Her job was to convince her supporters that even though she lost it's time to move on and vote for Obama.  The harder she tried to convince her supporters to support Obama, the passion in her speech will just do the opposite and make those supporters not to vote for Obama.  

Good to know that Hillary had a great moment at the convention, made her case, and brought the audience to a frenzied moment.  I heard Dennis Kucinich was pretty electric today, too.

And I know why the likes of Hillary and Dennis were "electric", because they are REAL Democrats (esp Dennis Kucinich).  

And as for Mrs. Obama's seemingly less than enthusiastic reactions to Senator Clinton, it would behoove her husband's campaign for her to "get on board" and get over it.  The Obamas will never be the Clintons and she will never have the spot in America's electorate that Hillary has right now.

This, in the long run, has the effect of lowering the temperature on all sides.  That means less of the anti-Clinton comments that tend to stoke the flames.  Slowly, tensions ratchet down.

However, as that delegate, Anna Knowles, so eloquently stated (in as many words), the ball's in Obama's court and he needs to close the sale within the next two months.

Some people may feel compelled, not to vote for McCain, but NOT to VOTE AT ALL, because they just don't feel the person at the top of ticket is worthy of their vote.

Hillary did everything, and more, of what was expected of her tonight. NO ONE can pick fault with her now, and I PRAY they lay off her and stop hounding her.

It is Obama's turn to close the ring of Unity.

Yes, Bill has a speech to make, but he's a former Democratic President. He is owed the time to talk about his accomplishments and his vision for the party her lead for two terms in the White House. He does not owe anything to Obama, except maybe a word or two of support. It's not his job to rally Hillary's supporters. She did that already.

I felt Hillary did not have a good speaking style, that her voice tended to tense up and she could sound strained. I feared she would lose her voice and the tension in the voice seemed to indicate tension within her.

Boy, has she grown as a campaigner, speaker.

Hillary does passion--with control and honesty. She does some vocal changes and humor, which I hadn't thought she could do. She can answer questions without getting lost in a word fog or word cloud. Her fervor comes through clearly, as her ideas come through clearly.

She has truly grown and flowered.

Drat, drat, drat. Why did the MCM have to put their massive thumb on the scales???

Will it have any effect? I don't know. She gave a similarly rousing and well-received speech in her concession in June, and that didn't do a whole lot for Obama. Her supporters all already knew that she was supporting the Democratic ticket.

As for me, maybe I'm just stubborn. But when I see Hillary and what could have been, and when I see these fair-weather folks who are praising her now after calling her racist for months, I get even angrier.

That said, Obama couldn't have picked her as Veep.  Nothing to do with her or with him.  It's to do with the media.  To win this election it has to be Obama vs. McCain.  The media are trying to frame it as Obama vs. Obama.  If Clinton were on the ticket all the media oxygen would still be Obama vs. Clinton (will he really lead; how will things work out with bill; etc. etc.).  It just wouldn't have been wise to open the media up to that sort of misdirection.

But I think Hillary has done a brilliant job of setting us up for something good.  She's fully supportive of Obama.  Her line about what the campaign was really about (not her, but the people she's fighting for) is brilliant.  And in return, expect her to be given Kennedy-like stature in the Democratic party.  She'll be the lead on health care reform.  She'll have huge visibility and power in the senate.  She's earned it with her campaign (I say that grudgingly) and she earned it tonight (I say that whole-heartedly).

Meanwhile, let's keep our eyes on the ball.  If we want universal health care; if we want a world where diplomacy matters as much as bluster; if we want to take a thoughtful approach to handling the energy issue; if we want to maintain social security; if we want a government that's not about doling out hundreds of thousands of dollars in "tax cuts" to the extremely wealthy -- we need the Republicans out and the Democrats in.  And we need a team that has a Democratic president and a superb and historical Democratic leader in the senate (who happens to be a woman).