She could have won this thing by staying positive like this speech

[LittleBlue]

and admitting her mistakes. She sounds 10x better when she leaves out the negativity and appears to respect her opponent and his supporters.

Contrast this with mocking hope.

[joshcryer]

1. Think about all of her flubs. Did they ever occur when she had a nicely written speech?

They usually coincideded with being off the cuff in interviews or right after a big win or loss.

[chascarrillo]

4. Good point.

[LittleBlue]

5. True. But her "we women" they "latte drinkers", mocking hope,

dividing us into rich and poor, Jesse Jackson and MLK stuff hurt her. She should have stayed positive and truthful.

[Carolina]

8. but you don't always have a script

and you don't always win. It's those unscripted moments, those times of loss, that can be the most revealing about anyone not just HRC.

[EFerrari]

20. Well, she did very well during the debates where

only some of the responses are scripted.

It's only in normal conversation that she seems to have a hard time.

[gateley]

2. I think, like someone stated,

we're seeing more of Hillary and less of her "advisors" in this speech.

[joshcryer]

Nah, Hillary is that gal who says stupid shit and then goes "oh damnit."

She's not that great at social politicing.

[mzteris]

14. GAL?

omg --

you do realize just how offensive this term is to (most) women, don't you?

and to use it in reference to Hillary, probably is one indicator of your lack of willingness to support her.

Sad, that.

[EFerrari]

18. Both Hillary and her supporters have used gal & girl.

I can understand why it would be confusing for other people.

[marions ghost]

23. yeah

sometimes you have to have an alternative to "guy"...

Maybe we can take back those terms like we are taking back "liberal"...:)

[bluedawg12]

26. She conceded- isn't it time to move onto the GE? Or do you prefer

to keep picking at old wounds?

[babylonsister]

10. Exactly; she should have had more faith in herself, but I suspect

big dawg thought the advisors were advisable. They didn't serve her well.

[JerseygirlCT]

22. I do hope that's the case. And that she knows that, too. nt

[OneAmerica]

3. Exactly what I was thinking.

Just more proof that the old playbook is not going to work in the GE.

[rucky]

6. Agreed.

I don't think she was comfortable with being herself - trying to be something she's not - and it showed during her entire campaign. There were "town hall" moments where she really shined. If she has just fired her strategists and speechifiers and went around talking issues, she'd of had it in the bag.

[ecstatic]

7. "Every moment spent looking back keeps us from moving forward." -HRC

[LittleBlue]

9. Agreed. I just wanted to point out the conspicuous contrast

and how much better this sounds than negative Hillary.

[BlooInBloo]

11. Uh, renouncing racist voters would have killed her even faster.

[marions ghost]

15. she could have gotten by

without courting racist voters...she didn't need to renounce them.

She courted them.

BIG mistake. :(

The Hillary in this speech is the Hillary I wish we had seen throughout the campaign.

[BlooInBloo]

16. Agreed - had her campaign been run in accordance with this speech the whole way....

I'd almost certain have remained in flip-a-coin limbo for my preference.

[marions ghost]

27. right, me too--

I started out hoping she would run a clean and positive campaign at least, and give all of those men a run for their money.

But over and over she showed her true colors--whether she was dragged down by her managers (including Bill) or reacted out of her own delusions, it doesn't matter. I think it will go down as one of the most disastrous campaigns ever--even as it does pave the way for more women in the future.

I won't ever see Hillary the same way again. She jumped the shark, and once you do that, I don't think you can ever jump back.

[BlooInBloo]

28. Two words: Senator Byrd....

Lesson: Redemption is ALWAYS possible.

[marions ghost]

31. she might have to live to Byrd's age

to accomplish true redemption though. More importantly there's a crucial difference in the time frames of Hillary's and Byrd's political lives.

Hillary does NOT have the excuse that Byrd does about racism, having been raised in those backward times and atoning somewhat later. Hillary always KNEW better. That's what is the biggest disappointment to me about her campaign. She really does buy into "the ends justify the means." That's not the attitude we need to rally change attitudes about racism or anything else. It's even more egregious to me that Hillary and Bill rose to power on the black vote, only to throw them under the bus in the crunch. I bet there are a lot of black voters (and others of us sensitive to the issues), who will never support Hillary in any way again.

Hillary can work the rest of her life doing good works in government and so "redeem" herself but it doesn't mean that her serious transgressions should be easily forgiven. She took us back to those darkest racist times EVEN AS Barack was trying to move way beyond them.

Yes, she's got a LOT of atoning to do....

[godhatesrepublicans]

But that was the point. She's a lousy campaigner, and we need to win.

Now I didn't have a dog in this fight after Edwards did 3rd place. But lets be honest, if she screwed up this, she'd have screwed up against McCain.

[Recursion]

12. This is an amazing speech

She's strong, and passionate, and animated, and positive. I'm guessing this is what the more passionate Clinton supporters have been seeing all along. Same thing that happened to Gore and Kerry: a wonderful and passionate politician ends up being hidden by strategists :(

[jazzjunkysue]

13. Thinking the same thing. She could have stood up to the GOP on Iraq

if she had been this on top of her own game.

[CreekDog]

17. I agree, I recoiled whenever Democrats went negative on each other

There were plenty of places for me to find out the negative on Democrats.

Policy differences are the exception.

[yourguide]

19. I agree...

dear BF and I were just saying where was this in Feb? She would have won this thing if she had stuck with a strong and more positive message back then.

[JerseygirlCT]

21. I was just saying that as I watched the end of the speech

I *like* this Hillary. She comes across as warm and genuine.

I never had bad feelings toward her at all until this campaign. And I thought the way she ran this campaign was poisonous. Maybe she was overmanaged, maybe thrown off stride by having serious competition - I don't know. But the angry stuff, the snide stuff... ugh. The refusal ever to congratulate Obama after a win... ugh.

THIS is a person who can go very far and help very much. I hope she knows that, too. The bottom line is it can never BE about her. Just like it can't be about Obama. This has to be about the country and about what we ALL can do for it. When she's on that track, she's terrific.

[bluedawg12]

24. Well she did or didn't -but it's time to move on to the GE.

Or shall we keep trashing HRC for fun and relaxtion?

[PatGund]

25. Agreed!

[Cheap_Trick]

29. That's what turned me off of her initially

After Edwards dropped out, I considered supporting her. But she took her campaign down a dark path, one fit for a Bush.

No thanks.

If she'd been like this all along, she probably would be the nominee right now.

[Occam Bandage]

30. Yes. If she had stayed positive, genuine, and forward-looking, this would have been hers.