Former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore drew widespread raves for his speech in December 2000 when he announced that he would concede the election to George W. Bush in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that stopped the recount of votes in Florida.

Observers marveled at the change in Gore and opined that had the Al Gore of the concession speech been the one out on the campaign trail, he would have been planning an inaugural address in January instead of delivering that concession.

I heard someone say yesterday that Hillary Clinton’s speech tonight would prove whether she shares that inauspicious designation with Gore: Better off the campaign trail than on it.

Let the comparisons begin.

Hillary Clinton was nothing short of absolutely stellar tonight, taking the stage to a raucous delegate assembly whipped into a frenzy by a biographical video of the former first lady and introduced by her daughter, Chelsea.

Times like tonight are why I am so thankful for adjectives.

Hillary was confident. Rested. Assured. Direct.

The woman so often maligned for being so calculated – and calculating – seemed supremely and personally relaxed behind the podium. Gloria Borger called her “authentic.”

The former candidate criticized for being too strident on the stump was pure power tonight. Unleashed from daily tracking polls and freed from the confines of focus-group fences, she took on those delegates who have threatened to stay home – or vote Republican.

She made an energetic and unapologetic defense of liberalism and feminism, speaking with passion about the political philosophies that have made her America’s foremost female politician.

She was personable, and she got personal.

She spoke in what Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez called “emotive” language. Describing her experiences on the campaign trail:

Your stories reminded me that, every day, America’s greatness is bound up in the lives of the American people, your hard work, your devotion to duty, your love for your children, and your determination to keep going, often in the face of enormous obstacles.

You taught me so much, and you made me laugh, and, yes, you even made me cry.

You allowed me to become part of your lives, and you became part of mine.

I will always remember the single mom who had adopted two kids with autism. She didn’t have any health insurance, and she discovered she had cancer. But she greeted me with her bald head, painted with my name on it, and asked me to fight for health care for her and her children.

I will always remember the young man in a Marine Corps T-shirt who waited months for medical care. And he said to me, “Take care of my buddies. A lot of them are still over there. And then will you please take care of me?”

And I will always remember the young boy who told me his mom worked for the minimum wage, that her employer had cut her hours. He said he just didn’t know what his family was going to do …

But this wasn’t just another self-aggrandizing walk down Memory Lane. Clinton turned these word pictures into little lancets that she pointed at her fellow Democrats, even—and perhaps, especially – those who supported her, as she all but shamed them in the best section of the speech:

I want you — I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me, or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him?

Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids?

Were you in it for that young boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage?

Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?

As celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse would say, BAM!

Hillary’s speech left the pundits all but stunned by the assertiveness of its message of unity and its masterful delivery. Of course, a tour de force can be a double-edged sword; it was, for Clinton’s mission to unify the party: She delivered the unity message in the best way she possibly could, but the skill and strength and power with which she did it reminded her delegates all over again why they want her atop the ticket.

The words of Clinton’s speech had barely finished echoing off the convention hall walls when CNN’s Jessica Yellin managed to find Ann Price Mills, a Clinton delegate who says she may not vote this fall since she can’t vote for Clinton for president.

Hillary made the Democratic platform “more than just dreams,” Mills said; “I saw how it could be reality … She could have made it happen.” Mills went on to say that “experience counts” and that Obama’s “résumé is just …” and her voice trailed off.

It wasn’t long before Republicans began firing away on the message du jour. GOP strategist (and former Mitt Romney commercial maker) Alex Castellanos said he felt that the speech was underwhelming and unimpressive. (Seriously, Alex?) He pointed out that Clinton didn’t make any mention of her chief complaint about Obama during the primary – his lack of experience and readiness to be commander-in-chief – or try to back away from it at all.

Castellanos’ point may have been factually accurate. But it’s difficult to take a pundit seriously on subjective issues when he won’t even acknowledge the ridiculously obvious—in this case, the polished, passionate and perfectly aggressive composition of Clinton’s pitch.

Finally, you know Hillary Clinton did a great job when the pundits are saying that the pressure is on Barack Obama for Thursday night’s acceptance speech.

Hillary? Putting pressure on Obama in the area he has owned since 2004?

But that’s just how good it was.

Partially because of its historical context but mostly because of its content and delivery, it’s my humble opinion that this speech will go down as one of the best in the history of American politics.

Hillary Clinton: A+++++.

If she had been this candidate on the trail, she’s be speaking on Thursday night.

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