Hill Takes the Stand

Last night my colleague and I headed over to our press seats in the Pepsi Center to watch Sen. Clinton's speech. It will be the only time I spend inside the convention hall among the partisans and media circus this week. Tonight I'm in the tents with the towels. Tomorrow, two of our correspondents head to Invesco and the rest of us party it up with Captain Morgan (more on that later).

I was lucky that this was my night in the Hall. The frenzied media speculation about Hill's speech had reached a fevered pitch and there was an electric feeling of anticipation in the air. Would she be gracious and supportive? Would we believe it? Would Chris Matthews's head explode from the excitement of it all?*

The view from the press stands affords an excellent view of the audience, and zero view of the speaker. But no matter. I've seen Hillary speak live enough times to know that she'll be wearing a pantsuit of some color, and will talk about health care or a village or something.

Anyway, the reaction of the audience was pretty crazy. These people LOVE her:

And they say Obama is a rock star.

*It has to happen sooner or later.