Barack Obama may have taken the spotlight with the speech he delivered in Philadelphia on Tuesday, but Hillary Clinton had her own remarks to give in the city as well. And, surely knowing her response would be sought after and examined with an electron microscope, she was ready even before anyone had a chance to ask her the question. Clinton said:

Before I get into some comments about Iraq, I want to start off by saying that I did not have a chance to see or to read yet Senator Obama's speech. But I'm very glad that he gave it. It's an important topic. Issues of race and gender in America have been complicated throughout our history, and they are complicated in this primary campaign.

There have been detours and pitfalls along the way, but we should remember that this is a historic moment for the Democratic Party and for our country. We will be nominating the first African-American or woman for the presidency of the United States, and that is something that all Americans can, and should, celebrate.

The opportunity for America will be in choosing a president who will best solve the big challenges our country faces. And those challenges are considerable.

Let the parsing begin ...