| And here's to you, Mrs. Clinton...
The Clinton campaign would have us believe the nomination primary is all about taking a look at Barack Obama, and then deciding that ultimately he would not be electable in the fall. And of course, once we were done flirting with the young upstart, the Democrats should turn to Hillary because she is the heir apparent to the Democratic party's throne.
Flip this scenario for a moment--because in the hurry to vet Obama, and all of the attention that the Clinton campaign places on his inexperience or newness to the national political scene, they would have us forget that Hillary herself needs vetting. What better way to deflect the spotlight from one's own past and ambitions than to declare that another's youth and relative innocence on the national scene deserves the broader inspection.
And thank goodness she had a quality candidate in the form of Barack Obama who had the guts and perseverance to run against the "inevitable" candidacy of Hillary Clinton, and to give the campaign time and interest to vet her qualities as a president. If Clinton would have easily glided through the primary campaign without a formidable opponent, there is much that we would never had learned about her until it was too late, and the republicans and media had loaded their gattling guns with raw fodder. She and the American people should be glad that we finally get to see who Hillary under fire really is. If this vetting were to have happened during the general campaign with the Republican attack machine, Democrats worst fears of losing to McCain could have been realized.
If Barack Obama had not pressed her in the primary as hard as he has, Hillary would not have had to spoken to issues like her exaggerations about her foreign policy experience, or her true beliefs on NAFTA. We wouldn't have seen how shallow her judgement was in voting for the Iraq war, and how spineless she was in standing up to Bush' smoke and mirrors. We never would have seen how Bill Clinton could lower himself from the being the elder statesman of the party to engage in dirty political fisticuffs again--the likes of which the country hasn't seen in the modern political era.
Many people were worried about what Bill's place as First Gentleman in the White House would be, and he has revealed himself once again to be no gentleman. Bill Clinton will do much to destroy his presidential legacy, as historians reflect on his acts, veiled words and threats issued in the heat of the campaign, many of which were in stark contrast to the themes he carried through his first two terms.
One is left wondering about how the teamwork in the White House--that Hillary would have us believe led her to gain all that experience--would change once their roles were reversed. One just has to see and hear Bill on the campaign trail to understand that he isn't running to be the First Gentleman. Michelle Obama he is not, and Barack recently remarked at how it is difficult to tell who he is running against, sometimes.
He is running to be a full fledged partner in a co-presidency--the twofer that once was looked positively upon, as the prospect of a woman presidency became a possibility. Until the young upstart Barack Obama came along, that is, with a viable alternative candidacy. Bill Clinton is the quintessential four-termer looking to bend the rules in his quest for power, albeit one who no longer could can be impeached for malfeasance in office--the ultimate smokescreen behind which he could maintain his Cheney-esque drive for power.
I know what the definition of "is" is, and I have no need to watch a snarly politician from Arkansas waggle his finger at good people like Bill Richardson, admonishing them to play by the Clinton rule book, or pay the consequences of failed loyalty. I can see the 3am fight, as the phone rings, and both rush to answer it, ripping the cord out of the wall in the process.
So with Hillary's last-gasp determination to get the country to see, from the Clinton's view, that Obama cannot win, we get to see her and her husband for who they truly are. We get to see the nasty campaigning, cringing at the motherly "Shame on you Barack Obama" that we all hate to hear, our own mothers' chastisement for discovering sex for the first time ringing loudly in our ears. We have wondered how the shrill tactics would play over in a heated battle, and now we know. We need not hear shrill repetition replace thoughtful discourse in a diatribe over, say, Putin's influence in Iran. Shame on you Vladimir!
We get to hear how she puts words in her opponent's mouth and then demands that the public ask him to justify them. Strawman politics at its worst. We get rejoinders back to the politics of fear with the 3am ads. We get to see the negative side of Clinton in a campaign that she wishes had never been. We have become painfully aware of the lack of principled discourse her campaign has put forth; the inclusion of a political hack of the worst sort in the reliance of Mark Penn's slime machine. We get dream sequence retellings of events that never transpired; sniper fire nightmares.
As people have pointed to Obama's having come of age in this primary campaign at the hands of Hillary Clinton, we also need to note that her old-school politics are being retired by the parry of a deft youngster. One can only hope that her concession speech is followed by the lilting refrains from Mrs. Robinson: "We'd like to know a little bit about you for our files. We'd like to help you learn to help yourself." Hey, hey, hey.
I, for one, am glad that Clinton has stayed in the race long enough for the American people to finally get to see her for who she is. Much of what people have feared most about Clinton, though were willing to gloss over--the shrewd, cunning and calculating approach to politics she has--has blurbled to the top, leaving a cauldron of messy politics, desperately in need of tossing out.
Thank you Hillary and Bill Clinton, for letting us see you for who you truly are.
Coo-coo ca-choo |
