Hillary Comes to Tampa!

Last night, Hillary Clinton came to Tampa. And boy did she kick some ass! I arrived dressed in my Hillary gear and stood roughly 20 feet from the stage. I could not find good video of her visit on Youtube. This is coverage of her visit from a local news outlet.

It was obvious that the Obama campaign is using Hillary to reach out to women. The invocation was given by a Unitarian minister, a female.  The pledge of allegiance was led by a female.  The first speaker was a state representative, an African-American female.  And former Tampa mayor Sandy Freeman warmed up the crowd before Hillary's appearance.

Sandy Freeman is a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton who at one point was reluctant to endorse Senator Obama. Last night, she gave him her strong endorsement and provided the crowd with a stinging indictment of the McCain-Palin ticket.

And the woman of the hour...

She talked about how important the election was and reminded voters that her generation risked being the first to pass on a country that was worse off than when they inherited it.

She also reminded us that this election is bigger than any one person. Bigger than her and bigger than Barack. And speaking directly to the Clintonistas, she asked us if we did it for her or if we did it for the future.

At the end of the speech she repeated a line from her concession speech where she said that although she and Barack had started out on separate paths, they are now on the same journey. She asked the Clintonistas who worked hard for her to work just as hard for Senator Obama.

My favorite line:

This election is about the differences between us and the Republican party. And you know, anybody, anybody who uh believes that the Republicans, whoever they are, can fix the mess they created probably thinks that the iceberg could have saved the Titanic.

And my other favorite line:

No way! No how! No McCain! No Palin!

Once again, Hillary made me laugh, she made me cry, and she reminded me that this election is not about Psychodrew's feelings. It's about the future of our country. She did more than re-affirm my support for the nominee. Her speech, listening to her speak in person, gave me some much-needed closure. Going forward, I think that I'll be a little less angry and a little less sarcastic, but probably no more enthusiastic about the ticket.

But most importantly, I'm going to vote for Barack Obama!