In the April 18th Financial Times, Edward Luce (Hillary Clinton's Missing Theme) lamented the fact that Hillary seems diffuse: Either in that same oped  or in one a few days earlier he essentially said  ask anyone, and they can tell you in 30 seconds what Trump or Cruz or Bernie intends to do. But Hillary, she just kind of suggests she'd do a better job of what Bill or Barak were doing..

Not slamming her, lamenting, because he mostly agrees with her positions. Was he listening tonight I wonder?

 She talked about Mikey: looked around to see if she could introduce him. He'd spent 6 months in jail. She didn't suggest that was unfair.  Or comment on the sentence at all. Instead said that now he runs an ice cream stand? store? some place in the City.  Probably the Bronx.  She'd gone there yesterday, said that meant the media got a chance to try his ice cream. It was really good.

She was believable.

A while later she wanted to introduce a young woman.  Named her.  Looked around  for her.  Smiled with what  appeared to be genuine pleasure  (she has an appealing smile) when she found and introduced her. Then said that the woman's mother had been the principal in the Newtown school.  Killed in the massacre there. The crowd groaned. Something real was happening and the crowd was part of it. Listening and participating.

Hillary said, that this guest,after a period of despair, decided that she wasn't going to let her mother's death go without any response.  So she was now working for sensible gun control.

Can you sum up all the above in  30 seconds?  No..  But very effective campaigning . Maybe for that reason.

She was being the candidate  who was comfortable speaking to the black mothers-lots behind her in the audience-who are  terrified their son had spent his six months, or two years, in jail and did that mean that really his life was over? Can  you imagine El Trumpo playing that role?

But not some "hippy" who disdained conventional morality.  Conveniently enough, like Barak she detested our guns and what we do with them. You don't have to be  particularly suspicious to think she was taking a free shot at Bernie. 

One reason you can't sum up all that in 30 seconds is that she didn't make it easy for you to do that.

Not because she was taking a pose.  But because she's a complicated human being saying some complicated stuff and paying us the compliment of assuming we could follow it .

So was this another example of Hill's insincerity?  Maybe Hal would say so?  I hope not because he's better than that.. Certainly there'll be at best dismissive, at worst furious ,comments from the three remaining standard bearers for the side of law, order, conventional morality and exiling all possible Hispanics.

What do I think?  My maddening  rule is that when someone says something I assume they mean it until I've given good reason to think otherwise. Simplistic thinking ? Certainly.  But it suits me.  Saves a lot of mental effort.("What did she mean by that?")  And I'm all for reducing mental effort.

That doesn't mean I think that Hillary didn't realize that she was making a statement that was going to be welcomed in the Baltimore row houses where they're waiting for the next round of coming elections.  Or that her comments on Newtown will be equally welcome in Maryland's DC suburbs.

Just maybe you can't summarize Hillary's position in a paragraph because she's not only a complicated human being but one who is willing to adopt positions which are apparently in conflict.  Which few others combine quite that way.

And is perfectly happy that's good politics.