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August 27, 2008
Pressure’s on for Obama
Posted: 11:33 AM ET
Sen. Barack Obama watches Sen. Hillary Clinton addressing the Democratic National Convention at a Democratic supporters' group in Billings, Montana, Tuesday.
Sen. Barack Obama watches Sen. Hillary Clinton addressing the Democratic National Convention at a Democratic supporters' group in Billings, Montana, Tuesday.

Editor’s note: Below is a transcript of CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley’s response to Sen. Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Convention last night. What did you think?

COOPER: Candy Crowley, who has been watching that speech, listening in from the platform. Candy from your perspective, you’ve seen a lot of Hillary Clinton speeches.

CROWLEY: Absolutely. And what I’ve seen over the time as I started to cover her presidential race, which was last January or the January before last in 2007, is that this is a woman who delivers when she needs to. She is a clutch player. And she certainly seemed to do that tonight.

You saw from the reaction in the crowd, this wasn’t just — I sort of expected it would be, well, here are the Hillary Clinton supporters, you can tell by that clapping. It was this whole crowd that she had on their feet, mostly for the entire time.

What did they say she was going to do when we talked to them? They said she was going to hit John McCain. Check. They said she was going to reach out to her supporters and thank them for what was a historic race. Check. They said that she would call for unity of the party to firmly back Barack Obama and challenge her supporters to look at what the choice is. Check.

They did everything that they said she would do.

I think in camp Obama tonight, they will be very pleased and I think it puts a lot of pressure on Barack Obama for Thursday night. I think he has to respond in kind in some way to make that unity hold.

14 Comments
14 Comments
Cindy   August 27th, 2008 11:56 am ET

Yep…now Obama has to show what he is made of. He has to kiss up to Hillary’s fans as much as she kissed up to him and his last night.

I still don’ think it’ll help him. He has no substance to back up his talk.

Cindy…Ga.

Ariston, FL   August 27th, 2008 12:00 pm ET

Hi Candy,

I agree with you that she accomplished a lot in her speech and it was quite a speech she delivered. Surprise, surprise!

I thought it was remarkable that she pointed out that Michelle Obama will be a great first lady, however, she didn’t mention that Barack will be a great president. Perhaps there was some room for her to talk about Obama’s character.

In any way, shape or form, she delivered a great speech that I think was very smart and calculated for her career.

Ariston, FL

lampe   August 27th, 2008 12:26 pm ET

Ariston: Your negative comments about Sen. Clintons speech, are not going to help her supporters to Obama’s side. She said what she had to say last night period. If Obama, wants her on the campaign trail for him and Biden, that will be where she talks about his character. If she had said to much last night, it wouldn’t have looked so real. Stop Hatin:

Vegas   August 27th, 2008 12:27 pm ET

Hillary knocked it out of the park… all the way to 2012…

She knows Obama is a mistake… and the DNC realized it last night… or maybe not… they’re not too bright…

A VP selection, two days of convention and Hillarys endorsment didn’t even give Obama a bump in the polls… in fact he dropped… bab signs for this campaign…

Obama is done… Hillary 2012

Dennis   August 27th, 2008 12:28 pm ET

In two months, HRC will be 61; should BO go two terms she’d be 69 and running ina primary where she’ll be told she’s too old. Her time was NOW and now its gone; she’d be confronting both sexism and ageism.

Annie Kate   August 27th, 2008 12:42 pm ET

Hillary was generous to a fault in her speech last night. I have watched a lot of conventions and I cannot recall the loser ever endorse the winner with such fervor and eloquence. Her speech will be hard to follow - for both Obama and her husband President Clinton. It ought to be interesting to see how they do.

Annie Kate
Birmingham AL

JC- Los Angeles   August 27th, 2008 1:08 pm ET

As an undecided Independent, I wholeheartedly agree that after Hillary’s impassioned and eloquent speech, Obama is up against it big time.

With each passing day, Obama is being marginalized by his own party; usually his wife, up until Monday’s speech, comes across as the born leader in their family; throw in Ted Kennedy, Hillary and Bill Clinton and Joe Biden and Obama is in a bind.

Hillary, while making no mention of her husband, also gave a less than stellar endorsement of Obama; it’s now up to Barack Obama to sell himeslf to the American people since all others are having a tough time doing so.

Obama better pray for good weather on Thursday and a career performance or his dream may be washed away.

Jan from Wood Dale IL   August 27th, 2008 1:12 pm ET

Hillary’s speech also puts a lot of pressure on Joe Biden. If Biden doesn’t do well, people will be questioning Obama’s judgement on his VP selection.

Shar   August 27th, 2008 1:18 pm ET

I think we as Obama’s supporters need to stop begging the Clinton’s supporters to come out and vote for Obaman-Biden. We need to start letting them know come 2012 or 2016 that they will need to start up to us very hard and I mean HARD for us to vote for Hillary.

Continue Clinton’s supporters. Now Go…you heard her!

Crystal   August 27th, 2008 1:44 pm ET

It does not matter that John McCain was in the armed forces. It still does not qualify him to be the expert on National Security. If you have not been President of the US before you Do Not Have Experience. We cannot expect to do business as usual and expect different results. I do not know if Obama has all the answers, but I do know that with the old republican mentality John McCain certainly does not. So in order for complete change and difference in the administration we have to put a Democrat back in the White House. We always have to clean up what the Republicans mess up.

Donald Of Orange County   August 27th, 2008 2:53 pm ET

Im afro american and what got me is After Clintons speech you found one of her supports(AfroAmerican Women) if that changed her mind to vote for BO. An what came out of her mouth was unbelievable idiotic,she had to be a CNN plant. Keep up the Good work. By the way do POLL’s every call cell phones.

Think about it, that could swing those numbers you been reporting

Aaron   August 27th, 2008 3:22 pm ET

Im a 25 yr old African american women and I’m voting fofr McCain so race has nothing to do with this. Obama isn’t our man we need to wake up and see this I want More of McCain I see this as his victory.

Lesley   August 27th, 2008 3:31 pm ET

Obama needs to revert to his primary persona. He was on the attack then, and it won him the nomination. He has to get forceful when he talks about McCain’s policies and bring up McCain’s voting record for backup. He seems to joke about their differences now and it’s not going over well. You can draw important contrasts without being negative. He just has to be firm about it. It will be interesting to see if he can pull this off, with everything coming at him at once. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen as much stuff flying around in a campaign before. You have the opposite contender, the Clintons and their fans, then the media circus playing up every angle trying to improve their ratings, add to that the internet big time and it’s a lot to deal with. Hopefully the debates will bring clarity.

Midwest   August 27th, 2008 3:38 pm ET

McCain an expert in the Armed Forces? Isnt he the one who’s plane crashed? AND he didnt even know where the pull switch was????? Please give me a break. He is not your answer to National Security. So, stop being scared and start being smart. YES WE CAN -

Go Obama!!!!!!

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