Yesterday I had commitments that prevented my hearing Senator Clinton's speech live. When I finally heard it, I was overjoyed. Senator Clinton pulled off something I thought nearly impossible after Tuesday night - a convincing message to unify the Democratic Party for all the right reasons.

Hillary Clinton was once again the candidate I originally supported, but she was much more. She was truly eloquent and inspirational. I think it's ungenerous to quibble over technicalities such as whether she used first person singular too often. Her message did not come over as self-serving - quite the opposite. The only negative feeling I experienced was regret at the absence of this inspiring, eloquent Hillary Clinton during the long painful months of this presidential campaign.

It's impossible to comprehend why such an attractive candidate has been hidden from public view. I can only speculate that the candidate I admired yesterday fell victim to advice from a cabal of veteran male advisers - geniuses like Mark Penn, Harold Ickes, and Bill Clinton. The Hillary Clinton who spoke yesterday was fully capable of competing with Obama by offering a positive alternative. The strategy that attacked Obama's eloquence as empty and worthless deprived Hillary of a powerful tool - her own eloquence. The decision to dismiss Obama's inspirational message, and inspiration itself - as an infantile wish to see solutions fall from the sky - deprived her of her own inspirational voice. The decision to concede younger generations and African Americans to Obama and to court other demographic groups based on resentment was not only harmful to the Democratic Party, it was nothing less than tragic for Senator Clinton.  She could have competed with Obama in his areas of strength, retained her advantage among women, and offered greater experience as well. She could have won, rallied universal Democratic support, and left an undamaged Obama with a bright future. Obama's most ardent followers would have been disappointed but strongly committed to electing Hillary Clinton president.

The election could have played out as what we originally thought it was - a difficult choice from a roster of outstanding Democratic candidates, but a choice certain to produce the next Democratic president after eight catastrophic years of incompetent and malicious Republican rule. We are now at a more challenging pass, but there is much greater hope today than 48 hours ago.

With respect to this campaign, there is little point in speculating about whether the real Hillary is the eloquent, inspirational woman we saw rallying the party yesterday or the mean-spirited candidate who seemed to feel no compunction about antagonizing millions of Democrats for the slightest chance of improving her own chances at the nomination. I hope the former is the true Hillary and the latter an illusion conjured by a band of idiots who hijacked her campaign.

In either case, few politicians could redeem themselves after waging a divide-and-denigrate campaign like the one so skillfully designed and implemented under Penn, Ickes and company. Nevertheless, in my view,  redemption is exactly what Hillary pulled off yesterday. Against all odds, she redeemed herself along with Democratic hopes. Whatever motives are the true definition of her own heart, the Hillary Clinton who spoke yesterday proved herself a candidate who could have won the nomination and the White House on her own strengths. If that Hillary Clinton had taken the podium from January until June, she would have won.

Looking to the future, if we see that Hillary Clinton throughout this fall's campaign and in years to come, we may yet live to see the inauguration of President Hillary Rodham Clinton.