For her last hurrah as a presidential contender yesterday, Hillary Clinton repackaged herself yet again, this time as a vocal and thoughtful feminist. I like this Hillary. Where has she been the last six months?
She began her campaign as the Rightful Heir and Chosen One, imagining that this would be enough. It seemed the safest road to go since she wouldn't have to actually say much of anything that was challenging or controversial or even substantive. Then this new guy Barack Obama showed up acting like a real person, and it was obvious that some of the powder she had been keeping dry would have to be put into use, so she repackaged herself as Ms. Ready-to-Be-Commander-in-Chief-From-Day-One.
Though Hillary as Chosen One was rather bland, Ms. Ready-to-Be-Commander-in-Chief-From-Day-One struck me as a step backwards in a country where the militarism of Bush-Cheney has been the order of the day for eight years. When that proved yet again to be insufficient, she again disappeared into wherever it is she goes to transform and emerged as Working Class Hero.
This was an interesting twist. In general, I prefer Working Class Heroes to Commander in Chiefs. What was remarkable was how well she sold it, given that this makeover coincided with the release of her and her husband's tax returns which showed that they had been piling millions upon millions of dollars in the bank, and nothing in her actual economic program had changed from the days when she had pointedly sought to define herself as the corporate-friendly alternative to the populist program John Edwards. The main take-home I got from watching this Hillary tear through Appalachia was that she and her husband really were an extraordinary team of politicians to be able to pull that off so successfully.
But the nomination still seemed to be slipping away, so she went back into her phone booth and emerged as the Lady-With-the-Most-Balls. This was the period when people around her started making laudatory statements about her testosterone level, when James Carville helpfully noted that she had so many testicles that if she gave one to Obama they both would have two. This was plainly pathetic. But then she piled her promise to "obliterate Iran." That was where she really lost me. Could I ever vote for someone for Commander-in-Chief-From-Day-One of the largest and most destructive arsenal the world has ever seen, who has no problem promising to obliterate other countries in order to win votes?
Finally, with the race over, yesterday we were presented with the kinder, gentler Hillary. And you know what? I liked her. She spoke passionately .- about things she had not mentioned during all those previous incarnations! She spoke as the worthy spokeswoman for gender equality. She radiated confidence and appeal. She called us to our better selves. She made us believe that we could move past the divisions that have hobbled us. . (Is this starting to sound familiar?) "Yes, we can!" she proclaimed.
"Hillary," I shouted back, "where have you been? This country is in dire shape! The planet is in dire need! The moment is critical! We need a woman like you! Have you ever considered running for president?"
What are we to make of this latest makeover? Has Hillary fallen victim to Al Gore Syndrome, that crippling malady in which Democratic presidential candidates get so trussed up and straight-jacketed by their advisors that we don't find out what appealing people they are until they lose and finally get to be themselves again? Is this the end of the play, when the actress who has played several different characters over the course of the drama emerges for her curtain call, and the revelation of her out-of-character demeanor serves to further highlight her abilities to convincingly convey characters with which the real actress has little in common? Or is the newest Hillary as phony as all the rest, leaving us ultimately in the dark as to who this woman really is? Or is there are real Hillary at all? Has four decades of full bore political life left her without a real Hillary there? Or are all her personas real in some sense or another, different manifestations of a complex and ambitious politician?
How would I know? How would any of us know? What I do know is that I hope this Hillary stays with us. She could do so much more for her party and her country than all the other Hillaries.
The contrast between the stream of Hillary makeovers and the steady course of the political persona cultivated by Barack Obama has been central to her defeat. From his early work as a community organizer, through two autobiographical books, right through to his acceptance speech, Obama has been the same political person, a person with an uncanny ability to convey a sense of staying real even in the midst of the American political circus.
Maybe his success has convinced Hillary that it is OK now to come out of the closet as a compassionate, progressive, liberal political leader. Like that moment when you have walking down the street in the rain with your umbrella over your head lost in thought, and then you look up and see that the guy walking toward you has no umbrella at all and is not getting wet.
Hillary, it has stopped raining. You can take down that umbrella.
Even though Obama is untested and may not be such a sure win in November, or even if he wins, may turn out to be an ineffective president, we chose to put our faith in him and we were willing to take that risk, all for a better future! A future old, tired politicians like the Clintons and McCain can not deliver, because they never dreamed of it. Not that they don't want to do the right things for this country, but they just don't have a clue how to.
I believe that it is more like Hillary showed her true colors when she was cornered. You sound like Hillary in your comment regarding Obama's supporters, that we are somehow delusional (as Obama would say) because we wanted change instead of the same old policies that we can do without. This is not the 90's. Hillary proved that by running on that old stuff. She even picked people from her campaign that all were with her husband in the 90's. Her campaign started picking up when she hired a new team for 10 million dollars but by then it was to late.
But hey, as she herself so graciously put it yesterday " don't even go there".
I'm voting issues this election season so I was for Barack Obama right at the start (the war & it's cost in lives and dollars) so it wouldn't have matter how pleasant and charming Hillary was. Besides she got my vote twice as state senator and she completely sqaunder my faith in her to end this damn war she started, it never happened. She promised and she swore up and down that she would end the war but once back in Washington nothing happened. I felt like she would say anything to get elected so I promised myself that I'd never fall for the Hillary pandering ever again. Some of her supporters never seemed to see this quality in Hillary and I can't blame them because I fell for it twice myself. So I'm saving them from their own misguided judgement, hehe :D
Well said!
Her politics were the problem, and her lack of good judgment in policy areas--her support of breaching the First Amendment, legislating parental decisions, and permitting illegal wars for the sake of electability--doomed her.
Hillary's past choices and current behavior have solidly proven her a bad politician for the current environment, a person who puts ambition ahead of soldiers' lives and justice, is too often and too greatly controlled by her funders, and will use ploys and prejudice to assist her and silence the earned criticism along with the irrelevant.
She acted like a Republican, and that was enough to demonstrate--to many of the 40% of Americans who weren't already done with her--how unfit she is to be leader right now, with our nation and world's current needs and the requirement that we step up to the plate and become more involved in our own governance.
I do know that my prayer today is for reconciliation and forgiveness among all of us who support the vision of an America that Can Have Peace and Healing, and a revolution of Positive Change that is so painfully long-overdue. I also pray and visualize constant protection for our candidate and his family.
Let us put our energy into actualizing that Change by joining forces for Barack Obama.
Presidente Obama 2009! - Que Viva Obama!
So, I was trying to convey, as she herself put it in her speech with regards to 'what ifs', " let's not even go there".
Let's just get on to the White House and to President Barack Obama!
Say... Wasn't that a racist remark you just made?
ThirdSection: Thank you, too!
The Hillary that gave her concession was something to behold and your correct in your assessment..