In itself, Bill Clinton's speech was excellent. But in my opinion, focusing on just the speech gives short thrift to how it was only a piece of a truly powerful sequence of events. Though, it can't be said enough that it was the rock that the evening was anchored on. It also served as a perfect bridge from Hillary's speech - it is truly difficult to view the two as completely separate.

By the time yesterday closed, everyone seemed frazzled and on edge. Bill managed to grab that and crumble it up into a tiny ball of energy and sort of hold it in his hands - and somehow it turned from fear to power. It was amazing to watch the effect on the posters here.

From there the rest of the evening exploded. It seemed like Kerry and Biden understood the significance of what had just happened and seized the moment; each in their own way. By the time Obama came to invite everyone over to Mile-High the mood was jubilant; the entire party was almost mocking McCain - daring him to bring a fight.

Another poster described Obama's appearance as feng shui that it released the energy and set the move to the new venue - I really liked that (can't vouch for cultural accuracy though). In many ways I thought Bill Clinton's speech had a similar effect on the energy from yesterday.

One thing I found striking is that Obama really didn't need to bring the democratic party together at all. The democratic party needed to choose to be together. Subtle difference, but significant in my opinion.