Her speech Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention hit the mark by praising Obama, praising her supporters and preaching unity. The words were eloquent and more importantly her cadence and emotion were present and effective. It did not look as though she was going through the motions. I mean what else could she do? Do a handstand on stage and chant "Yes We Can"?
Here's the deal: The Democrats can chant unity all they want and Hillary can deliver perfect 10 speeches, but the reality is this isn't about unity anymore. They may have their "unity" now but the damage has already been done.
The bitter primary battle gave the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee so many Hillary sound-bites that they probably need to divide them up into Volume 1 and Volume 2.
Now Joe Biden comes along and he has a few "Greatest Hits Volumes" against Obama too.
You see the problem for Obama and the Democrats is this: When it comes to national security, they don't have anybody out there who can make the "ready to lead" argument. Hillary Clinton didn't make it last night. Will anybody at this convention?
The Obama campaign is hanging its hat on the fact that Obama exercised good judgment about the Iraq war but what about that judgment when it came to the surge?
Everybody knows that Obama is vulnerable on national security and foreign policy experience. Picking Biden as VP helps and Clinton's words of unity are nice, but at the end of the day Obama and McCain are going to stand on that debate stage one-on-one and McCain will come prepared with not only his line of attack but some other past lines from Hillary too.
Unity will be a thing of the past at that point.