Hillary Clinton plays all the right notes ahead of Obama symphony
Updated on 27 August 2008
Jon Snow on a key night in Denver for Democratic Party unity.
She did it, buried the hatchet, and not in his head.
Hillary did her stuff, summoned all the resilience and passion of a campaign that lit the imaginations of many women in America and some 18 million Democrat voters, and threw her lot hugely behind Barrack Obama for the presidency.
The battle lines are cast: 'McCain - more of the same"' 'Obama - change'.
You could argue that a man in the same circumstances would never have done what she achieved here last night, never have dared the presumed loss of face. Hillary lost nothing and won much in her magnanimity.
If her support lay with Obama, her attack struck home at the wayward presidency of the present incumbent. In her sights Big Oil, the war in Iraq, tax breaks for the super rich and more.
She has played the best overture any candidate could wish for and it is now for Obama to provide the core of the symphony.
It's a huge ask and now the waiting begins to see whether he can do it, whether he's really up to the challenge of seizing the White House in November.
The battle lines are cast: "McCain - more of the same", "Obama - change". It's an electric finale with no prospect of rallentando. Sarah Smith will be on the case at seven tonight.
I, meanwhile, will be reporting on madder matters: the hats, banana toppers, Guam Palms and lumps of corn that adorn some delegates' heads.
All that and more from Denver, live tonight.
Best, Jon Snow.
