Hillary Clinton As Our Chekovian Role Model

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..."

Comments

[astone4]

Americans are typically late in their understanding in things political as it affects their lives.

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.

[klondiker]

My goodness, you make Hillary out to be some kind of loser with nothing to show for her life!

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.

[hamletta]

I don't think you're being fair to Sen. Clinton.

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.

[Goldengrl]

Well said Stillirise. At the outset, Hillary's campaign behaved as if the African American vote was already in the bag. As if she needed to do nothing to earn it. I was really turned off by her campaign toward the end when she was essentially running on "vote for me I'm white he's not." So divisive and destructive. Since most Americans are hard working, I thought the focus on just whites as hard working implied that they were more important than everyone else.

With that said, I thought she did her best in campaigning for Obama. In the end she was a Democrat.

[Lorifromky]

I learned to begrudgingly respect Clinton the longer the primary went on. I read the story about the primary in Newseek. There was a line in there about how she asked her self why she was doing this (running for POTUS) when she was fairly content with her house in Washington and being a Senator. I think she will do as she said recently and "bloom where she is planted."

[stell]

"but so far I've not read or heard any thank yous to Sen. Clinton for her hard work."

Sure, we are to thank Hillary Clinton for doing what she is DUTY BOUND to do.

[Yermammy]

Hillary will always be my Bosnian Model.

[ElBruce]

She also would have thoroughly trounced McCain had Obama not come along out of the blue. But he earned it, and I think he's going to do great things with the country. It just goes to show how deep the Democratic bench is these days that we had her as backup.

[Phideaux]

Adam: A very insightful article, thank you.

And as you so clearly stated, Hillary's equanimity was an object lesson and example for many of us.

[stell]

Given the fact that Barack Obama broke an even higher and harder glass ceiling than she would have, doesn't that prove that being a woman isn't enough to prevent you from becoming president? I wouldn't feel to sorry for her. She has known that she wouldn't get the nomination for 9 months now. If she really cares about the issues that she says that she does, she should have been rejoicing on the night of Nov. 4th.

[RadhaColalurver]

Well... many would argue that the glass ceiling for women is on an equal footing if not a higher one. Personally that's what I believe. Though by saying that I do not marginalize Obama's victory; his victory is truly an astounding one. Not only did he shatter the glass ceiling, he obliterated with his landslide win. I was bawling my eyes out at his victory speech. I really do believe that racial inequality will become a thorn of a history and history alone due to his win. As for a woman being the president... I don't see that happening until another 20 to 30 years, at the very least.

[stell]

Why not Radha? Last time I check we have one black senator, and two black governors; one taking Spitzer's place because of a scandal.

[rixter1965]

A Hillary supporter, voter, contributor, and volunteer, I was not always happy about some tactics of the Obama campaign during the primaries nor some of the media coverage of Hillary. And Obama supporters were over the top in denouncing those who were supporting Hillary -- often employing GOP talking points and tactics.

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!

[lanrameau]

Hillary Clinton did an excellent job campaigning for Obama. She was far less impressive as a candidate. When the words "hard working white people" left her mouth, I thought she had gone crazy. Luckily for us, McCain picked up where she left off.

[eshalom]

Ianrameau, why is it racist to refer to hard-working white people, a legitimate demographic in America? Does it necessarily mean that black people are not hard working? No. Only someone desperately searching for a reason to attack a woman who has spent her life fighting for the rights of all people would clutch such a straw. The Obama camp did its best to smear both Hillary and Bill Clinton as racists beginning with his national co-chair Jesse Jackson, Jr.'s hateful remarks following Hillary's win in New Hampshire. You can Google that video.

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.

[StillIRise]

White Americans are not the only hard working people in America, and therefore do not, in and of itself, represent a legitimate demographic. At the time Hillary made this comment, she was campaigning in rural America, in a place where people openly confessed that they would never vote for a black man. What Hillary did was to engage in divisive politics, to appeal to the basest instincts of those who were supporting her, just as Bill did when he marginalized Obama as "the black candidate." And while many in the media and among the electorate recognized the racist implications of Bill's and Hillary's remarks, neither Obama nor his campaign ever said that the Clintons were racists! In fact, when Obama was asked about it, he said that he did NOT believe that race was a factor in what was said by either the Clintons or their surrogates.

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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