Clinton backs Obama to the hilt.

The die hard Clintonite nutters who claim they represent her when they refuse to back Barack Obama were left with nowhere to hide last night. She was unequivocal in where she wanted her supporters to place their vote and blatantly clear about the reasons why she wanted them to do so.

"I haven’t spent the past 35 years in the trenches advocating for children, campaigning for universal health care, helping parents balance work and family, and fighting for women’s rights at home and around the world . . . to see another Republican in the White House squander the promise of our country and the hopes of our people. And you haven’t worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership.

No way. No how. No McCain."

And she issued her starkest ever challenge to those who refuse to back Obama:

"I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?"

And therein lies the biggest question. What did these Hillary supporters want? Did they simply want a female president or were they genuinely interested in the causes to which both she and her husband have dedicated their lives?

How can anyone who claimed to support Hillary now find themselves voting against universal health care, for the continuation of the Iraq war, and against the right for women to choose?

Hillary made it very clear last night that anyone who genuinely supported her and her candidacy should now do the right thing and support the candidate whose policies most closely mirror her own, and that is blatantly not John McCain:

"John McCain says the economy is fundamentally sound. John McCain doesn’t think that 47 million people without health insurance is a crisis. John McCain wants to privatize Social Security. And in 2008, he still thinks it’s okay when women don’t earn equal pay for equal work. With an agenda like that, it makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities. Because these days they’re awfully hard to tell apart."

And, quoting Harriett Tubman, she laid out the path by which freedoms and rights are won:

"If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If they're shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going. Even in the darkest of moments, ordinary Americans have found the faith to keep going."

The Hillary supporters who refuse to back Obama are turning their backs on the Democratic cause, they are deserting the people to whom she has dedicated her life.

And last night she made it perfectly clear that, whoever the Hell they think they are representing, they are not representing her.

Her life, her values, her choices; all of these demand that America elect Barack Obama to continue the long hard struggle to which she has always been committed. There was no nuance, there was no shading, and from now on there can be no excuse for any Hillary supporter who insists on backing McCain.

You can't support Hillary whilst betraying the ideals to which she has dedicated her entire life. That was her message. And she delivered it clearly and without equivocation.

Cometh the moment, cometh the lady. And, by God, did she deliver.

Click title for text of speech.

UPDATE:

Here's the whole thing for anyone who missed it.

Tags: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, US election 2008, John McCain, DNC