Hillary's Great Speech

I just watched Hillary's concession. I now forgive her for not conceding on Tuesday, and I'm actually very glad that she didn't. I can see why she needed a couple of days to get ready.

This was one of the best speeches that I have ever seen from a Clinton, either her or Bill. It touched on all of the standard talking points, she endorsed Obama wholeheartedly, gave thanks to her supporters, etc., etc. All pretty much expected. But what really surprised me, and why I give it such high marks, is that she worked a bit of political magic that I did not even remotely expect: she endorsed Obama from a position of strength, not weakness.

Every endorsement that I have seen from a losing candidate has been as an act of necessity, but Hillary almost made it look like it was her choice. All of those previous endorsements that I have seen have had an undercurrent of pain and disappointment, but Hillary did everything she could to work some amazing alchemy, and transfer as much of her campaign enthusiasm as she could to Obama, with a minimum of pain and disappointment. She made it clear that whatever hurt feelings there are from the past few months pale next to the challenges Democrats face on many fronts, from just beating John McCain to cleaning up George Bush's mess. She reminded everyone of why she's in this - not for herself, but for the cause. Sometimes when a politician uses that kind of rhetoric, they're just masking their own ambition, and God knows the Clintons are ambitious. But Hillary was preaching to the choir, and they bought her message today, that everyone there has to remember that they have sworn allegiance to higher causes than her campaign. And everyone believed it, because they have.

Yesterday I went to the Barack Obama Web site, and Obama was asking his supporters to congratulate Hillary Clinton and her supporters. So I did. I clicked on the link, and filled out an email that was as gracious and encouraging as I could write. Looking back on this campaign, I have been disappointed and disillusioned by the Clintons, but the disagreements were not as deep as those between me and the Republicans. I think Hillary made some tactical errors, some strategic errors, and said some things that were, at best, ill-advised. I don't have as much respect for either of them as I did at the beginning of this race, and I doubt I ever will.

But I have more respect for Hillary as a politician and as a leader. The issues that I had with the Clinton campaign were mostly, although not entirely, tactical, of the moment, stylistic, rather than substantive. Hillary has definitely come into her own as a politician as a result of this campaign, and emerging from the shadow of Bill Clinton, even with his full encouragement, is a phenomenal achievement in and of itself. She has done a remarkable job of inspiring millions of people, particulary women.

Yesterday, as I was hearing about her speech and processing getting over the campaign just past, I checked my email, and saw an email from Hillary (I signed up for her campaign email a long time ago, long before I started campaigning for Obama). As with just about every email that shows up, from either campaign, these days, she was asking for contributions. This was before I watched her speech today. In the spirit of healing the wounds and letting bygones be bygones and letting water flow under the bridge, I made a donation. Not much, mostly because I still don't have a lot of money to give to candidates these days, but something. I am glad that I decided to campaign for Barack Obama. But, after watching Hillary's speech, I'm glad that I gave her a donation.

Here's the speech (from TPM):