Hillary Clinton’s noon farewell speech (which began at 12:48) was HER moment. Flipping through BBC/SKY/CNN/FOX coverage as 11:30 became 12:30 with cameras focussed on the empty stage and an idling Secret Service SUV at her home, two miles from the venue, was irritating. Instead of being fully in the moment, we were held hostage by the arrogant inability of anyone in the Clinton entourage to read the face of a clock.

At 11:45, I gathered my two daughters and young son wanting them to see an historical moment. By noon they were bored and wanted to go outside on this beautifully sunny Welsh Saturday afternoon to play. I joined them as soon as Hillary uttered her last word.

The primaries were a great series of contests between two top performers. Like in so many sporting competitions, this semi-final match-up exceeded anything the championship game can bring. Her speech was strong, sincere, tributes heartfelt, supporters looked glum, some refused to applaud Barack Obama’s name and her imploring them to unite and support him. He even gave her the full spotlight, spending the weekend quietly in Chicago with his family.

But there were lots of places to be and things to do on every other day of the campaign, so why was she so late today? She wasn’t rushing from event to event or delayed by the length of the day, traffic, media questions and an ever pressing schedule. This WAS the schedule and she was sitting in her home.

I became angered with the theatricality and arrogance towards everyone else’s time. Not normally an “appointment” television viewer, the historical significance of the day and event was such that I began watching when most networks came on-air at 11:00 am with their coverage

Was it a calculated move to further draw the spotlight (which seemed unnecessary because the world was there live, fully focussed on her). Or should we see her as a tragic figure, blithely unaware of her own caricature-like nature and actions?

As the pundits began to parse every phrase and wonder if using the pronoun “I” 60-something times was too many or her endorsement of Obama sincere enough… being 48 minutes late to your own farewell party on a typical 105 degree day in Washington as your fans sweltered in a barn of a building was insensitively lame at best and calculated arrogance at worst.

In fairness the Clinton’s have always been late, behind schedule, whatever you want to call it. It’s a running joke in the press corps. Some commentators even joked and apologised to viewers on-air about the continued static shots of the empty stage and still idling SUV. They compared it to waiting for the Clinton’s to leave the White House to drive the 1-mile to the Capitol for each State of the Union Address.

Indeed her supporters were standing in the heat when doors opened at 10 am and the line snaked around the building. Most stood the entire time as there was no provision for chairs for anyone but the candidate’s mother, family and a few VIPs, so her audience stood patiently for three hours (excluding outdoor line time). Refreshments such as water were also not evident so talking about 80-90 year old supporters is nice but not when your 50-60 something supporters get heat exhaustion in the process.