If Hillary had taken the Obama challenge more seriously last year, and had refined her message then as she has now, and had been able to speak in the calm, controlled, un-shrill cadence of the speech she is delivering right now, Obama would not have burst out of the gates with Secretariat speed as he did. She really has found a powerful political voice — only she found it too late for the nomination, it appears. But not too late to be the vice-presidential nominee for her party.