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Hillary Clinton In Pennsylvania: It's All Too Late
"Being here this morning is a gift," Hillary Clinton says to the small band of supporters, several hundred strong, gathered under the Saturday morning sun at Good Will Fire Company No. 2, Station 52 in West Chester, Pennsylvania. The Senator is late for her first event of the day; her voice is hoarse. But like the day she is bright and calm. Gone are the faux smiles and waves, the slight brittleness, that have been part of her stage entrance so many times on the campaign trail. But it's too late.
Being here this morning is a gift are the first words out of her mouth. It's clear she means it. This is the perception of an older woman, one who has watched friends and family pass on, who has wondered why they and not she, who has had to settle for answers not on the great philosophies but on the simple things. A new morning as gift--there isn't a wise woman in the world who doesn't share Hillary Clinton's feeling. But that a presidential candidate would choose such an opening remark four days out from a primary that looks to be "the one" is extraordinary. For the remark and its tenor show that Hillary Clinton has been digging deep within herself, asking herself some hard questions. But it's too late.
Here is a woman trapped in a bad narrative, partly of her own making, partly not. Perhaps she's been searching for clarity. Perhaps she's been asking herself, "What am I doing here? How did I get to this place? How do I find my way forward?" But it's too late.
The Pennsylvania primary, starting slow, has ended like a demolition derby. Gaffes. Mistakes. Misjudgments. Name-calling. Mud-slinging. Mud-wrestling. Writing some of Hillary Clinton's bad narrative was her decision initially to attack Senator Obama for his "bitter" remarks. She should've kept mum, as she discovered herself in Pittsburgh last Thursday when she was booed for broaching the subject. Afterwards, from Thursday afternoon until Sunday, she hardly referred to her opponent. On Sunday, however, after Senator Obama had spent much of Saturday attacking her, Senator Clinton returned to the offensive. In doing so, she lost the clarity of the previous few days that helped her to do well what she does best: present large policy in small ways that people can easily grasp and understand. But even if she had maintained that equilibrium, holding onto that clarity through primary day, it's too late.
Who are the people listening to Hillary Clinton now in Pennsylvania? For the most part, they are indeed working class and middle class folk who live worlds apart from the wealthy Californians and New Yorkers trying to figure out how to package money to keep Hillary Clinton's campaign afloat. Many places Hillary Clinton has been in Pennsylvania, she's chosen the meaner streets, the humbler, poorer parts of town. She has a long history with some of these neighborhoods. Women in Scranton talk about her returning to a family christening just last spring. Mayfair, a close-knit northeast Philly neighborhood, where families have lived on the same block for three generations, remembers Bill Clinton campaigning in the rain in '92 outside the Mayfair Diner. Friday night, when Hillary Clinton returned to the Mayfair Diner for a block party, at least half the crowd, the largest ever at a political rally in northeast Philly, remembered that rainy night sixteen years before. Clintonism is part of neighborhood identity in many Pennsylvania towns and cities. This is why Hillary Clinton will win Pennsylvania. But winning here--it's too late.
A surprising aspect of the Pennsylvania race has been the obliviousness of many of Hillary Clinton's supporters to the media. These supporters have not heard the pronouncement that the race is all but over. Every Hillary event has had its share of Republicans (Obama is not the only candidate with "kins") who have come out to hear her, the better to decide whether or not to vote for her in November. But most of the people who stand in line for several hours to get into a Hillary event are loyalists. Indeed the tenor of a Clinton rally, from Bristol to Bethlehem, is fierce loyalty. On some level, these believers must know that they are backing the losing candidate; that they will not be returning for her in November. But by and large these are people who are accustomed to losing--it's something they deeply understand because it's been their own experience--and that recognition makes their support stronger. In a powerful way, Hillary Clinton's losing validates her working class supporters' lives. This is the kind of bond that can forge a candidacy. But for Hillary Clinton it's too late.
"The internal combustion engine is the same as it was when it was invented well over a hundred years ago," Hillary Clinton observed to her supporters at the West Chester fire station. Then she challenged those supporters to invent something new. In two sentences, she cut through the welter of policy prescriptions on oil & energy with a concrete image that all Americans, many bewildered by talk of sodded houses and wind turbines, can understand. This clarity, this easy familiarity with difficult issues, would have helped Hillary Clinton with health care in the 1990s. This ability to get straight to the point has been hard-earned. But it's too late.
Even when Hillary Clinton was the inevitable winner, swathed in a cloak of invincibility, it was too late. For her race for the White House has always been circumscribed by the political fortunes of two men: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
The Clinton family has given it everything in Pennsylvania--this all-out effort says as much as anything that here is Hillary Clinton's last stand. Bill Clinton, as usual largely ignored by the national press, has been speechifying for his wife back and forth across the state in five to seven campaign events a day. This is an almost unbelievably brutal schedule, the equivalent of a forced march. By the time he reached Puerto Rican Philadelphia near midnight Saturday, his eighth event of the day, Bill Clinton was barely coherent. His opening remark was so garbled--"America is not worthy of its potential"--that it's impossible to discern what he meant to say. The tiny group who held out until 11:30 PM to hear him were a rag-tag bunch of artists, bohemians, lovers and neighborhood Puerto Rican supporters. The Clinton event, in a local artists' co-op, was just a sideshow to the evening. In the larger area of the gallery, a Latin Jazz ensemble was just tuning up. It was date night for a lot of these folks, who were much more interested in canoodling and kissing than listening to an ex-President. The atmosphere was barely respectful; at several points the group responded to Clinton with boos and catcalls when he refused to take a question about the neighborhood's problem with a casino wanting to locate there. It was hard to see how this sad event garnered Mrs. Clinton even one additional Puerto Rican vote in Philadelphia--and even if she had every Puerto Rican vote, it's too late.
Saturday night Bill Clinton said that if Philly Puerto Ricans would vote for Hillary "it will be like the wind at her back blowing her forward." This remark was part of a larger observation: "If she goes on to win this nomination and the presidency, it will be because in no small measure of the belief and faith and trust and the loyalty of Hispanic Americans." And, of course, Bill Clinton is right. The Hispanic vote gave Hillary Clinton Nevada, California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. But it's still too late.
Leaving the massive Obama rally in Philadelphia's Independence Square early in order to catch Bill Clinton, I was thinking in the same terms Clinton himself would use only hours later. Obama has caught the following wind. Circling Independence Square as my GPS intoned "Please Proceed to the Highlighted Route," I continued to hear Obama, for he had been miked to reach the farther crowds across the square. In the unusually warm evening air, his voice was carrying two and three blocks beyond, where people, some of them undoubtedly caught unawares, slowed, listening, standing on corners, ambling, lowering conversation at outdoor cafes. Adding these listeners to the crowd in Independence Square, easily 50,000 people heard Barack Obama in Philadelphia Friday night. The historic moment and its following wind has ever been Obama's, and nothing Hillary Clinton has done or could have done would ever have changed that. It has always been too late.
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Mayhill, your theme that "it's too late" for Senator Clinton is yet another example of stomping on Hillary for winning. Of course, your partisan surrogates and Obama zombies will continue to discredit Hillary even in victory. At least Senator Obama said himself Hillary is "tenacious" and a "formidable" candidate. I hope Obama supporters will allow your candidate a right to his opinion regarding Clinton.
Hillary and winning don't go in the same sentence. You're delusional, that means seeing things.
They should at least include Florida because all names were on the ballot. Number one- NEITHER candiate has enough delegates to win so it is not over.- Number two Obama may not be ablewin the battleground states that are needed to win the gereral election. Most of the states he won are red states and will not go democratic in the general election Number Three If Florida and Michigan were inclued she would have a great chance to winning the nomination. Why does the Obama campaign continue to block the Michigan and Florida from having a voice. Obama's solution was a 50-50 split. Hoe does that give them a voice?
Thanks to this author, Mayhill Fowler,-- who caused "Bitter-Gate" ---Obama is now un-electable.
In no way ....can I vote for Hillary.
So, now I will vote for McCain.
Ain't life a bish?
The Main Reason not to vote for McCain::
Potential and Expected Vacancies in the Supreme Court of America.
The problem here is how does Hillary separate herself from being the first and only to broaden her support.
What happens to national security when she turns up the rhetoric for a new arms race to defend Israel and Saudi Arabia in a political campaign?
I don't want to read an article about her. I want to hear what she is going to do for us, the Democratic Party and America. I heard enough about her suffering during Bill Clinton's administration.
Quit with the narrative-weaving, Mayhill -- sometime in the last few weeks you've switched from decent (if heavily opinionated) reporting to standard (if well-written) punditry. Just like your last piece on Obama, there's not a single conversation with a voter in this post. Have you become gun-shy talking to real people somewhere in mid-Pennsylvania? Or did you decide to let "bittergate" -- hardly your finest work -- define you? I don't care if you're criticizing Obama or criticizing Clinton -- none of it is of any value if you're not talking to anyone except yourself.
Isn't it wonderful that Mayhill can express his/her opinions in this format. And isn't it wonderful that I can too. It was wonderful that Hillary took Pennsylvania because the nay-sayers were reporting she had lost it there because of her negativity in relation to the race. It's great that Hillary can say what she believes, that being that she has substance and experience and her opponent has not achieved that level yet. As an experienced older person myself, I know this to be true. It is wonderful to be an American and to support the candidate one's choice. God bless us everyone. You too, Mayhill.
As someone once said "It tizzent over Till it's over".
As I see it Hillary has got the drive that America really needs right now. We as a nation we are not nor should we ever be QUITTERS!
My grandpa told me many times growing up "CAN'T NEVER DONE NOTHEN BUT SH#% HIS PANTS!"
God Bless America!!!
Put your hands in your lap and step away from the keyboard. You've done enough. Thanks for your help. We'll take it from here...
I couldn't agree with you more, and this morning I finally put my money where my mouth is and sent Hillary a $500 contribution. Why? Hillary was not my first choice, but even by the time we got to vote here in Florida, my guy (Biden) was out, and she and Obama were clearly the only game in town. Obama seemed to me to be a glib, facile empty suit. Nothing that has since transpired has changed my mind. His only claim to fame so far is the ease with which he uses each post he attains to job-hope to a much higher level. This time I hope and expect that the pole will break in mid-vault and we will not nominate the least prepared the Democrats have ever embraced. If we do, we've no one to blame but ourselves when the Republicans blow him away. If Florida appears to be going red in a big way, Obama will not get my vote.
What a sad, delusional view. I would have given those 500 bucks to a food pantry or some other greater cause.
And Hillary used her position as a 1st lady of an admired yet flawed President; the sympathy of women voters on her husband's internationally covered infidelities and the remnants of her husband's political machinery to win a Senate seat in New York, a state she never lived in before. This Senate seat was her springboard to where she is now.
She's an empty girdle who has translated 35 years of Exposure to be 35 years of Experience.
I just hope that when the McCain or Obama administration crashes and burns over the next 4 years, Hillary will still be around and will still be gracious enough to pick up the pieces, after she's been so shabbily treated by this country.
why in the world would someone say that? that is to say that you want this country to have more problems than we already have!
seriously... why in the world would a good american say that... wish that.. on fellow americans?
that is disgusting
When are people like you going to go on line and see what she is really about ? The uneducated voted her iin, check it out. Learn to read and find out why we vote for Obama. We want something better than what she can give this country. Hillary has a history of crime, is that what we want for our kids ? Obama is black, I'm white, I don't care about the color of his skin, some do. We Obama voters don't want the same as we have now, and that is Hillary.
You've gotta be kidding, Butchie! How old are you? Ten, maybe? If you haven't noticed yet, you can find whatever slant you like on whatever topic or public figure you choose on the Internet. There's always some hack, somewhere, who'll pander to your wish to tear anything from God, to Earth Day, to Hillary, and even (GASP!!!!) Saint Barack down to size! Grow up!
Hillary has a "history of crime"?!!! What comic book do you read? The voters who supported Hillary are not "uneducated". Those voters are just not grad students or PhDs. If you want something better for this country you'd better support Hillary. I don't know if Obama has any idea what is needed to make this country better, except, of course, himself. Hillary has solutions and has talked about them, boosted them, and debated them. Obama SAYS he doesn't want the same but he is never specific about that "sameness".
Perhaps Hillary can dig deep and do what's best for the country. Take the millions that she and Bill have been given and leave it. Retire in Latin America or on the Arabian peninsula amongst the people they have served.
She should be ashamed for continuing her con of working class Americans she doesn't care about.
Don't try to romanticize a pig.
Here's the question I keep hearing and I can not answer it. We kknow Barack did alot in the black community, but what has he done in white or other minority groups communities? And does he know what to do in communiities outside the black community? Alot of people ask themselves this & I think this is one reason why his numbers go down.
I also can not figure out why we do not get a receipt for who we vote for. You get receipts for everything else. Why not the most important thing we do. choosing our leaders? And of all the holidays we have, why do we not have the day off to vote? Is this why we keep "losing" elections?
What has any other candidate done in ANY community? I am sick and tired of Obama being held to a standard different from any other candidate. None of these questions are asked of the all white males and few females who have run for the presidency.
Ask the same questions you folks and the media are always asking of Obama. The rules are always different when you meet one then they change again.
How far are the Clintons going to move the goal posts this time?
Beautifully observed, Mayhill. I have all the sympathy in the world for displaced Pennsylvania workers, but I'll feel their faith in Senator Clinton with all her corporate ties is misplaced.
MayHill, God say do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That was a nasty thing you did. You say you support Obama, but If you were supporting Him I hate to see what you will do to your enemy.
Mayhill, I was pretty well ticked off at you for violating journalistic ethics by releasing a tape recording from an event that had clearly been announced as closed to reporters.
But that's not why I have been generally unenthusiastic about your columns. I just never thought you were a particularly good writer.
This is a good one. I think what you've managed to capture here is what most of us (yes, the vast majority of Democrats who are NOT actively planning to waterboard the supporters of the other candidate or vote for McCain if their favorite loses) have known from the start: we began this process with several good candidates, and then it became two outstanding candidates. But anyone who remembered Obama's keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention knew the guy had something special that was going to be hard for anyone, even someone with the credentials and political clout of HIllary Clinton, to beat. You have shown what's good about Senator Clinton, and what is flawed about her, and that in the end, neither her best nor her worst qualities had much to do with what happened around her. Sometimes she helped herself, sometimes she hurt herself, but it never really mattered.
Nice piece. Really well done.
That is a "pretty nice piece" yourself, RIBassist. I don't agree with your last statement but nevertheless you have quite a different perspective on Clinton that is very intriguing.
Ms. Fowler, you have no idea how many people hope you are right about Shrillary winning the battle (Pennsylvania) but losing the war (election).
I'm off to watch early returns--and probably praying, too.
Vote Democratic in November!
**Oh blah, blah, blah, Mayhill. What made Hillary's loss inevitable was ONE woman. Hillary. And her Yes vote on the war. She's been playing catch-up bully ever since.
How long can "The Inevitable" postpone the inevitable?
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