Leading article: Onwards and upwards

Were we not led to believe that the Clintons, separately and together, would be Trouble? That Hillary might be grudging in her endorsement of Barack; that the roll-call of states had been demanded by the Clinton camp to underline the narrowness of her defeat; that Bill had still not come to terms with campaigning for a Barack presidency? And had we not secretly kept all the old doubts about the erstwhile first couple: the failed money-making enterprise known as Whitewater; Bill's dalliance with Monica; his dubious farewell pardons; and Hillary's alleged appropriation of furniture? Of course we did.

On the night, though, Senator Clinton, resplendent in orange "pantsuit", was generous to a fault in delivering her supporters. The next night, in blue, she led the New York delegation in proposing the nomination of Senator Obama by acclamation. Having shed a tear at that, Bill stepped up to hail Barack as the man to restore US leadership in the world. All those warnings now look a lot like stage-management before the politics-fest that was this year's Democratic convention. And impeccable behaviour never harmed anyone – least of all a woman whose ambitions may not stop at defeat for the presidential nomination in 2008.

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