Musik Indonesia

On the stereo: “Gamma Ray,” Beck

Last night’s speech from Senator Clinton was very good. It felt competent and sincere; it was well delivered; the move to distribute white “Hillary” signs to the floor, the text in her handwriting, was brilliant. It was about 85 percent of what I’d hoped for.

My mother and I have been texting back and forth this whole week, all about the convention; about what I see versus what CNN or MSNBC are covering, or C-Span, when she gets fed up with the punditry. It’s a funny thing — like, I’m wanting to know what’s going on in “the real world,” like what’s happening in the media, how our message from Denver is getting delivered (or hijacked, as is so often the case). And she, of course, wants to know what’s happening here, in “the real world.” But this isn’t the real world: We don’t control the message. That’s Rupert Murdoch’s job, unfortunately.

So I was sad to receive the following text from her last night, after my glowing text to her about Hillary’s speech: “Not blown away.”

How? What did the Senator miss? What failed to translate, in the media assessment of the night? Granted, Hillary Clinton had the toughest job of the week: To convince the electorate at large that she is fully, completely behind Barack Obama, and to demand (without demanding, of course) that even her most militant supporters follow her lead and cast their votes for him. And she did that, I thought.

I missed the floor vote today, as our performance at the SEIU rally went a little long, and there were lots of nice folks to talk with (holy fuck, Chuck D introduced us!!). But as soon as I got in my shitty rental car to head for the Pepsi Center, the report came in that Senator Clinton had come to the floor with the New York delegation to stop the procedural vote, and motioned that all remaining votes be cast unanimously for Senator Obama to be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

It doesn’t sound like much to read it, but even on the radio as a little soundbite, a little quote framed by Robert Seigel (who can make anything sound as though it’s happening in a cozy suburban coffee shop), it was… Awesome. I don’t quite know how else to put it. It was beautiful, big and bold, and exactly the coda her accomplished but somehow not transformative speech, and even in a car listening to the radio, I got a little watery. I called my mom, and she got a little watery too, because Hillary Clinton pulled off the hardest trick she’ll ever have to pull, with grace and dignity. And because Barack Obama is gonna be our next president, and that’s awesome shit.