The Speech- no. 8

When the starters for the home team of the Chicago Bulls, during the Michael Jordan era, were announced at the United Center, the lights would be dramatically turned off. Soon, other teams in the NBA turned copycat and did the same, to considerably less effect.

And so it was that Hillary Clinton in her concession speech of Saturday, June 7 stated

So today, I am standing with Senator Obama to say: Yes we can.

Call it nitpicking but I would have preferred "Yes, he will." That would have been consistent with the chant of "yes, she will" heard at one or more Clinton rallies. And I'm more interested in "will" than "can." Further, it would have subtly and inoffensively highlighted a difference between the Obama approach, one naively implying change from below, while the other implies acceptance of responsibility and accountability on the part of the public official herself.