NEW York Senator and former presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton addresses the Democratic National
Convention at the Pepsi Centre in Denver on Tuesday. — AFP

DENVER, Colorado — Republicans yesterday crowed with delight at Hillary Clinton’s show-stopping convention speech, claiming she had helped to build their case against Democrat White House hopeful Barack Obama. Commentators seized on the fact that in a speech full of drama, tears and laughter in which Clinton repeatedly urged her supporters to unite to elect Obama president, she never once said he was ready to lead.

“I think she gave a very good speech from her point of view and our point of view, but not necessarily for Barack Obama’s point of view,” former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani told Fox News. “She never really answered the key question, is he prepared to be president? Which is the issue she put out there, rather dramatically, during the primaries.”

Even as the last cheers were still echoing through the vast Denver convention centre, the campaign of Republican presidential hopeful John McCain swiftly tore Clinton’s speech to shreds late on Tuesday. “Senator Clinton ran her presidential campaign making clear that Barack Obama is not prepared to lead as commander in chief,” Tucker Bounds, spokesman for Obama’s Republican rival John McCain, said in a statement.  — AFP