No Way. No How. No McCain.

Forget that one in May where I said that Hillary Clinton missed her perfect opportunity to jump Barack Obama's claim to the title of party uniter and to endear herself to voters for future runs. She reclaimed her chances with a strong message at tonight's Democratic Convention.

She blew the doors off the event (I was going to use the "knocked it out of the park" metaphor, but the media is already overusing the baseball metaphors), and she gave a call-to-Jesus exhortation to her ardent supporters and reminded them that Republicans would bring down everything her campaign is committed to. She passionately promoted Barack Obama from beginning to end and the Obama supporters owe her their deepest thanks for doing everything anyone could have humanly done from a podium in a pivotal speech to rebind the Democrats.

She shined from beginning to end and attacked the Bush-McCain twins exactly where they should be attacked. This was a huge speech, and I have no doubt that when I reflect on the more impressive convention speeches that I've heard in 30 years, this will rank among the most memorable.


UPDATE: Lisa Starbuck at Knoxviews agrees:

I think even Hillary's detractors would have to agree that her speech rocked the DNC tonight and was exactly what the Democrats needed: a great message and a masterful speech, delivered by a pro.

MSNBC is reporting that Hillary received two separate, respectively "rowdier" standing ovations from a contingent of Obama staffers in a offstage room she had to pass through when both entering and exiting the convention stage.


UPDATE: Tennessee's Harold Ford, Jr. is extolling Clinton's speech on MSNBC. He says he can hear Dems repeating the slogan, "No Way. No How. No McCain," even though it is not as effective as "Yes, we can."


UPDATE: Josh Marshall weighs in:

That was quite a speech. It occurred to me as she built to the conclusion in the last few minutes, that the pre-2008 Hillary Clinton would not have been capable of that speech. That's not a dig. But she grew incredibly as a candidate over the course of this campaign. And this was an immensely powerful delivery, and a richly woven together speech. The beginning seemed fine but not remarkable. But it slowly built into something very powerful.

UPDATE: So many Clinton money quotes, so little space:

It makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities, because these days they’re awfully hard to tell apart.

UPDATE: Video of some of Hillary Clinton's "call-to-Jesus" tonight:

UPDATE: A Clinton supporter tells CNN how she will vote and encourage others to vote after Hillary's speech last night: