Hillary Clinton’s speech last night is getting rave reviews from the pundits, but she left too many key points unaddressed to get her most stubborn supporters on the Obama bandwagon, writes Michael Tomasky in the Guardian. The Dems' also-ran, in her critical pitch for party unity, failed to extol Obama’s character, say he was ready to be commander in chief, or attack McCain very hard.
Clinton was particularly obligated to address Obama’s national security readiness, since John McCain is running an ad using Clinton’s attacks on that front against Obama. Why not say something like, “Well, I’m Hillary Clinton and I do not approve that message”? Instead Clinton talked oil and jobs and other “focused-group things.” There was nothing, Tomasky writers, to hit her most stubborn adherents and make them think. “Wow, maybe I really am being kinda stupid here.” (More Hillary Clinton stories.)