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Tonight the presumed Democratic Presidential nominee can breathe a sigh of relief. Following Mark Warner’s adequate, but neither great nor inspiring, speech, Sen. Hillary Clinton delivered a rousing oratory wherein she blasted John McCain and implored her supporters to get behind the candidacy of Barack Obama. This endorsement was absolutely essential to the Obama campaign, as recent polling data has illustrated that a significant segment of Clinton primary voters were still unsure whether they would support his candidacy, as they indicated at this point that they would either stay at home or vote for McCain on Election Day. This speech should quiet, at least temporarily, those who have criticized Sen. Clinton for her less than full support for Obama’s candidacy. For this speech to have a lasting positive effect, however, it will be critical that Sen. Clinton serves as a strong advocate for Obama on the campaign trail.
Although he successfully cleared one major hurdle Tuesday night, the Obama campaign cannot relax too much as it faces two more major hurdles on Wednesday. First, former President Bill Clinton will be giving the early speech Wednesday night. President Clinton, usually a very skillful politician, has been a loose cannon of late, as he interjected race and gender into the debate during the primary, and is rumored to feel as though the Obama campaign did not afford him the respect he felt he deserved as a former President. He has been even less supportive publicly of Obama’s candidacy than his wife has been, and a strong endorsement from him will also likely go a long way toward smoothing over the strained relationship between the Obama campaign and Clinton supporters.
The second hurdle on Wednesday is the speech that will be delivered by Joe Biden, the Senator from Delaware who is Obama’s choice as VP nominee. Biden has a history of sticking his foot in his mouth for lack of a better term, and it is vital that he avoid anything like this on Wednesday. In addition, many potential voters apparently feel a bit underwhelmed by the selection of Biden, as polls indicated that Obama received no positive bounce at all following the announcement of Biden as his pick. An impressive speech by Biden can go a long way toward correcting this problem, and perhaps more importantly, set the stage for Obama to deliver at Invesco Field on Thursday night. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out over the next 24 hours.
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