Tomorrow night may very well signal the de-facto end of the Democratic primary. Even if she somehow wracks up large victories in South Dakota and Montana, she’s unlikely to persuade many superdelegates. These are a thoroughly cowardly bunch, who’d rather risk losing the general election, then earn the permanent ire of a man who’s likely to take the helm of the party for at least the next 4 years. Unless they’re given an out via an unexpected scandal, we may finally be seeing the last of Hillary Rodham Clinton. And here’s my confession: that saddens me. Not because I have any great desire to face her in a general election; I don’t. She’s a fierce opponent, while Barack has been sputtering on fumes for months.
But, there’s something about what she’s done for politics in America over the last 2 years that deserves respect. She’s fought. She’s struggled. And at times, she’s pushed back against the hijacking of the Democratic Party, which has been, for all it’s flaws, a party of great and patriotic men and women; a party which has, until now, only once succumbed to out and out radicalism in the last 60 years of nominations. She’s tried to speak to hardworking Americans, not about them. She’s tried to communicate a responsible foreign policy, not historically laughable pie-in-the-sky utopianism. She’s tried to recall a party she loves from the abyss. She’s tried. And she’s failed. Not everyone can be avatars of hope and light.
And here’s the real salient point; the point that conservatives, and moderates, and patriotic Americans of all regions and all religions ought to be thanking her for; Hillary Clinton has revealed Barack Obama. Four months ago, Barack Obama was an insurpassable public figure. He was The One We’ve Been Waiting For. An agent of hope and change poised to bridge all gaps, overturn all conventions, and melt all hearts. He was the great redeemer, surpassing that other great redeemer, and we were his subjects, waiting in humble supplication for the touch of his gentle hand. Now he’s tarred with Wright. And Ayers. And Pfleger. And he’s schemed, and calculated, and given ludicrous explanations, and played old politics with the best of them. His halo has descended before our very eyes. Make no mistake about it, no inducement on earth could have brought the press to question Barack Obama in a general election campaign in 2008. And no amount of evidence could have made the public care. Not even in a campaign against John McCain, the media’s favorite Republican. Even as a Democrat who ostensibly shares many of their goals, Hillary has had little success in shaping the media’s narrative. But, she has shaped the public’s.
She’s woken up millions of Democrats, who in a general election would have dismissed Wright and Ayers in a “rally around the nominee” spirit, to the woeful inadequacy of this man who would be president. Instead of dismissing Wright as a “distraction”, the media’s been forced to request that Barack “address” the controversies. And when their grand pronouncements on his race speech failed to quell the furor, they were forced to politely ask him if he wouldn’t mind clarifying some things. You know, so we could put these silly things behind us and move on to the history-making coronation. They’ve, at every step, thoroughly misread the public mood, utterly failed to control the narrative, and stumbled in their embarrassing apologia for the most unqualified nominee in decades. But, they’ve failed only because, for once, their demagoguery, their shameless promotion of a candidate, hurt a well-liked Democrat.
Hillary Clinton’s brutal treatment has taken the blinders off a large portion of the Democratic Party. They could not have been moved by us alone. We’re Republicans, and this is 2008, and the incumbent has a 28% approval rating, and this is their year. Never mind the fact that we’ve nominated a frequent and well-known critic of that unpopular incumbent. Never mind the fact that we’ve nominated a man who only votes with his party 60% of the time. Never mind the fact that our nominee opposes torture, and supports amnesty, and opposes a marriage amendment, and attacks corporations, and promotes campaign finance reform, and almost became the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee in 2004. He’s still a Republican, and this is 2008, and all Democrats and moderates are required to fall behind the Democratic nominee. To restore hope and all that jazz. But, they’ve attacked Hillary Clinton, and she’s a good Democrat, and she cares about working class Americans, and she’s a strong and proud woman, and that’s not ok. Millions of Democrats and moderates and independents now see Barack Obama for the radical he is. She’s accomplished what John McCain couldn’t have dreamed of accomplishing. Not this year. Not with this media. Not in this country. Not with this president shackled to his ankle. And for that I say, God bless her, and for all my many differences with her politically, I’m sad to see her go. You, madam, would have made a much better president then Senator Obama. I’ll leave you with a little Chris Matthews, from 2-3 months ago.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPk1gOdSkdM[/youtube]
What a difference a few months makes.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Matthew,
I don’t have time to debate this now, but I’ll pick it up later. Seriously, do you not remember how Hillary acted when she and Bill were in the White House? The vast right wing conspiracy to rob them of their power?
I mean, read the actual article I wouldn’t mention in context about the Clintonesque behavior out on the campaign trail. It’s classic Clinton.
Look, I can’t stand the savior either, but if the democrats had wanted to nominate a good democrat, they’d of voted for Chris Dodd. Instead, they chose Hillary and Barack, and I have no sympathy.
Look at how candidates appear when they lose. Even John Kerry looked good in defeat.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Hasn’t the narrative for months been that there are no serious policy differences between Obama?
Don’t start tripping all over yourself to praise Hillary Clinton over some rhetorical differences. I wrote something a bit back reminding the right not to start gushing over Hillary (http://race42008.com/2008/05/05/reality-check/).
Anyway, Obama’s radicalism has chipped his armor, but it hasn’t really hurt him all that much, according to the polls.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:40 pm
between Obama and Clinton*
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:43 pm
I remember reading somewhere that as much as Democrats hated Nixon while he was in office, the subsequent years of Reagan, Bush, and Clinton has led many Democrats to refer to Nixon as our last liberal president.
As much as Republicans hated the Clintons during the 1990s, the Bush years, the general transformation of the GOP, and generational and geopolitical changes in the political landscape may ensure that we never again have a president more conservative in the traditional sense of the word than Bill Clinton, who balanced the budget, kept the fundamentals of the economy strong, held down spending, used the military infrequently, reformed welfare, and probably would’ve partially privatized Social Security had he gotten around to it before he reached lame duck status.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
DaveG, it depends on your definition of “conservative”
For socons, Bush = Alito, Roberts = conservative.
For ficons, Bush = high spending, budget deficits = liberal.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:48 pm
First we should thank El Rushbo the CIC of Operation Chaos who salvaged Mrs Clinton’s fading hopes in TX and OH.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Alex,
I think those polls are misleading in the sense that their is a higher core of voters committed to voting Democratic then at any time in the last 60 years. Something like 47% of the public is bound and determined to vote Democratic unless Barack Obama himself starts shouting “down with Whitey”. Looking at the general election polls is simply not a good indicator of the damage these issues have done to Obama. Look at his favorables. They’re almost universally more negative then positive in polls. He has nearly astronomical percentages of the public who have “very unfavorable” impressions of him. That Rasmussen poll the other day highlighted this. A good third of the public HATES Barack Obama. He’s more reviled then Kerry or Hillary. I read your post below, and you can only credibly say that John McCain should ignore the base, because he’ll have them regardless, because Hillary Clinton has forced the public to consider Barack Obama in a way that a reviled Republican could never have managed in 2008. We don’t, primarily, speak about McCain need to hold the base anymore, precisely because Hillary Clinton, through her hard-fought campaign, dispersed all that gauzy Messianic narrative that prevented most of the public (including much of the right) from disliking Obama.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:51 pm
BTW, did you notice the poll numbers from NC?
McCain 43, Obama 40, Barr 6
http://www.pollster.com/blogs/poll_ppp_north_carolina.php
That may make NC a swing state come November…
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:55 pm
And Obama is picking up 72% of the A-A vote. You get the impression that it would probably be much higher than that…
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:02 pm
I don’t think Hill will be back in 2012 though. The Democrats almost never choose the candidate who came in second last time to be their nominee. They’re not like us. I suspect that Sen. Mark Warner will challenge President McCain in 2012.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Chris Matthews = big joke.
Would McCain ask Hillary to become VP? Who knows, maybe she will turn to the right as leftists have thoroughly contaminated the Democratic party.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:09 pm
I think those polls are misleading in the sense that their is a higher core of voters committed to voting Democratic then at any time in the last 60 years. Something like 47% of the public is bound and determined to vote Democratic unless Barack Obama himself starts shouting “down with Whitey”. Looking at the general election polls is simply not a good indicator of the damage these issues have done to Obama. Look at his favorables. They’re almost universally more negative then positive in polls. He has nearly astronomical percentages of the public who have “very unfavorable” impressions of him. That Rasmussen poll the other day highlighted this. A good third of the public HATES Barack Obama. He’s more reviled then Kerry or Hillary. I read your post below, and you can only credibly say that John McCain should ignore the base, because he’ll have them regardless, because Hillary Clinton has forced the public to consider Barack Obama in a way that a reviled Republican could never have managed in 2008. We don’t, primarily, speak about McCain need to hold the base anymore, precisely because Hillary Clinton, through her hard-fought campaign, dispersed all that gauzy Messianic narrative that prevented most of the public (including much of the right) from disliking Obama.
Fair points. Perhaps, although his numbers have held steady, his room for growth is shot. Perhaps he’s got nowhere to go but down — this is an argument that I’ve been making for a while. If you don’t love Obama today, you aren’t gonna love him tomorrow. Millions of voters might just be trying to convince themselves that it’s okay to vote for McCain.
Interesting…
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Uhm….do you really want to be inspired Mr. Obama? Read, “Faith of my Fathers”.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:24 am
What…are you kidding me? Hillary is an opportunist, a fierce one I grant you, but a power-hungry opportunist. What she hasnt been is much of a “leader” or particularly skilled at running anything. She botched National Health Care reform in 1994, lucked into a Senate seat when Rudy melted down in 2000, managed to alienate the political left and the right, yet she still entered this race as the prohibitive favorite. So what did she do? Blew the opportunity with a scandalously pathetic campaign that failed to adapt, spent money like a drunken sailor ($40K debt with Dunkin Donuts-come on), failed to pay vendors, had a staff that hated each other and couldnt even read the rules on “How to win the Democratic Nomination”. When your officially stated position on caucuses is “we don’t do those” and you fail to have a plan B, you simply DONT deserve to win. If your arguement requires creative accounting to come out ahead, you dont deserve to win. I mean, do we really want a commander in chief that has a clear track record of failure to plan, problems spending money and poor staff picking?
To be sure, the Dems have a knack for snatching defeat from the Jaws of Victory. Botching Michigan and Florida for starters. Then add in the propensity to fall victim to identity politics and you got a recipe for problems. I dont fault the delegate system as much, but it has a tendancy to drag out contests by closely matched candidates.
Still, hillary’s failures largely rest on her. Nobody “stole” this from her. She blew it fair and square.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:31 am
“I don’t think Hill will be back in 2012 though. The Democrats almost never choose the candidate who came in second last time to be their nominee.”
They might…its only their General Election losers they dump. But Hill would have to be a gung-ho supporter of Barack, right out there campaigning with him, undoing the trash talk and practically telling every white working class voter she said “he couldnt win” why Obama should win. Tall order.
If it looks like her fingers are on his defeat, rightly or wrongly, she’s toast.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:33 am
The Democrats picked the rock stars. They ignored some fantastic candidates who lied just below the surface of viability- Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, Bill Richardson. Even for their ridiculous liberalism they still had the principle and intelligence to raise the level of national debate. It really saddens me. I saw Chris Dodd and Newt Gingrich go at it on Meet the Press- two guys who disagree on absolutely everything, both at the time presidential contenders, both unbelievably intelligent- and I thought that if that was our general election, then we were going to be ok. The debate was intellectual, powerful, and they both spoke with real conviction- but they still had an utmost respect for each other. Instead we get five more months of this sound-bytes, press-wars, cookie-cutter campaign garbage. If McCain had a real opponent, I think the level of debate would be higher than it is now. But it’s hard to raise the debate when you’re up against an empty shirt.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:01 am
This is wrong.
Hillary did NOT bring Wright out into the open. In fact she should have months ago.
If anything she wasn’t tough enough on Barry.
These things would have come out anyway no doubt about it.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:16 am
JayPe,
Those NC numbers are something to watch but Obama hasn’t been ahead in a single poll of NC for the past year, even at the height of Obamanium.
See:
http://uselectionatlas.org/POLLS/PRESIDENT/2008/pollsa.php?fips=37
It’s going to be closer this year just because every AA is going to show up at the polls in November. But even among Democrats, the NC black vote is only 37 percent. So if you cut that in half and allocate the same percentage of the white vote to McCain that Kerry got, Obama still loses.
And Barr, who whored himself out no to be a big proponent of legalizing marijuana and gay marriage (not that I have a problem with that but Barr’s reasons for switching sides are dishonest) is not going to pull 6 percent away from voters already inclined to vote for McCain. Also there are 12 percent undecided in that poll. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that of most of that “undecided” number doesn’t include the black vote.
So again – something to watch – but I don’t see NC in Barry’s column in November.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:20 am
sorry – I meant to say if you allocate the same percentage of the white vote to OBAMA that Kerry got in 2004, Obama would still lose.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:22 am
[...] relation), sums up the enormous service Hillary Rodham Clinton has rendered unto her country. As Miller writes, HRC — bugaboo to the right for the better part of the past 2 decades — may have saved [...]
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[...] Gary Miller, Matt “No Relation To Gary” Miller notes that Hillary Clinton provided this nation a great service – way above and beyond the whole “soaking up Tic resources for a few months” bit – in [...]