Old Time Rock and Roll

Hillary Clinton speaks at the DNC, Day2, August 26, 2008. photo Getty.

Hillary Clinton Brings It Home For Barack Obama

Two sentences in and she had me.

Barack, Barack, President, Barack.

We were semi-joking in the Blogger Lounge at the Pepsi Center (located within the unassigned media filing center on the Admin Level) that Senator Clinton's first words would be, "Alright, Bitches. Here's how it's going down. If just 145 of you change your vote on the Role Call, this baby is MINE."

It would have been something.

This was better.

Clinton owned the room in two sentences, and she never lost it.

Bloggers -- people who in the long, hard primary months had been screaming invective at Hillary day after day, tired month into endless month, were cheering her on, "You GO Girl" and "Damn", "Wow", and "Bring it, Hillary!"

Hillary Clinton brought the Party together and she did it with style.

After a rousing opening, she spoke directly to her supporters, asking them them why they had truly supported her. Was it about her personally, or was it to bring health care to people, and to stop the war in Iraq?

At every opportunity, Clinton kept weaving in -- to her words, her mood, her smiles -- that Barack Obama DOES have her personal, full and unconditional support.

People believed her.

Then she did a call back which brought the house down. She said (paraphrasing), we know something about how to do this. We've done it before. We're Democrats. As I remember, there was a guy named Clinton who did pretty well when he was President. (THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE.) And when Barack Obama is President, we'll do even better. (Pepsi Center fucking EXPLODES.)

It was the performance of a life-time.

Everyone afterward in the Pepsi Center I spoke with, thought she had given an astonishing speech.

I don't believe any part of it was forced. I don't think she was doing this because she had to. Yeah, she had to. And no, what we saw, was the real deal. It was genuine.

I've been watching the Clintons since I was a paramedic student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 1979. I know their public face and I've seen enough of their private face to know when they're faking it, putting it on.

Last night... there was nothing faked going on. Hillary Clinton genuinely supports Barack Obama for President.

This speech will not repair Hillary Clinton's reputation in New York State as a Senator. However she has four years to go back home and get to work. She has time, time to go into Harlem and Brooklyn and Queens, and the Bronx, time to go church to church, pumping funds into constituent services, spending time in her communities, doing work as a Senator. I am certain that part of the negotiations between the Obama and Clinton camps included that President Obama will come campaign for Senator Clinton in New York, as well as be seen supporting her in the years to come. She has time to rebuild and recover; the damage is repairable.

Hillary Clinton... You gave it all you had, up to and crossing the line; no one can say you didn't give it everything. Last night you passed the torch to Barack Obama who is continuing up the mountain. You turned around and are coming down. WELL DONE.

Bill Clinton... Your turn.

Update: I'm back in the Pepsi Center, watching the DAY 3 roll call vote.

It just came around to New York State.

Hillary Clinton announced the votes of New York State, and then asked the Permanent Chair of the DNC, Nancy Pelosi, to suspended the remainder of the Roll Call Vote, and have the Convention nominate Barack Obama for President of the United States by acclamation.

Moved, Seconded, Carried.

Classy move.

Barack Obama IS now the Nominee.

What's next?