The XX Factor: What women really think.

Orange Crush

Hillary Clinton crushed tonight. Performed the pants off Mark Warner and Bob Casey and Deval Patrick and even the bolo-tied Brian Schweitzer -- who almost stole the show by mere virtue of the fact that unlike most of tonight’s speakers, he didn’t appear to be battery-operated. Clinton was as compelling, persuasive and commanding as we’ve come to expect. The fact that she ran circles around the men tonight reminded me why the glass ceiling with the 18 million cracks in it really is poised to shatter. I can’t recall a woman rocking a convention like that, ever.

It’s true. She talked about herself a lot. I think she’s earned every minute of that. Clinton made the case for why we “don’t need four more years of the last eight years” and why Americans work too hard, and have endured too much to suffer through more failed leadership. The mutual respect between her and Michelle Obama was nice to see. Like Emily, I could have wished she had made the case for Barack Obama as Barack Obama, beyond a fleeting reference to his early work in Chicago and the general claim that he is not John McCain. But then I can’t imagine being able to stand up and pay homage to a guy who destroyed my dream of a lifetime, either. Let’s give her credit for doing what she had to do: She lit up the crowd (and not a moment too soon) she reminded her supporters of the real stakes here; and she stuck a shrimp fork in John McCain’s eye enough times to really hurt a guy. So she didn’t sell the country on Obama. If he can’t manage to do that for himself, he’s got bigger problems than a bunch of put-out PUMAs.