The night belonged to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. In her much-anticipated headline speech, she did what she had to do, and did it well.

But because she has earned so much mistrust among so many people, within minutes, people in the auditorium and across the blogosphere were picking apart her words, suggesting that she didn't go far enough to repudiate her own statements during the campaign that Barack Obama isn't ready to be President. I disagree.

"Barack Obama is my candidate and he must be our President."

I guess I'm not seeing how this isn't a strong enough statement that she believes Barack is ready to be President.

"The future of our nation and the health and safety of our children hangs in the balance if Barack isn't elected president."

If you were not convinced with her delivery, so be it. But the words she delivered were unequivocal.

"No way. No how. No McCain."

I expect that to be used in an ad that appears during the Republican National Convention next week.

"With a platform like that, it makes sense that John McCain will appear with George Bush in the Twin Cities next week because these days, it's hard to tell them apart."

Roaring applause and raucous laughter.

The theater of it all was very good.

"Were you just in this for me?"

She gave Michelle Obama her props, praised her speech the night before, and said she would be a great First Lady. First time I heard her even acknowledge Barack's remarkable, compassionate wife.

Hillary is meeting with her delegates at lunch today where she's expected to encourage them all to vote for Barack in the abbreviated roll call vote this afternoon.

I've now spoken with more than 100 Hillary delegates face-to-face. Three quarters of them are voting for Barack in the roll call. She's expected to release her delegates from the New York delegation.

John McCain's campaign chimed in with a silly press release that nitpicked what she didn't say instead of focusing on what she did say. Even with my mistrust of many things Clinton, I'm just not going to get all riled up by something that came out of the McCain campaign. The lying, deceptive, shady McCain campaign.

The energy on the convention floor simply cannot be felt on television.

Despite my pre-convention anxiety, I'm beginning to believe there will be no shenanigans today.

We shall see.

This convention is changing me. It's no longer about my personal feelings for Hillary or the campaign she ran.

It's about winning.

We can't take any votes for granted. If her diehards are more likely to vote for Barack because his supporters stop openly trashing her, then Barack's supporters need to stop openly trashing her.

This election is too important. And I want to win.

If I can't say anything good about Hillary, then I'm not going to say anything at all.

She hit a homerun when she invoked the words of Harriet Tubman, the "Black Moses."

I even waved a big white Hillary sign on cue. And then those big unity placards with OBAMA emblazoned on some, HILLARY on others.

You could almost feel the unity in the place. Almost feel the sweet embrace of victory.

We need to win.

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