Clinton did her job at the convention

By Jon Ralston

Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Some needles can’t be threaded.

But Hillary Clinton tried. On Tuesday evening the woman beloved by almost half the delegates inside the Pepsi Center and reviled by almost half the American electorate had to keep her supporters from rebelling, embrace Barack Obama without reservation and sound sincere in doing so. Michael Phelps’ eight golds, Dara Torres’ supernatural longevity and Usain Bolt’s incomparable speed were quotidian in comparison with what Clinton had to accomplish Tuesday.

It was an impossible charge, but one she made Olympian efforts to accomplish. It took only five phrases for Clinton to declare herself “a proud supporter of Barack Obama.” The entire first part of her speech was devoted to a unity theme — she even ad-libbed the word “together” after saying this is a “fight we must win.” And then, after insisting that the issues she campaigned for could not be squandered, she delivered the money line: “Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our president.”

Thunderous cheers rose from the floor every time (11 in all) she mentioned Obama — the crowd seemed to thrill to her generous rhetoric. And Clinton, when she asked, “Were you in this campaign just for me?” seemed to be making just the case Obama would have wanted her to make.

Or the one that, hours before Clinton gave her speech, Rep. Shelley Berkley, an ardent backer of the New York senator, made: “I am astounded at the hand-wringing (by Clintonites), even by my colleagues in Congress, with this angst. We have to elect a president. And the women who have supported Hillary the most have been in the trenches for women’s rights for a quarter of a century or more. For them to put in harm’s way all the issues they have fought for and not support the Democratic nominee is incomprehensible to me. Do we want another (Samuel) Alito on the bench, another vote against Roe v. Wade? That’s what’s really at stake here.”

Clinton couldn’t have said it better. But ... now what?

The first test comes tonight during the roll call to see if whatever deal the campaigns have struck holds and how the delegates react — but if Tuesday night was a harbinger, Obama had to be relieved.

An hour before Clinton spoke, the band launched into the Pointer Sisters classic “I’m So Excited,” but it was the third line of the chorus that seemed most salient: “I’m about to lose control and I think I like it.” This had — still has — the potential to careen out of control. But control, the hallmark of the Obama campaign, held here — at least for one night.

Conventions attempt to be news-free extravaganzas, celebrations of the party and its nominee and — if it has one — a message. First night: Michelle was wonderful, Teddy was touching, ain’t Barack grand. Second night: Time for a change, John McCain is wrong choice, ain’t Hillary grand.

Anything outside the lines is frowned upon by the organizers, who figure this is the one week they get a free pass. But MediaWorld ran out of free passes many cycles ago, so the best a political party can hope for is that the mighty conduits to the voters (that’s us) will not drown out the message (if there is one) with our negativity. So there was no room for hedging in Clinton’s speech — she knew that and she knew Obama would not brook any signs of half-heartedness, at least not in public.

What Clinton needed to do Tuesday evening with that full-throated embrace of Obama was to dissuade the cynics who sneer she hopes the presumptive nominee will lose so she can run again in 2012, to assuage her supporters who feel let down because she lost in the way that she lost.

Did she do it? That’s where the bigger test comes. Politics is a sport that should be watched as if the fast-forward button is perpetually pressed — what is true on Aug. 26 may not even be recalled on Sept. 2, much less on Nov. 4. Everything in the next few days, as delegates react to both Clinton speeches (Bill is tonight), is anecdotal and cannot be reliably measured.

We do not know what the impact is. But we will.

We will see if both Clintons spend the next two months doing everything they can — and everything they are asked — to try to elect Obama. Anything else will be seen as a betrayal of the promises Clinton made Tuesday night, a sign that she had no intention of threading that needle and instead means to stick a knife in Obama’s back.