Are They Convinced, Yet? (I Doubt It.)

If you want the honest truth, I never figured this to go down any other way.

HIllary Clinton last night at the DNC

Hillary Clinton gets up and makes her speech last night, introduces herself as a ‘proud Obama Supporter’. She makes a plea for unity.  And her supporters aren’t buying.

The speech, after all, was as Ben Smith says, a study of low expectations.

Clinton did little to sell Obama’s personal characteristics, his qualities or ability as commander in chief. She mentioned Obama 12 times, McCain 12 times.

But Clinton’s speech probably did what it had to, closing out ambiguity and putting Obama in a position to close the deal on Thursday.

The question is, what her supporters are going to do. Will these platitudes be enough to get them back down on their pledge to vote McCain come November 4th?  That remains to be seen.  I note James Joyner saying:

But, seriously, it’s simply bizarre to contemplate that all that many Clinton supporters are going to vote for McCain in a huff.  The amount of public policy light between the two Democratic contenders was miniscule, whereas McCain is a rock solid Republican on all but a handful of issues.  One can’t imagine, for example, partisans of Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee flocking to Obama in a huff.

Thing is, as he also says:

I must confess, that I thought the healing would have taken place by now.  At times, it does seem like Team Obama has gone out of its way to poke Hillary supporters in the eye, as with the hiring of Patty Solis Doyle or by not even pretending that Hillary Clinton had any shot whatsoever to get the VP nod.

Fellow BitsBlogger, YetAnotherJohn says to James:

A lot of those Hillary voters were persuaded by Hillary pointing out the emperor had nice clothes but little experience. And he hasn’t gained any substantive experience since then. So if a voter is not blinded by party affiliation, really cares about the countries leadership, then why should they vote for an inexperienced pretty suit?

They were cheering when Hillary pointed this out during the primary so why should they be cheering Obama now?

Quite correct. I think James under-estimates the situation with Clinton supporters. Remember, as with Hillary herself, self-centeredness is the key to the whole deal. They’re going to need to be convinced that the party unity thing is going to benefit them in some way. We’ll have to keep an eye on the polling over the next week or so, but my guess is that if they were not so convinced before last night, last night isn’t going to tip that scale, either.