since he was himself, and hillary hasn’t [yet] been.
i’ll be looking for him to do exactly that tonight.