I must say I was really surprised by the welcome she got, it seems the delegates attending thankfully didn't represent the nastiness of blog commenters.

Imagine that - she might have baited the Republicans into gloating about her failure to say the magic words, waiting for them to waste a ton of money on a pack of new ads. Then, in about a week, she says, "Of course Obama is ready to lead. Why else would I recommend that Americans vote him into office?"

What a nice opportunity to swat some flying monkeys.
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Good times for Smiley! :-D

:)

That doesn't make much sense. The national press wants to keep that BS alive as long as possible, best to lay that dog to rest when you have the largest possible exposure. What opportunity will be larger for Clinton between now and Nov than last night's speech?

I think it was a glowing endorsement of Obama and he should be very happy about it. But she left the door open a crack for later criticism and basically tried to give herself a big lift for another run in 2012 or 2016.

It would have been really easy for her to kill this thing. Hillary knows better than anyone how badly a misquote or mistake can be conflated by the Republican machine and a pliant press. She wants Obama to win, but she doesn't want him to win by that much.

Still, I enjoyed the speech. Lots of good preogressive points made.

Everything she said implied she wants to see Obama in the Oval Office.

I'm not saying your wife doesn't have a point. Clinton claimed over and over she was ready to lead "from day one" and she could handle a crisis at 3:00 a.m. She implied Obama wasn't and couldn't. Still, there is no reason why we should use her campaign charges and commercials as metrics for endorsement. That's a game the media plays and voters don't need to go along with it.

My least favored metric is the "Commander in Chief" one. We don't need a Commander in Chief - we need a President. We need a political leader who can also command the executive branch to execute the laws faithfully. One of his jobs is to lead the military, but that's only one of his jobs. Our empire unfortunately requires a military leader to run the military industrial complex, and its gotten us into terrible trouble, culminating in the antics and incompetency of that play soldier, George W. Bush. We desperately need to scale back the military machine, the empire, and the pretensions of the presidency as some sort of imperial and hereditary dictatorship.

I could also go on about "experience". We don't need any more experience after this administration with its cadres of mature and wise experts. If we wanted an experienced person for the next president the logical choice is Dick Cheney. It's time for someone with maturity, a respect for the Constitution and democratic traditions, sound judgment, openness, and an ability to communicate.

On this early phrase, I thought she gave herself away:

"and a proud supporter of Barack Obama."

Her inflection was wrong, not an excited Barack OBAMA, but a downbeat BARACK Obama. I think Michele felt it too as the shot of her face at that time was a very tight smile, almost a grimace. Her speech was much more about the Clintons than about Barack Obama. Hillary 2012!

nervous, not of what Clinton would say but how die hard supporters would behave and react. She seemed to relax as the speech went on.

You discerning Hillary's real feelings by hanging on every perceived inflection is a real hoot.

The inflection was real. My reading of it was another story. In my very own personal opinion, she did not show the necessary excitement when saying his name. She is looking to 2012. IMHO.

probably right. Unless Obi Kenobi wins.

http://mauberly.blogspot.com/

You sure know how to deliver a punch line, mauberly.

_{"While not a Playboy reader, she invites a male acquaintance in for a quiet discussion of Chagall, Nietzsche, jazz, sex." - not a Hugh Hefner quote}

in dactylic hexameter.

http://mauberly.blogspot.com/

eom...

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

Redundancy is not always the best rhetorical device. Let me go through the logic here. She said clearly that Obama must be our President and that she fully supports him. Right? How doesn't that imply that she believes he is ready to lead? Would she be the kind of person to support somebody who's not ready to lead as President? For instance, she did not say explicitly that she thinks Obama is not psychotic. Does that mean that perhaps she thinks he is?

and I love how she marginalized the PUMAs. I think the core message was for people to get over themselves..the bigger picture is dem values and a dem WH not personal feelings. I had never heard Schweitzer before, he was so much more impressive than Warner.

I believe most whites and blacks have both thought maybe 50, or 100 years from now the country would be so over its racist past that an African-American could get elected. I had this idea that a much more racially harmonious society was necessary before this would happen, and that no major party today would risk annihilation at the polls by nominating a black for president.

This whole Obama candidacy is freaky in that respect, and it's why there is so much nervousness about his assassination. I suppose if he loses we can all fall back on "too many white people will never vote for a black guy", and no one will be too surprised or disappointed. But with Hillary, there is real disappointment that we were ready for a female president, and she was the one who was going to make the breakthrough.

Maybe, though, there has been more cultural acceptance of a black president than we realize. If so, we owe it largely to Hollywood. At first it was cute and quaint when we would see African-Americans in the role as president - Hollywood was tweaking us with the unexpected and impossible. Now it is commonplace and the audience doesn't seem to find it unusual. Maybe we are all seeing Dennis Haysbert of 24 when we look at Obama and his family.

if a very welcome one for progressives and liberals. He truly is the spirit of America in many ways, rising to the top due to his own abilities and developed talents. He truly deserves the Bushco tagline of, "nobody saw this coming."

Even if he loses the election, this has been groundbreaking stuff. And if he wins, what a huge victory for black folks, progressives, civil rights activists, and America in general. Even if he is saddled with so much s*&t from Bushco that he never gets his bearings, this is a great thing to have happened.

...kinda like a previous Congressman and attorney from Illinois who, 8 years before he became our 16th President, the 'Average American' if asked, might not have known who he was?

Once in a very great while we get the chance to see something that challenges our world-view, for the better.

My prayer these days, and going forward is: "God, don't let this man be remembered in the same breath as MLK, Malcolm X, and Teddy Kennedy's 2 older brothers"

Obama's nomination, and (if successful) election to the Presidency will bring the wingnuts out of the woodwork unlike anything even the Big Dog and his AG could have done in the '90's. They're going to be gunning for him like nobody else in the history of our nation, and that worries me a *lot*.

-5.75,-4.05
"God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time." -- Robin Williams

At the coffee shop where I used to hang out there was an elderly black man named Willie. After it became apparent Obama would win the Democratic primary, Willie became almost despondent. He explained that he was depressed because, "They'll just shoot him." Then he'd shake his head and turn away.

Willie was completely surprised by Obama's amazing rise to the top of Democratic politics. He assumed, as did most people, that Barack would be just another sterling speaker that would languish in his state's government and barely register on the national radar.

Willie probably didn't see Obama's speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004. While listening to that speech a thought popped into my head: "Well, hello Mr. President." I was later an Edwards supporter during the primary (his positions and resume were more liberal) but I never got that same feeling about Edwards or any other candidate, that his character simply fit the definition of "presidential" better than anybody else's.

I certainly don't get that feeling about John McCain. McCain's character reminds me of those old Floridian retirees that spend all day carping about the evils of Social Security, Welfare and high taxes. McCain probably has an aide that keeps him from pulling his pants up too high.
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Good times for Smiley! :-D

They don't want the private John McCain to be glimpsed even once by the public.

daily blow jobs to prevent the temper explosions? Sorry, just checking... :)

I was convinced, far back in the almost un-rememberable days of a decade ago, that you'd have a black President around now - I just though his name was going to be Colin Powell. Funny how things change.

isn't particularly encouraging. Why can't people put aside their differences and not write in, "Hillary Clinton," as their candidate of choice, which divides the vote and puts McCain in office? Nader won't be the spoiler this time around; it will be the electorate themselves if a Republican candidate wins at the polls together with the corrupt voting machines that for some ? reason was ignored. Why wasn't the electorate howling/demanding paper ballots that can't be changed which produces an audit trail for this very important federal election?

At a minimum when I go to the polls for a federal election, I am assured in the case of recount, that the ballots reflect what I marked.

eom

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

And our own little heel clicking neo-con yes-man knows he doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell if you folks do the right thing and get rid of the present admin. They say he wants to slide our election in before yours.

Will vote for McCain is largely made up, in my opinion.

...

inside Bill, Hill, and OBy's heads registering their real thoughts and posting them.

That has to be the "DUH" article of thw year......

C'mon W, we know you have that machine for your own special uses:-)

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

and Obama gets disqualified, then Hillary still comes out never having said he could lead :)

(under 30 though) that he WON'T say it? My "money" is on "NO"

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

is the nights topic, so there might be a good chance of him saying or implying it.

Yay!

a man very good at saying things,though with a teeny question of meaning it:-)
But hey, that wasn't the issue.

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

I never said he meant it, or believes it! :D

Bill Clinton is just GOOD at saying things like "Obama is ready to lead" -- and getting people excited about it!

See, here's the deal I am thinking was agreed to by Hillary: Support Obama verbally; if he gets disqualified before the election, she is in now, and if he doesn't get disqualified, he will lose to McCain, and she can run after McCain.

though actually I think "they" said that the first time he tried to get the nomination, four years before he succeeded.

We'll see how much the verbal support amounts to....

And if by some miracle Barack does make it, what Hillary's reward will be....

:D

you have to accept the cards you're dealt ... she sure sounded presidential though. *Sigh*

_{"While not a Playboy reader, she invites a male acquaintance in for a quiet discussion of Chagall, Nietzsche, jazz, sex." - not a Hugh Hefner quote}