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Predictions Of The Night

1. Hillary Clinton will give a warm, gracious, effective speech urging her supporters to get behind Obama, and expertly contrasting the GOP approach to the economy with Obama's suggested approach. It will be the best speech of the convention, with the possible exception of Obama's on Thursday night.

2. The media will go completely crazy for Hillary's speech. James Carville and Paul Begala and Chuck Schumer will be on television talking about how great Hillary Clinton is, and how she really, truly wants the Democratic party to unite.  Remember that debate she had with Obama a few months back, where after a particularly nasty stretch of her campaign, she closed the evening with a warm tribute to her opponent and the entire process? And remember how after her strange and not-so-generous June 3 speech, in which she conceded nothing and further riled up her supporters, she dropped out three days later and gave Obama a nice endorsement? Well, after a period where her husband has been acting up, and some Obama supporters feel she has been too tepid in supporting their candidate the Democratic nominee, expect Clinton to respond powerfully. 

For some reason I am reminded of that Winston Churchill quote about Americans: To paraphrase, they always do the right thing after exhausting all other options. Readers can make up their own minds about the degree of calculation involved in the Clinton case; however, Churchill's dig was not about American cynicism.

--Isaac Chotiner