Democrats awaited Hillary Clinton’s speech on Tuesday anxiously. The rift between the Clinton and Obama camps was unrepaired. Her team was grumbling about the nominee’s failure to take her seriously as a vice-presidential pick, or even to seek her advice on the matter. The party needed to unite, and it was not happening. Meanwhile the Obama campaign was losing ground to John McCain. Would Mrs Clinton’s much-anticipated address divide the party even more, perhaps handing victory to the enemy?

In the event, she mostly came through for the Democratic nominee. It was a confident and forceful speech, acknowledging her supporters’ disappointment yet emphasising the importance of a Democratic victory in November. She called unequivocally for party unity, and told her supporters to go out and vote for Barack Obama. “Were you in this campaign just for me,” she asked, or for the people who have suffered under eight years of George W. Bush? Putting them first, she said in the plainest possible terms, means electing Mr Obama. Her audience seemed moved and delighted. Mr Obama could not have hoped for much more, and doubtless feared he would get much less.