Kumbaya

Wow. I watched the Clinton speech last night on pins and needles. It was politically and morally impossible that she would deliver anything less than a full-throated endorsement -- and yet, I worried (and the chattering classes speculated). So those first few lines sent a wave of relief through me.

But after that, there were long passages detailing her accomplishments, her platform, her voters. After a while, I began to wonder if she was going to mention Barack again. And then came that amazing pivot -- demanding whether her peeps really supported those issues or just her. It was *very* well done.

I saw one commentator who suggested she didn't mention Barack enough. But as I was watching, I remembered she wasn't really talking to the Barack camp. She was talking to her supporters, some of them angry. And what they needed was a strong acknowledgement of what they'd stood for and supported, and what she'd meant to them. And the speech was razor sharp in translating that investment into Barack's candidacy. In terms of the political craft, of all speeches at the convention, I thought it was the best -- the most aware of what it needed to accomplish, what it could accomplish, and how to get there. I woke up today singing.