Echoing another dramatic moment, Hillary Clinton came not to praise Barack Obama, only to support him.
Or maybe she was channeling consigliere Tom Hagen, who in "The Godfather" famously said of a Mafia family feud: "This is business, not personal."
Whatever her muse, Clinton Saturday gave one of the most honest speeches she has ever given and perhaps the most honest we have heard in this political marathon.
She didn't pretend to like or admire Obama. She didn't pretend she believes he would be a great President. She didn't say he was right on the issues. She never said he'd be a good commander in chief or would keep America safe.
She made it clear she still reserves those views for herself. And that she'll be baaaacccck.
But she had a job to do yesterday and she did it. Her task was to acknowledge Obama as the party nominee, say repeatedly she was supporting him and would do everything she could to help him win.
She did all that with more sincerity than a coerced prisoner of war would have mustered, but with far less passion and rhetorical gusto than a true believer would have brought to the occasion.
She made it clear, sometimes painfully so, that she was endorsing Obama only because he's a Democrat. It's business.
Beyond that, she wasn't going there. There was no warm and fuzzy Hallmark moment, no reason to get misty-eyed, at least over him.
This was a concession, not a surrender. She was accepting defeat, but defiantly refusing to be labeled a loser. Surrender is for wimps.
Like a battle-hardened general leading an army, she said her supporters must "join forces" with Obama's, making it seem more a merger than a conquest. But there was also a not-so-veiled complaint about prejudice toward her, saying, "We weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time."
That sounded peevish, and wrong. She is truly a historic trailblazer, but she didn't lose because she's a woman. She lost because Obama got more delegates under rules she understood and approved.
Her complaint also has a whiff of hypocrisy, given that she played the race card against Obama, touting her appeal last month to "white Americans." She also didn't acknowledge her own mistakes and gaffes.
Yet the speech was bold considering how miserably she failed last Tuesday when she made noises about fighting on. She congratulated Obama then, but never said for what. The campaign, in her mind, was not over.
It was a disaster, as was her pushy attempt to force her way onto his ticket. The plan backfired, so she was forced to try again to find the right words and tone.
Most notable was her game attempt to echo the "yes, we can" mantra of the Obama-bots. And she tried, even though she didn't have much success, to rally her audience into chorus-like repetitions of why they had to help Obama win.
But she saved her genuine smiles and bravado for the long ode to her own efforts. By my rough count, more than two-thirds of the 30-minute speech was about herself and her achievements. "Me" and "I" and "we" were dearest to her heart.
No surprise there, but at least she didn't pretend otherwise.
