Perhaps I shouldn’t write about HIllary’s speech last night to the Democratic National Convention as I had other obligations. From what I’ve read in the blogopshere, most seem to regard it as a good speech which did what she needed to do, both to help her party’s nominee and to lay the groundwork for her expected 2012 bid for the White House.
Michael Barone offered the best critique of the address (no surprise there). He called it “Good, but not quite very good.“ He noted the absence of any kind of
description of Barack Obama. What kind of man is he? One who supports the same positions she does. Has she looked deep into his heart and found something worthy? No evidence here that she had. Would he be a good commander-in-chief? Not a word on that, as the McCain campaign quickly and gleefully noted.
(Via Instapundit).
With this speech, she can now “tell Obamaites that she made the case for Obama and brought the convention cheering to its feet. She can say that she told her supporters in the most explicit language possible to work hard for his election.”
But, I doubt it will do much to win over some of the most diehard Obama supporters, many of whom hate her. Indeed, as I’ve learned in researching my posts earlier this year on the Democratic contest (and reading our comments section), even talking to Democratic friends and family members (at least two of whom voted for Obama not so much because they liked him, but because they wanted to defeat her), the former First Lady has many enemies within her own party.
There’s something else. While people praised her delivery, the speech lacked the poetry and the passion of her recent rival’s addresses. Indeed, shat struck me in watching the few clips of the speech I did see was how wooden were her gestures and how flat her voice.  Unlike her husband, she doesn’t have a great range of intonation. If she wants to do better in ’12, she’ll have to work on that in the next four years.
In reading the speech I was struck with how, well, how Clintonian it was. Barone called it “carefully tailored” while Rich Lowry imagined “Bill and Hillary, when the speech was being drafted, putting the stuff about Obama on a scale, and calibrating it word for word, syllable by syllable, until they had reached the perfect bare minimum about Obama.”
UPDATE: Â Calling Hillary’s speech, “the best of her career,” Peggy Nooan writes that toward “Obama she was exactly as gracious as she is capable of being.” Â As with anything by this gifted columnist, just read the whole thing.
I didn’t see more than a few seconds of The Speech either. The commentators (CNN) gushed effusively afterward… I saw some of that. But from your report and many others, I am gathering that she did basically nothing that would counteract her earlier claims that Obama just isn’t ready to be President.
As this site’s most stalwart Hillary suporter,I was hoping you would right up something about the speech…or hell I would right up something for the site if no one wanted too. Since this Hillary’s last great speech of the election, I think it deserve to be watched and looked at in the long journey of this primary.
First off, I did like this speech but I still enjoyed her june concession speech, but I thought this was like her second best. Is she the speaker that Obama is, No but that was never her strong suit. I know I didn’t think she would be a good president for her speaking ability…and still don’t think it should be the defining quality of a candidate. She has definitely improved in her speaking ability and the what she talks about, and how she presents herself from when this election started.
Second, Hillary has found a theme that works for her and honestly is better than either Obama’s Hope and Change or McCain’s…Maverick theme. It is the Never Give Up, Never Quit theme that is truly American and its honestly what people need to hear right now. She pointed out in her speech how American had continued to overcome obstacles and would continue to do so, because we always come together and work hard when we need too. It was obviously a winner for her when she started using it in March, she won the second half of the primary but becoming this never surrender fighter. People want a president that will work as hard as they will have too, they want someone that will never stop and never give up.
As for the Obama part, yes it was pretty bare but there were some choice lines. She did state that all the reasons and issues she was running on during the primary, it is for all of those reasons that she is voting for Obama. The other good line was when she asked her supporters why they were in the race? Were they in it simply for her or for the issues she represented and the beliefs of the Democratic party. I thought it was a nice touch to answer to all of those people who constantly say it was all about her and nothing more. I think the reason she didn’t talk more about Obama was she is trying to wind over those hardcore people who hate Obama…and talking about Obama was not going to help them. She wanted to lead by example and give her reasons for why she is voting and supporting him.
I honestly think Hillary would have been better served to talk more about Woman’s history and what her campaign and candidacy might have meant for it. We constantly heard about what Obama meant for America and race relations, the media loved to play that up. Hillary might have gotten a larger share of the female vote if she had hit on it like Obama did about his race. I think she touches on it duringher last two speeches to really cement a large base with women, who are extremely important for the Democratic party.
As for enemies in her party, I spoke about that before and it was one of the reasons I thought she would have problems in the primary. Its easy to see she also has a lot of passionate friends and supporters, this convention and this primary is a testament to that. I mean, Democrats are willing to vote for McCain just so she can in 2012…thats some really serious devotion.
But what is it that she’s never giving up on? Answer: her quest for power, in spite of (or because of?) her current campaign finance/corruption scandals, her neck-deep roles in all of the Clinton scandals of the 1990s, her lying to the nation in the Lewinsky scandal, and so forth. Is it really noble, and/or American, to be a determined underdog – in the cause of getting people to forget your corruption?
Of course she wants to be an advocate of Americans coming together and working hard – because that way, she changes the conversation away from her scandals, and so may yet be President.
…which, again, come down to (1) shared left-wing policies and (2) her needing to appear as a good party soldier. Not her believing in Obama’s actual readiness to President.
“(from one who didn’t see it)”…..agh, why bother? Write about it anyway…..
#4: This, from someone who doesn’t even bother to read a blog post right in front of his face before commenting with whatever idiotic leftist slogan pops into his head at any given moment.
#5 – Bullseye!
Regards,
Peter H.