Reviews of Day 2: Praise for HRC's speech
Posted: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:34 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Washington Post’s Balz writes,
"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton roused the Democratic National Convention
here Tuesday night with sharp criticism of Sen. John McCain and a
full-throated endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama ... urging Democrats to
put the long and bitter primary battle behind them and unite to take
back the White House in November.
But
you think this will make some in the Obama campaign happy?
“At the same time, advisers said, Mrs. Clinton wanted to ensure that
her star turn at the convention could never be portrayed as
insufficiently enthusiastic, should Mr. Obama lose the election in part
because swaths of her supporters ultimately did not vote for him. Mrs.
Clinton is almost certain to run for president in 2012 if Mr. Obama
fails this time, several Clinton advisers said Tuesday, and any such
plan could possibly founder if the Clintons’ negative feelings show
through this year.”
The AP’s Ron Fournier writes, “By the time
she was done, Sen. Clinton had delivered a strong, convincing
affirmation of Obama and, just as importantly, a thumping of McCain.
She did her part. Her husband takes the stage Wednesday and then Obama
must make his case to the American people that he will be ready on Day
One.” More: “Clinton seemed to say, even if Obama is everything she
said during the campaign, he's still a better man than McCain. The
speech was as much of an attack on McCain as it was an embrace of
Obama. ‘We don't need four more years of the last eight years,’ she
said.”
The
Boston Globe
calls Clinton's speech an "impassioned call for unity." "In an address
closely scrutinized for perceived slights against Obama, Clinton threw
herself fully behind the man she battled and often criticized during a
long and at times bitter primary campaign."
Peter Canellos:
"This was a Clinton speech that didn't require any parsing of words. In
a fiery call to arms last night, Hillary Clinton tried to clear up the
one thing that hadn't been clear before: Her level of enthusiasm for
making Barack Obama president. In past speeches, she has offered
sincere endorsements of Obama, but then gone on to extol the
accomplishments of her own campaign. This time, perhaps sensing a
greater urgency, she offered repeated appeals on Obama's behalf."
The
New York Post puts Clinton on the cover, calls her: "Bam Ma'am."
The
New York Daily News' cover: "Heal-ary!"
"Obama on Tuesday
applauded and cheered former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as she declared her support for his candidacy, and urged her own backers to rally behind Obama in his contest with Republican John McCain. 'She did a great job. I think she made the case for why we're going to be unified in November and why we're going to win this election. She was outstanding,' Obama said after Clinton addressed delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Denver."
Biden said that Hillary Clinton delivered a "tremendous" speech last night, saying that the party will be united. "She knocked it out of the park," Biden said when asked by NBC's Andrea Mitchell about Clinton's message. "This is a unified party. This is a unified convention." Biden said he spoke with his colleague from New York for 20 minutes tonight, but didn't elaborate on what the two discussed.
The presumptive Democratic veep made the comments as he took his first look at the convention floor from the podium in preparation for his speech tonight. He has no public events scheduled Wednesday, saying that his speech is "almost done."
The
AP fact-checks some of the Democratic speeches, including this applauded one-liner from Clinton: "And in 2008, he (McCain) still thinks it's OK when women don't earn equal pay for equal work." "THE FACTS: In April, Senate Republicans killed legislation aimed at removing limits on how long workers can wait before suing their employers for pay discrimination. The bill was designed to address a Supreme Court decision that threw out a discrimination case brought by an Alabama woman. McCain said he opposed the measure because it would lead to more lawsuits, although he was campaigning that day and did not vote."
With his jaw clenched and eyes welled up with tears, the expression on Bill Clinton's face told more then a thousand stump speeches ever could, NBC’s Louis Burgdorf observed.
