Hillary Clinton didn't get what she wanted.
Neither do most Americans.
As I watched Tuesday night's overflow of ecstasy and disbelief, I couldn't help but think of her -- in that intensely lonely and painful moment.
If president-elect Obama re-animated the American mythology that anything is possible here, Hillary Clinton's difficult year has been a theatrical reminder that most of us need to live with, and through, dashed dreams.
She has become an embodiment of the ennobling virtues of disappointment. It's not the Obama role model, and it's not what she envisioned for life -- starting with her speech at Wellesley -- but it's actually no less important. We need someone who can publicly live a life of private pain.
Ever since she dropped out, this has been her reality. But last night it was reified. This morning she wakes and walks with the rest of us. The director of procurement who wanted to be a stand-up comic, the local newspaper reporter who covers school board meetings and has gaveled down his Pulitzer, all the harborers of lost rainbows.
She made more than 50 campaign appearances for Senator Obama. I'm sure none of them were easy, but all of them were necessary, and she did it with a stoic intensity whose profoundly admirable qualities were easy to lose in the heat of the final months.
Where was she on Tuesday? Chappaqua or one of the dozens of hotel rooms with generic seascapes on the wall -- painted by someone who always wanted to be the next Pissaro, perhaps? Was Bill with her? Chelsea? Was she pigging out on nachos? Did she stay up for the speech?
While we can't be sure about Tuesday, we can be about the next morning and the next. Humiliated by her husband, rejected by her party and re-routed by history, she will get up, have her coffee, and do the work laid out in front of her.
Instead of the embroidered towels on Air Force One, there is joy in small things. She is living a new kind of emotional mathematics, the sacrament of perseverance. Thoreau, not Shakespeare.
Or, more accurately, Chekhov. I see today's Hillary as Sonia in "Uncle Vanya." Do you think this famous last speech is secretly on Hillary's iPod? She wouldn't be the only one:
"What can we do? We must live our lives.
[A pause]
Yes, we shall live, Uncle Vanya. We shall live through the long procession of days before us, and through the long evenings; we shall patiently bear the trials that fate imposes on us; we shall work for others without rest, both now and when we are old..."
Think how long it took for them to figure out that Bush was wrong again and again for America.
It is just now, late again, that America is beginning to understand the virtues of Hillary Clinton and the good that she embodies.
Of course it's sad whenever a dream is deferred, but look at all that Hillary has accomplished: she ran one of the most remarkable presidential campaigns in American history, came farther than any other woman before her, and set a new standard for female politicians. Thanks to her, nobody will wonder anymore whether a woman is tough enough to be commander-in-chief.
So, comparing her to that artist with aspirations to become Pissarro is a little unfair. Unlike that unnamed artist, Hillary has already earned her place in history. And, I'm sure that there is a lot ahead of her. She may run for president in 2016; she may become Senate Majority Leader; she may be appointed by President Obama to shepherd health care and be forever known to America as the founder of universal health care in this country.
First of all, she wasn't humiliated by her husband. If he humiliated anybody, it was himself. Which, y'know, is none of my business, but I think it's awesome that they love each other so much that they had to keep their marriage together, even in that Drano-laden fishbowl.
Second, she's been a whole-hearted supporter of Obama since the primaries ended. She handled the transition beautifully, told the PUMAs to piss up a rope, and she and her husband worked hard for Obama.
I trust her to settle into her position as Senator and really kick some ass.
With that said, I thought she did her best in campaigning for Obama. In the end she was a Democrat.
Sure, we are to thank Hillary Clinton for doing what she is DUTY BOUND to do.
And as you so clearly stated, Hillary's equanimity was an object lesson and example for many of us.
But if she can get past it, why can't I?!? (I have!) She put party above her feelings of disappointment and worked her heart out -- the number of appearances, the speeches, the fundraising on behalf of Obama all surpassing other Democrats defeated in past primaries.
And there was a lot of criticism, rejection and ignoring Bill Clinton's Presidency during the primaries -- not the brightest, shiniest moments of the Obama campaign -- running against the only Democrat in recent history to hold the White House for two terms in order to run against his wife.
And...
We, as Americans, all say we want AUTHENTICITY in our political leaders, so disappointment, etc. are authentic feelings. In the end, getting past those feelings and working for the Democratic Party are what matters.
Obama and staffers ran a brilliant campaign and won the Presidential Election! In the end, that's the important thing!
And the hate-mongering continued until Obama finally hung his head at the Nevada debate and publicly admitted the Clintons were not racists.
By then, however, the damage had been done to the clintons and Obama was getting 95 percent of the AA vote. Pretty clever.
Thanks to Hillary Clinton's campaigning on Obama's behalf, those very same hard-working white people voted for Obama on election day, but so far I've not read or heard any thank yous to Sen. Clinton for her hard work.
To borrow a phrase from Rev. Wright, one of these days, Barack Obama's chickens are all going to come home to roost.
Many African Americans were nonetheless insulted by the divisive tactics of the Clintons, and the Clintons' chickens came home to roost when the African American community, many of whom supported Hillary, galvanized behind Senator Obama, as did the majority of Americans. Perhaps you would have to walk in our shoes to understand that when they marginalized Senator Obama and spoke of the "hard working white Americans" who supported Hillary, they in effect marginalized and excluded all black people!
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The Clintons are southern politicians. They know how to play the race game. Hillary tried it and lost. It's disappointing because she's better than that, and those tactics have no place in the Democratic Party.