Was it unity? Or “unity smchunity?” Did Senator Hillary Clinton truly look sincere as she urged supporters to back the person who has wrapped up the Democratic nomination, Senator Barack Obama?

And that kiss-and-make-up photo: Did it look real or fake? Did Clinton look relaxed? Or when she embraced Obama, did she look as if she was someone (as an LA talk show host said) who was forced to be at an event with their in-laws? Did Obama seem to really believe what he said about Clinton, or did he appear as if he was going through the motions of saying things he had to say to gain support?

It all depends on the eye of the beholder, but this much is clear: the Clinton-Obama Unity event in Unity, New Hampshire was a media event to the hilt. It generated the You Tube clips, the TV time, the supportive and dismissive talk radio discussion (guess which hosts said what), the the blog posts.

But there was some meaty substance there, too…including the context.

examiner.com’s Tony Campbell believes the real unity was money:

As a show of support, Barack and Michelle Obama contributed the maximum to Clinton’s campaign and asked his supporters to follow suit so that she can retire her thirty million campaign debt. Being the cynic that I am, I have to ask what Obama is really buying for thirty million dollars. First, of course, he is making sure that Clinton owes him and that she will stay out of his way through the general election. Clinton will finally have to end her campaign rather than just suspending operations.

Second, Obama is betting that Clinton’s well-heeled supporters will return the favor and contribute to his campaign over the next few months. Simply put, Obama may be able to raise sixty to eighty million to win the White House after only spending $4,600 of personal resources and that is not a bad investment if you ask me.

The L.A. Times’ blogger Andrew Malcolm notes that the GOP was quick to remind everyone that Clinton and Obama weren’t always embracing and getting kissed on the cheek. And he shows a video the GOP put out that reminds people that during the primaries, Clinton and Obama were more likely to kick each other in their respective posterior’s cheeks. Read the post and see the video HERE.

And a sticking point remains Bill Clinton, whose absence sends a signal to Hillary Clinton supporter holdouts. The New York Daily News reports that Obama hopes to get Bill to join in the lovefest. (But it’s hard to image Bill Clinton giving Obama a photo op like the one above):

Obama has not been shy about trying to recruit the former President, hoping Clinton will be out on the campaign trail wooing voters and flying the banner of party unity.

“We need Bill and Hillary Clinton,” Obama told the crowd at his rally with Hillary here yesterday. “We need them badly, not just my campaign, but the American people need their service.”

A source close to the ex-President promised, “They will talk,” but could not say when.

Earlier this week, Bubba’s office issued a terse statement saying he is “obviously committed to doing whatever he can and is asked to do to ensure Sen. Obama is the next President.”

A top Obama adviser was notably charitable when the subject of Bill Clinton came up — a sure sign that the Obama campaign wants him out there:

CBSNews.com: We have reported that Hillary Clinton may have moved on, but Bill Clinton is still deeply upset and embittered about how he perceives the Obama campaign to have treated him and his record, that there’s a sense that you all went out of your way to portray some of his comments as racially prejudiced. Do you think that President Clinton’s comments, over the course of the primary campaign, crossed the line into racial prejudice?

Robert Gibbs: Again, a lot of this is water under the bridge. Obviously, we had a very hard fought primary campaign. And there isn’t anybody on the planet that would begrudge President Bill Clinton for vigorously supporting his wife, much as I don’t think people are surprised to find out that Michelle Obama supported Barack.

I think that, and we are happy to have the support of the former president, it’s an important endorsement. And he is an important voice on any number of issues that I think will be a huge help to Barack Obama and to the Obama campaign in the fall. We have tremendous respect for the former president and for what he was able to accomplish in eight years in the White House.

CBSNews.com: But do you think his rhetoric crossed the line?

Robert Gibbs: I tend just not to get into what might have happened in January or February. I think we’ve sort of put an end to the primary. I think what united the two campaigns, the two Democratic campaigns, was always far greater than whatever divided us.

I don’t think that rhetoric crossed the line. I think what you saw Bill Clinton doing was being a vigorous advocate for his wife. I don’t think that was rhetoric that was designed to do any damage. I don’t.

CNN’s Candy Crowley described the perfect (stage-managed) day. Here’s part of her depiction of On Message Day:

The day began with a kiss.

Sen. Barack Obama, on the tarmac at Reagan Washington National Airport, reached out to shake Sen. Hillary Clinton’s hand and leaned down to kiss her cheek.

It went on from there. Wearing a tie that matched her suit, he put his hand on her back, guiding the way up the plane steps.

They sat side-by-side for the flight up to Manchester, New Hampshire, chatting amiably. One overheard conversation was about the plane. Clinton had used it during the primary season.

They hopped on a souped-up bus for the 1½-hour ride to Unity, New Hampshire.

Meanwhile, Salon’s Walter Shapiro noted the hard-nosed symbolism of it all: the party had now in effect changed hands.

The transfer of power from the Bill and Hillary past to the Barack Obama future was handled as well as these rituals ever are in politics. New Hampshire, as it almost always does during the presidential season, provided the prime scenic backdrop at an outdoor rally Friday afternoon here in — that’s right — Unity. Hillary Clinton, who certainly proved during the gantlet of primaries that she is a campaigner who can play a part to perfection, excelled at being the gracious loser, stressing that the opportunity for the Democrats in 2008 means, “We cannot let this moment slip away.”

Obama, who unquestionably had the easier public role, gently praised Clinton (”I know firsthand how good she is, how tough she is, how passionate she is”) — and even followed her invitation to express disbelief that she could possibly be old enough to have spent four decades in the political arena. While the vice presidency was never alluded to, Clinton (who after all had eight years of experience as first lady) showed that she can do deference. As Obama spoke, she disdained the chair to his right and instead stood gazing up at him with what seemed at a distance to be an admiring expression.

And Shapiro says to make no mistake about it. Hillary Clinton will be pulling out all stops for Obama:

Even if the vice presidency is not in her future, Clinton has signaled that she will do anything that Obama asks in the weeks ahead — and the Obama campaign seems more than willing to deploy her on the party harmony hunt. It is a reflection of the money-mad nature of modern politics that the best way to end a political feud is by writing a personal check.

But will it end? Newsweek’s Howard Fineman reports that some big Clinton donors remain angry and feel Obama is haughty. Here’s an excerpt from his piece:

My source found Obama to be haughty.

She asked the candidate whether he would reach out to former President Bill Clinton. Obama reacted positively — sort of.

“I’m cool with that,” he reportedly told her.

She found that outrageous. “‘Cool with that?’ Are you kidding me?”

Some Clinton people think that Obama owes them at least an effort to erase her debt.

His people generally find it outrageous that she mismanaged her campaign and, in their view, stayed in the race too long. Now she expects Obama to set her financial house in order.

“Hillary said during the campaign that Obama didn’t have enough managerial experience to be commander-in-chief,” one top Obama fundraiser told me.

“And then she spends herself into debt and we are supposed to help her?”

And the issue of unity, he notes there are grudges on both sides:

Clinton threw around her weight early on, and the Obama people haven’t forgotten.

A year ago, here in New Hampshire, experienced Democrats with access to money were told that, if they supported Obama, they would be shut out in Washington once Clinton became president.

“Now these same people who were threatening us want us to pay off Hillary’s debt!” said another Obama funder. “This is what my husband calls ‘delusional chutzpah.’”

Most likely, the Democratic party’s veering towards an ugly, self-defeating split won’t be over until the red-faced former President sings..