The most sensible comment I've read on the question of Hillary's speech comes from, of all people, Republican strategist Mike Murphy, writing on Time's blog yesterday. He says the Clinton supporters in the hall - the delegates - don't really matter, because their power to organise the vote at election time has more or less disappeared...
What is true – and very important – is that there are a ton of Democrat leaning voters who didn’t vote in the primaries, but look demographically a lot like the Hillary primary voters we’ve been paying all this attention to. They’re older, white, often blue-collar. And many have big doubts about Barack Obama. Hillary can really hurt Obama among this crowd if she shows hostility, maybe even enough to throw the election. That’s why the Obama campaign is acting like a bunch of nervous yes-men at one of Stalin’s birthday parties. But Hillary is a good, tough party soldier. Her speech tonight will be very good. So will her endorsement deliver the vote Obama really needs? Nope. Obama has to earn it on his own; many are more anti-Barack than pro-Clinton.
(My emphasis). This seems to be the key point to me. The fuss over Hillary's speech has been way overplayed. It wasn't that important - and nor is Bill's speech tomorrow night. This election is about John McCain and Barack Obama. It matters little if and how convincingly Bill Clinton says Obama is 'Ready from Day One' tomorrow night. If Obama has to rely on the Clintons to convince people he's ready to be president, he's already lost. The only person who can do that is Barack Obama.
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