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Hillary's Moonstruck Moment

Regrets Only

Hillary did give a good speech—with the clear subtext that she should be giving it Thursday night, not tonight, and look what has been lost by her not being the nominee. She was strong and commanding and convincing. And then the camera cut to the face of Bill Clinton, all teary-eyed, lip-biting, suffused-with-love-for-his-woman, and I thought, “Sorry, Hillary, we just couldn’t go there again.” After she spent all the time she did tracing women’s suffrage and what a world-historical figure she was, she rejected the obvious next move of mentioning that this year’s Democratic nominee is similarly a figure of history. She could have then segued into saying something, anything, about the specific qualities of Barack Obama. You’re right, Dahlia; it’s ultimately up to Obama to sell himself. But with the race right now looking as tight as it is, a bunch of put-out PUMAs could be a mighty big problem.  

Orange Crush

Hillary Clinton crushed tonight. Performed the pants off Mark Warner and Bob Casey and Deval Patrick and even the bolo-tied Brian Schweitzer -- who almost stole the show by mere virtue of the fact that unlike most of tonight’s speakers, he didn’t appear to be battery-operated. Clinton was as compelling, persuasive and commanding as we’ve come to expect. The fact that she ran circles around the men tonight reminded me why the glass ceiling with the 18 million cracks in it really is poised to shatter. I can’t recall a woman rocking a convention like that, ever.

It’s true. She talked about herself a lot. I think she’s earned every minute of that. Clinton made the case for why we “don’t need four more years of the last eight years” and why Americans work too hard, and have endured too much to suffer through more failed leadership. The mutual respect between her and Michelle Obama was nice to see. Like Emily, I could have wished she had made the case for Barack Obama as Barack Obama, beyond a fleeting reference to his early work in Chicago and the general claim that he is not John McCain. But then I can’t imagine being able to stand up and pay homage to a guy who destroyed my dream of a lifetime, either. Let’s give her credit for doing what she had to do: She lit up the crowd (and not a moment too soon) she reminded her supporters of the real stakes here; and she stuck a shrimp fork in John McCain’s eye enough times to really hurt a guy. So she didn’t sell the country on Obama. If he can’t manage to do that for himself, he’s got bigger problems than a bunch of put-out PUMAs.

Hillary's Cinderella Moment

I thought Hillary did a great job tonight. I liked how enthusiastic she seemed about Obama and the Democratic Party generally. She didn't have that extreme tightness she gets in her face sometimes when she's saying things she clearly doesn't believe. And Melinda, you're totally right that she pumped up Obama by delivering a healthy dose of old-fashioned motherly chiding: "Did you get all energized just for me, or did you care also about the young marine, or the single mother with cancer raising children?" (to paraphrase).  It was the best kind of guilt trip, one that's less about the guilt than about restoring you to your original sense of mission. Still, I wish that she had been even more explicit than she was: for example, why not address the McCain ad head on and say, "Make no mistake: I expect my supporters to go out to go out and vote for Obama in November."

For, boy, did Hillary's speech not have an effect on the female Clinton-loving delegate CNN interviewed afterward, who was so focused on her own sense of loss she clearly didn't give two flying pigs about anyone else's. Cancer-ridden mother, be damned. This delegate cried, huffed, and puffed about the fact that Obama won the nomination; her partner's fingers kept creeping up onto her right shoulder in anxiety. She was so worked up that I felt puzzled watching her: Is there something wrong with me? Why don't I find Hillary's loss to Obama that upsetting? I consider myself a feminist, for God's sake. But I just don't see her loss as a blow to feminism, I suppose. After all, Hillary got further than many candidates do—including many male runners-up. I suppose you could say she has more experience than Obama and should clearly be our candidate, as this woman was arguing. But experience hasn't always won in the past. And the fact that it didn't this time doesn't mean that her gender is to blame. I guess I see the cup as half-full. I also can't bring myself to feel that the "PUMA" movement is at all useful in a feminist way; it seems like special pleading.

Though I did have that old twinge of excitement at seeing Hillary in the mix. And yes, Melinda, I loved that pumpkin suit! And the makeup! (Even though I felt guilty about noticing it. I rarely care how male politicians look—though I do find myself scanning Obama in similar ways. What's that about?) Meanwhile, I was so put off by CNN's relentless focus on "women" in the audience (punctuated by shots of Bill Clinton, who looked like a cat in the cream when his presidency was mentioned) that I distracted myself by reading some outlandish metaphors into Clinton's outfit: If she couldn't be Cinderella in this story, she'll be the pumpkin that's turned into a carriage, and she'll get Barack—her Cinderfella—to that inaugural ball. If only she can get her supporters to agree to this version of the fairy tale.

But Enough About Me ...

When Hillary asked in her speech tonight, "Were you in it just for me?" she crystallized for me why I wasn't behind her. I think if you are in it just for her, you're kind of throwing away the election for the Democrats. Hillary has always been polarizing—a lightning rod for right-wingers to organize, unite, and crusade against. Putting her at the head of the ticket would have been suicide for the Democratic Party. What she would have achieved for women becoming the first woman candidate for president would likely have cost the Democrats the election, unfortunately. And that's just not something at this point in history I, for one, am willing to risk. (Which is exactly the point she seemed to be making--that there's too much at stake right now not to unite as a party for this election--now that she's out of the race.)

That said, I thought she gave a good speech, and it was precisely because she asked the question "Were you in it just for me?" She appealed to her supporters to look beyond their own grudges and look out for the greater good of the party. She did what she needed to do to be the unity candle. I just could have done without so much of her own personal campaign catharsis. I'm glad she learned a lot, and now I'm sure her supporters feel better, having been acknowledged. But let's get on with the uniting part of it. Please, let the pity party be over.

Clinton Code Orange

The fire-bright shade of orange Hillary picked to wear tonight must lie directly across the color wheel from the particular shade of punched-up blue that flanked the DNC podium. The contrast couldn't have been sharper. And I thought Hillary couldn't have been sharper, in her presentation, in her poise, in her tribute video. She was great. She just wasn't great for Barack Obama.

Here's where I felt it: "Were you in it for me?" she asked her supporters. "Or were you in it for" the young Marine, the mother struggling to make ends meet, etc. Good, that justified the minutes she'd just spent on real-people stories. Then I waited for the turn, for her to say: Because this election isn't about me. Now, it's about Barack Obama. He will make your lives better in the ways I wanted to do and would have done. Because he is ready to lead the American people. He will take us where we need to go. And now you need to be in this election for him, and so for yourselves.

OK, I don't have a future as a speech writer. But that was the mark she should have hit harder and didn't, wasn't it? She got close for a second with, "before we keep going, we've got to get going, by electing Barack Obama!" That was the kind of line she was up there to deliver. There should have been more of them. By the end, the orange was starting to look red to me, as in Scarlet O'Hara red--the bright color you wear to the party you had to be brave to come to. Dahlia, you said that Michelle Obama was brave last night. I thought that Hillary was brave tonight. But not, also, giving enough to hand to her former opponent everything he may need.

Listen to the Woman: "To My Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuits ...''

Props to the lady in the electric pumpkin pantsuit. Because as Barack Obama's mama used to tell him, a little guilt is good for you. And Mama Hillary spelled that out again tonight, signaling to her people with all the subtlety of her bright orange outfit that if they want to leave her sitting home alone in the dark while they go running after that John McCain, well that's fine, no problem at all, really, because she's hardly done anything for them—other than work her heart out for 35 years. Oh, and it's only the FUTURE OF THE WORLD at stake: "I haven't spent the last 35 years in the trenches, advocating for children, campaigning for universal health care, helping parents balance work and family, and fighting for women's rights here at home and around the world, to see another Republican in the White House ... No way, no how, no McCain.'' Are we clear? "Were you in this campaign just for me?'' Nooooo, you were better than that, surely? "This won't be easy; progress never is. But it will be impossible unless we put a Democrat in the White House.'' Any questions? She was gracious to Michelle Obama, generous to Joe Biden and the first to lay a finger on John McCain: "In 2008, he still thinks it's OK that women don't earn equal pay ... With an agenda like that, it's no wonder George W. Bush and John McCain will be together in the Twin Cities next week; it's awfully hard to tell them apart ... We don't have a moment to lose or a vote to spare ...'' Case closed.