Can I say, as an Obama supporter, that this might be the greatest Hillary Clinton speech I've ever heard?

Keep it up Hillary!
Doin' fine now!

I have to say this has to be the hardest thing. I honestly feel it for her. I have to respect that.

This is the speech she should have given Tuesday. Right now, I'd like to hear her go on the attack against McCain more. She really hasn't done that at all.

Perhaps the best speech I have ever heard her give
Certainly and by far the best delivered

Hillary Clinton means business

Thank you, Hillary. No, really. Thank you.

!YES Hillary,
today you frackin' rocked!
You became again the Hillary I supported for more then 15 years.
Thank You

ok folks, it's time to kick McBush ass.

Can she throw a rhetorical middle finger out to the Dems who said they'd vote for McCain?

OUCH

We she hadn't used "my friends" ;P

"some people say "yes we can", but that doesn't mean we will..."

Pretty damn good actually. Better than any I've heard her give. Yay. I can exhale now.

Okay, it was good as far as it went, but now it's all about her again and running as a woman. Also, maybe I'm being paranoid here, but wasn't there subtle body language and facial expression, dead-pan when endorsing Obama and then she lit up when talking about her own campaign??

And I agree, nothing about beating McCain, or very little.

"When that day arrives, when a woman takes the oath of office..."

i think its a decent and fair concession speech, and does a good job of recognizing that even in falling short she and her campaign accomplished a lot, and that theres more work to be done.. but i kind of wish she and her campaign would stop this silly claim that being a woman is somehow more disadvantageous than being black in america, its so dumb to compete for most disparaged minority, and unhelpful, and a bit disrespectful to the biases and cultural limitations that need to be overcome of all minorities in this country, whether female, black, asian, or latino.

YOU GO, GIRL!!!

I think she's doing great. I would prefer she not talk about the "glass ceiling" because she did, in fact, shatter it and it doesn't help the victim complex thing. But it's very very good, and one of her most impassioned deliveries.

the end of the speech was kindda flat!

Great ending! the ending was the best!

"take back our country!"

She sure told them to cut it out and get on with backing the nominee.

Good for her. Now, we who have trashed her for the last few months need to let go of our anger and move forward. We won. Let's help her and her supporters help Obama get elected.

I wonder if any of the people who said she wants Obama to lose are going to admit they were wrong. This was an astounding speech. She did it exactly right for Obama. She presented to her supporters why they supported her, then said that is why they need to support Obama. Perfect.

She hit all the right notes in her nomination battle swan song. It served a dual purpose, placating her supporters (to whatever extent is possible) and perhaps more importantly, the party leaders, thus insuring that she has a future role in government.

She's still politicking for the VP spot. That's what I most got out of her speech and I honestly went in with an open mind and tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. Of course she wouldn't have even been given this speech if she wasn't pushed by her New York contingent to end it.

Her whole speech seemed to be "If Barack Obama wants the woman vote he should put me on the ticket with him"

Fine speech by Hillary. At the point where she mentioned her 18 millions supporters I held my breath hoping that she wouldn't recite her litany of most popular votes, swing states, etc. To her credit, she avoided those arguments and gave a classy speech. Bravo for her.

I don't want to see her as VP, but I've been mulling about her as Senate Majority Leader. She's certainly the firebrand that milquetoast Reid isn't. The Republicans have "fillibustered" more than 70 times simply by announcing to Reid that they intended to fillibuster. He's never forced them to actually fillibuster, to speak for endless hours on the Senate floor. He rolls right over. Hillary could be quite good in this role and it would give her a high profile and would give her a first as the first female Senate Majority leader.

"... we're imperfect so we need each other..." no doubt kids! pull up those socks and get on with the show!

"... every moment wasted looking back prevents us from going forward..." Indeed!

HRC was dignified and classy and I really appreciate what she said about 'don't listen to those who tell you that you can't or shouldn't go on'... '... reject can't do... expand opportunities with hard work and optimism...'

We know that we will need to work together in order to prevent McCain getting into the White House and appointing Supreme Court Justices. Yes, we can.

Don't lose focus of the fact she can be a powerful surrogate for Obama during this election. Even if she's not on the ticket (I go back and forth on this one every day), she can do more for Obama than any single surrogate can for McCain. No doubt Dems have the passion and speaking angles locked up in this election.

THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!!! FOR THE COUNTRY!!!!

This was the best speech she has ever given. Too bad the rest of the campaign wasn't like this. Perhaps (and rightly so) she welcomes this opportunity to shake off the negativism that she has adopted sometime in the last three months. That kind of poison is worst for the person wielding it.

She is not a natural orator, and her conservative background keeps her from publicly displaying all-out emotion. I think it is because of this personal characteristic that some think she might have been flat in certain spots in the speech. She was probably trying to keep her voice and expression even, rather than allow herself to get misty eyed or have her voice crack a little.

Again, this was the best speech she has given. Now that she is no longer on the ballot, she can be freer to campaign in this vein for the Dems w/o personal risk. I think we will see Hillary more like this between now and November with that kind of risk out of the equation.

She hit it out of the ballpark.

It's a nice start I guess, but I'll be more impressed when she clearly indicates that it really isn't all about Hillary.

I've been waiting almmost three months for this concession speech. She could have given it in March, and I would have been a lot more upbeat about her. She sowed a lot of distrust from me in that time, and she's going to have to keep at this bridge-building thing to get it back to pre-scorched-earth levels.

She had to let people get used to it. Say what you will about when HRC did her speech, she had to let us that backed her get our heads around it so it wasn't met with stubborn resistance. She would not have given anything if she could not bring her supporters with her to Senator Obama, you know.

She had to give us time to change gears. You are missing the point of HRC's whole campaign if you think that she is the _only_ one that is stubborn and intractable!

I think she did great! I needed some time to be able to follow through to the next stage. I am sure all her supporters did. This isn't a sports franchise event, this is our Democratic Party family. We have feelings and need time to mourn, to heal and to get back on the bus.

Thank you to people on TPM that understand that,thank you so much. (and to those who see this as selfish pandering to 'losers' . . . well, nothing I can say is going to change that opinion.)

sorry for the double post, this forum thingie is really messed up!

Really good post.

The Great and Growing Divide

Many of us watched today as Hillary Clinton said something that physically hurt to hear. She asked us to support Barack Obama. Loyal Democrat that she is, and true to her word, Hillary did the unimaginable. She asked the rest of us to support someone that many of us actually loathe. And that is putting it mildly.

But Hillary did something else today that is already having ramifications throughout the country. Hillary supporters are taking sides. And there are basically two camps. One camp that is sticking with the party and one camp that isn’t
Reforming the party from within is wishful thinking. The only way a party reforms is by humiliating defeat, running off the rails, or egregious abuse in the opposition party.
If BO is elected, they will be in charge of the party…in fact are in charge of the party as we speak. Try to go talk to them about reform. Go talk to them about counting every vote…about changing the caucus system to transparent primaries. Tell them how you feel about it. I think we all know what the attitude will be.
For me…my only recourse is to withhold my support from the current party leadership and the BO party leadership. It’s a drop in the bucket but I don’t feel like I will be complicit in Republican style tactics…even if they worked.

Ronmaven echoed the sentiment and clarified it:
The defeat of Obama would be the best kick in the pants for the DNC we could possibly deliver. You want to CHANGE the party? Vote for McCain. You want the party to only get worse? Vote for O.
To some, NOT supporting Obama is the moral thing to do.

Ccwarrior perhaps says it best:
easy decision for me I will sellout the party that SOLD me out. and I can live with that. I would never dis-respect my daughters, and vote for Obama after the treatment they witnessed from him doing this election …NEVER

But I have saved the best for last. Before I put it out there I want to make one thing very clear. I have nothing but the deepest respect for linfar. She has been a staunch Hillary supporter and she is such an excellent writer. I just happen to totally disagree with her about Obama and unfortunately may have to write things in the future that criticize her positions. It isn’t something I look forward to.

But having said that I think that unfortunately linfar grabbed a mug full of the Cult-Aide today because low and behold, she quotes from none other than the Prince of Darkness himself (Jonathan Singer) to make her point.

from mydd
Singer: Can you speak to the online supporters, the people online who are so strong for Hillary, who don’t want to see her leave, as a strong

Hillary supporter yourself?
Sen. Chuck Schumer: As a strong Hillary support I say, look, I was for Hillary all the way. I was sort of the first Senator to endorse her and I guess I’ll be the last off the bandwagon, which I guess will be tomorrow. But, having said that, I would say to all of the people online, there’s too much at stake to sit this out, to be angry, to be bitter. There is too much at stake. A Supreme Court with more Alitos and Roberts. A continuation of the war in Iraq.

A failure to have a healthcare policy that helps people. A failure to have an energy policy that frees us from foreign oil. All these are such huge things that we have to do what Hillary said there, which is overcome, not look back, even though there are lot’s of disappointments, but look forward.

I expected these bugaboos coming from Schumer. But a little reality never hurt anyone. Except Cultists I’m told. We hear the same nonsense you would expect from otherwise seemingly reasonable people. The trouble is that they think they will be able to bamboozle and scare us with their line of bullshit.

Everything Schumer mentions is something that the Congress controls, not the President. Supreme Court… confirmed by the Senate. Iraq War funding…. controlled by Congress. Health Care policy…. written by Congress. Energy policy… written by Congress.

SO WAKE UP! And stop letting these people get away with lying to you.

The reason Bush has got away with so much and has done as much damage as he has these past 7 years is because of a weak, feckless and complicit Congress. A Congress that has allowed him to do everything he has done. Because a strong Congress acting in the best interests of the American people would never have allowed Bush to do many of the things they are so fond of complaining about.

Where were the Articles of Impeachment? The Speaker of the House said that they would never be introduced.

Why has the Congress continued to fund the war? The Senate Majority leader doesn’t know how to throw a knock out punch.

Why are Americans still being spied upon? WHY?!?
In fact, the Supreme Court that Schumer and others are warning us about has done more to stop Bush than all of the Democrats in Congress combined. So enough of these silly myths. I half expect Obama to come out next and state: “You are either for us or against us.” Wanna guess what my answer will be?

These spats. This falling apart is expected. And it will likely become more vicious and personal as the days wear on. I fully understand those that are toeing the party line. I used to be one of them. Until this year. Until the Democratic party proved to me that it didn’t really stand for anything any more.

Overall, I was impressed by her speech.

I loved the 18m cracks in the glass ceiling line, and the repetition of the need to support Obama in order to see the gain of the possibilities that she outlined.

Hoping to see her put her considerable drive and power behind the Democratic nominee.