Hillary, Hillary, Hillary: An Open Letter to the Former Future President

Dear Hillary:
What happened? No really, what the fuck just happened to you? I can't for the life of me figure out how a once-promising presidential campaign -- a sure thing for Pete's sake -- turned into a pathetic embarrassment? You've had such a head start in this quest to occupy the Oval Office. I mean, literally, you and Bill have been planning it since at least January 1993 when he became president. Was there a more plausible, natural, inevitable scenario than you following in his larger-than-life footsteps? And Chelsea after you? The Clinton Dynasty. Has such a regal ring to it, doesn't it?

But then 2008 rolled around and something terrible happened. Both you and Bill lost that famous mojo. It started in Iowa, where you were all but certain to win. Everyone, including yourself, anointed you the Queen of the Ball before the dance even began. And then you lost. Some inexperienced kid named Barack Obama came out of nowhere and stole your thunder. And then you sat down and cried. In front of the cameras, and the good folks of New Hampshire felt sorry and gave you their state. And just like that The Comeback Twins came back yet again. Never count out a Clinton, huh?. Ahh, but then came February. Damn February. The junior Senator from Illinois, that pesky Kid, won big on Super Tuesday -- despite your pickups in NY, NJ, CA and a few others -- and later in the month racked up an impressive string of eleven consecutive wins. Ouch. That's when the chorus of "Hillary Should Quit" calls officially began. But you'd have nothing of the sort. This was a battle, and you were in it till then end. And we admired you for it.

March was much kinder to you, as was April and May. You won big key swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, and trounced The Kid in Appalachia. You even managed to obtain more delegates and popular votes in these three months than The Kid. But the "Hillary Should Quit" calls kept coming, weighing you down and casting an ominous cloud over your campaign. The endorsements kept going to Obama too (Richardson, Edwards, etc) and the superdelegates began to flow to your opponent in anything but a trickle, until he had more of them than you. Many even started to desert you, switching their allegiance. But you pressed on. Even with Bill out there accused of playing the race card and pissing off as many people as he once impressed, especially in the black community. To many, perhaps the "first black president" wasn't so black after all.

Then there were the many boneheaded comments you made. You remember, like the time you basically said that while you and the GOP's presumptive nominee, Sen. John McCain, were tough enough and experienced enough to be commander-in-chief, Obama merely had "a speech." Didn't you realize how that irresponsible blunder would come back to haunt the party in November? Or how about the one where you told everyone that the "hard-working whites" won't vote for Obama. Honestly, Hill, with all those fancy degrees and years of elite lawyering, didn't you realize that some things were meant to be privately thought but not publicly voiced? And so the "Hillary Should Quit" calls continued unabated. Yet we were still in your corner.

You vowed to stay in the race and fight until the very last American exercised his or her inalienable right to vote. You vowed to fight for women everywhere. To be a role model for young girls. To show them that women can be just as tough, just as resilient, just as determined, just as ambitious and just as successful as a man. Your campaign was no longer merely about becoming president. It became a lesson for the history books. A paradigm-changing feminist movement. And we applauded your determination and stuck by you.

You parsed and nuanced and molded the process to fit your end-goal of ultimately snagging the nomination from the grip of The Kid by convincing the superdelegates that you had the better narrative. That you were the more electable candidate. Since neither you or The Kid would end the campaign with enough pledged delegates to win, in an effort to make your case even more compelling, you threw as much shit up on the wall as you possibly could in the desperate hope that something would stick, ie that you had more popular votes; that we should re-seat Michigan and Florida's delegates; that only you could win back the Reagan Democrats. At this point, while we continued to support you, we grew a little leery of your motives and a tad weary of your disingenuousness.

No matter how many "Hillary Should Quit" cries we heard, we still believed in you and went along for the ride, no matter how bumpy. We defended you wherever and whenever we could. Like Bill, we made excuses for you, and chalked up your blind ambition and your regrettable gaffes to long days, late nights and the general stress of the campaign trail. We vowed to support your valiant fight till the end, right along with you, no matter how taxing it became.

And then the unthinkable occurred. When asked last week by South Dakota's Sioux Falls Argus Leader newspaper about all this "Hillary Should Quit" nonsense, you said: "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don't understand it." Jeez, Hillary, are you out of your fucking mind? Even if you didn't mean it, to suggest that as a justification to stay in the race, Obama could be assassinated before the primary season is over, is perhaps the most shocking, shameful, morally reprehensible thing you could have possibly ever said. How could you? Do you realize that with that one comment you threw away whatever shot you may have had to fulfill your dream of convincing, brainwashing and/or bullying the super D's into handing you the nomination? How could you implode like that? It was a despicable act of desperation and, quite frankly, it was pathetic. With that one reckless opportunistic blunder you not only threw away the campaign, but your legacy as well. A once valiant warrior, you are now just a sad footnote in history. An embarrassment. I suspect you will never recover politically from your monumentally insensitive RFK comment, made in the very same week that Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy was diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor.

And so I can no longer support this destructive campaign of yours. It's time for me to say "Hillary Should Quit." You have taken your insatiable hunger for the presidency too far. You've let so many of us down. You will not be president. You will not be vice president. It's time to step aside and let the Democratic Party and the nation heal, ultimately with Obama as our nominee and hopefully our president as well. It's time for something different. You just convinced me that America needs more than politics as usual, especially your kind. I am so disappointed, Hillary.

Comments

[Pherdnut]

Well, I'm glad to have another vote for Obama, but I'm not sure I'll be taking the political commentary of anybody who stuck it out with Hillary for that long seriously.

[Quipman]

Hillary lost my support the minute she sided with George Bush on the war. I really do believe her war vote was all about running for President. Her Iran vote just reassured me that I had made the right decision. I have lost all respect for her as a person and candidate. She has proved to be everything that the Republicans said she was and more. Hillary still continues to lie to her supporters about having the popular vote lead. Hillary's recent remarks about assassination only proves how far we have fallen when it comes to politics in this country. There is no doubt that the election of Barack Obama will make this country a better country not just for the citizens who live here but for all people around the world.

[PaigeInPhilly]

Welcome to the Obama Express...

Full stream a-head!..next stop

White House.


Obama/Webb 08

I will be volunteering my time this wkend..with the nationwide vote for change registration..sign up with your local Obama office!

[philinburb]

But she was tired when she made the RFK crack. But if she was that stupid when she's tired, then who's going to protect me at 3 AM?

[pashupat]

Glad you finally had enough Andy. I guess you deserve credit for staying with her that long!
Another important point to remember (thanks to the person who wrote the letter to the Boston Globe) is that referring to the election in 1968 was a bizarre way for her to justify staying in the race. It ended with riots at the convention and Nixon winning the election. So even if she isn't fantasizing about assassinations, she obviously only cares about being the nominee, not whether the outcome of the election is positive for the Democrats and the US of A.

[Kmuzu]

Bravo ... Welcome to the Obama train.

[Dap]

Eloquently expressed without question, even the profanity was done with exquisite spot on timing. Kudos!

[Bobrobert]

To the followers of Hillary - I will pray for you too.

Be sure to vote all.

:-)

[Bobrobert]

One sad lady.

Gotta pray for her.

Remember to vote all.

:-)

[civilityliberty]

Very moving piece. I have never liked HillBill. I was on the ride in the 90s. I participated in the internet bubble that bouyed that economy. I also saw Bill lose Congress and disgrace women around the world with his sexual misconduct with an intern. Not an equal. Not outside of the White House. Not with a non-government female, but with a young intern working for him. I am pro sex, and I realize Americans have sexual hangups related to Puritanism, but his actions were about the wrong use of power over a woman. Humiliating himself, the Office, the country, feminists and fathers throughout the country. This, after Hill failed in her closed-door health care initiative. She did not deliver then and she will not deliver in the future. She, like Bill, just want power over people. She like Bill is ready to lie to everyone- time and time again- to get that power. And, seriously, why is she not in prison for the Peter Paul issue? Any lessor politician would be. Fact of the matter is, she and Bill made promises to the people that gave them the $110M they have in the bank. They made promises based on her getting the Presidency. Now, they are desperate to keep those promises. It seems like she is making the world live through an episode of the Sopranos.

[marthlois]

Way To Go ANDY!!!
I woke this a.m. with much less energy for this last week of the primary. Kind of glum that it's gotten so
angry and pissed that HRC continued to show signs of holding all of us hostage.
But then I saw this letter to Hillary - I'm on top of things again now! Thank you Andy for writing the
letter that a lot of us would have liked to. You're the man!

[Falafel]

Great piece! My new favorite article.

[TwoCentsIn]

How to translate Bill and Hillary talk for dummies:

"Assassination" comment meant
guaranteed headlines over the holiday weekend
to show that bad stuff can happen to people who betray or cross the Clintons
while still appearing to be sympathetic (Ted Kennedy; BO)
cue SD newspaper to corroborate "simple" timeline; ensure SD primary votes
shift blame to AA community
play the victim card to galvanize targeted voters

Brilliant, no?
Scary, yes.

[XME]

Andy,

I've been an Obama supporter all along, but I've tried to give Hillary the benefit of the doubt...not to make her out to be "evil". Seems so many have gotten pleasure out of vilifying her, and while I can at times understand their frustration, I doubt that she's as "horrible" as we imagine her to be.

That said, her campaign has been like watching a traing wreck, in extremely slow motion...very painful to watch, but you just can't turn away from the carnage. Every time I try to give her the benefit of the doubt, she does something that adds more doubt.

Then came her RFK comment, and even then, I gave her the benefit of the doubt, because no sane person HOPES something will happen to their opponent. I wasn't so much appauled and offended by her comment, as I was by her response in the aftermath. She has attacked everyone else for BEING offended, has accused the media and even Obama of inflating it, and has stated that since the comment had nothing to do with Obama, she flat out owes him NO apology. It is the constant "victim" claim that has caused me to say ENOUGH and that this isn't someone who should be president.

Thank you for expressing so well how the downfall is truly no one BUT Clinton's fault, and we've just had enough with the attacks, blaming of others, and playing victim (and Bill is just adding to the victim defense).

[ljmck]

If Hillary meant only to reference an old primary where a well-known candidate was running in June, why not include Eugene McCarthy's name with that of Robert Kennedy? He was still very much in the race in June 1968. What about Humphrey? Surely referring to three candidates still running in early June is better than recalling the death of one. Her denials are as disingenuous as her words were intentional.

[UsofA]

Andy Ostrow's piece is a courageous one for someone who stayed so long in Hillary Clinton's corner. Her inauthenticity turned me off from the start. Just as Obama's genuineness and intelligence inspired me. Be that as it may, Ostrow's piece on Clinton is refreshingly dead on and a relief to see in words.

[SeriousBlack]

Absolutely. Kudos to Andy for finally coming around.

(Myself being an Obama supporter from the beginning and a Bill and Hillary Clinton supporter until February 2008)