Last night's Hillaryfest was the culmination of a months-long homage to the New York senator's "historic" achievement of almost winning a major party's presidential nomination. But it's odd, notes Alessandra Stanley, that while an "also-ran" has made her candidacy a milestone, there's been little mention of the "arguably more remarkable breakthrough" of the man who actually won the primary.
Outside of prime time, notes the New York Times TV critic, convention speakers have praised Barack Obama as the first black presidential nominee. But during the networks' hour-a-night coverage, race is absent. You wouldn't know, for instance, from Kathleen Sebelius' speech about Obama's "hardscrabble Kansas roots," that his father was Kenyan. It's a reminder of how race remains a "tripwire" on TV, all the clearer amid Clinton's "hoopla and hosannas."
(More Barack Obama stories.)