Beyond the shadows of Chicago's impressive skyline, in the scarred urban landscape of the city's southside, the Regal Theater swelled with expectation and pride. In the area where Barack Obama worked as a community activist and his wife, Michelle, grew up, people had come to see their native son - their boy - fill a sports stadium in Denver a thousand miles away and hit it out of the park.

As Hillary Clinton leaves the spotlight this evening, the central issue is how large an impression her teeth marks will leave on it. It would be easier to be more adulatory and enthusiastic about this signature moment - a white woman who came so close endorsing the black man who won and between them created unprecedented enthusiasm for the Democratic party - if she had not used the convention like one more bargaining chip to satisfy her damaged ego.