Hillary Clinton Is Not a Liar:
You can say a lot of things about Hillary Clinton's speech last night at the Democratic Convention. You can say that she's just not the most compelling big house speaker (although in the last part, she hit a stride that was positively energizing). You can say that she delivered some vicious uppercuts to John McCain. You can say that in asking of her followers, "Were you in this campaign just for me?" she made the most compelling case to her diehards for voting for Obama. You can say all that and so much more. But, in that speech, on that evening, you cannot call her a liar.

What would lying have been? If Clinton had gotten all faux sentimental about her relationship with Barack Obama, pretending like they're anything other than ideological allies who fought a vicious battle. She didn't make up shit about the two of them being friends or hanging out with Michelle or working together on issues in the Senate. It's goddamn hilarious that the one criticism that's been pronounced by the pundostoogery on TV is that the speech had no personal touch about her and Obama. Jesus fuckin' Christ. No. None of that. It would have been false. It would have been a bullshit approach. (And had she done it, you can bet that the same people would have been calling her out for it being bullshit.)

Instead, she did what she had to do, the good soldier. She told the delegates who might be thinking of straying to McCain or not voting at all not to be such tools. She gave a kitchen sink list of Democratic beliefs that would get knocked off the table should McCain be elected. And she said, more or less, "Don't be stupid."

Yes, like Michelle Obama's speech Monday night, Clinton's was, for the most part, directed at idiots and the media. The idiots are the (mostly mythical) Clinton supporters who can't get over the primaries. What she said last night is if they're not voting for Obama, they were never really Clinton supporters in the first place. Much of the rest of the speech was for the media, drunk with power and forced to fill too many hours, creating dissent where little to none exists. Of course Hillary Clinton believes she should be the nominee. She'll believe that until the day she dies. But she's not a destructive egomaniac, as the mainstream media desperately need her to be.

Things didn't get interesting until the very last section of the speech. When she finally got to her feminist beliefs and women's history, she went to town. This was Hillary Clinton liberated of the need to please her campaign, the consultants and the clowns, the odious Mark Penn, her needy husband whose ego was more bruised than hers. When she said, "In America, you always keep going. We're Americans. We're not big on quitting," she offered a valedictory for her efforts and the efforts of the women who preceded her. In the end, she brought it back to the Democratic Party, the nation, and, no doubt, her: "We've got to ensure that the choice we make in this election honors the sacrifices of all who came before us and will fill the lives of our children with possibility and hope." She will become one of those who sacrificed. She wanted to be the end of a path - instead, she has realized she is another step on it.

She may not have been cozy and warm to Obama. But she didn't lie. What she was saying is that you don't have to like the nominee, you don't have to want to have a beer with him or even invite him to dinner. There are ideas you value, she said, they are what's important. Believe her or not.