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.

Comments

[katefranklin]

It's all too late. Such is the anticlimax of a victory that is by too small a margin, and one that will have come after the final buzzer has sounded. Thus the situation the Clintons find themselves in in trying to keep this campaign alive, long after it took its last gasps.

[HopeGirl]

Nice try Mayhill. You got it wrong, again.

'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.'

1) Yesterday Hillary is screaming 'obliteration' and rolled out the Fear AD of the century. And today you see her as bright and calm. Do you? I see her as mentally ill and manipulative. You do not go from creaming 'obliteration' to 'bright and calm in one day unless you are unstable.

2) It could have been over today,but it won't be because of your ridiculous piece on Obama's quiet philosophical conversation about why voters do what they do. You knew what he was saying and still you did what you did. So, thanks Mayhill-its not over.

Hillary is not over, she will be screaming bitter, bitter bitter, as soon as she gets 5 points ahead in PA.
She will recover from her 'bright and calm' phase, the prozak will wear off, she will be at it again. Dividing, destroying and spreading deceit.

You should know that. But you are bent on interpreting what you see or hear in a vacuum, completely unrelated to the reality around you or what happened before or what might happen after.

It is the perspective of a child.

[hubbstan]

I wonder how stupid Mayhill thinks Obama supporters are.

[PHLSouthernJack]

I love how you have fallen right into the herd of sheep and call the ad a 'Fear Ad' when it ONLY showed all the harsh issues the Presidents of the US have had to deal with.

If you were scared by the ad then you have your own issues to deal with!

[rjcrane]

I agree that it is too late for Hillary but one has to ask themselves how her campaign could have blown through so much money and gotten so little back in terms of wins from it and if this translates into someone who shouldn't become President. What it seems to me a lot of people and her supporters have lost sight of is that Clinton wasted about $30 million dollars on her last Senate campaign..­money that could have been invaluable in this campaign. It was clear to me when she wasted so much money on her Senate campaign there was no valid justification for me to support her by sending her more.

I also don't feel that groups supporting women candidates like Emily's List has really looked at Clinton with a very critical eye. Instead groups like this support her primarily because she is a woman. Also a lot of her blue collar supporters aren't examining her record either. Instead these groups are remembering better times under Bill Clinton while ignoring how the Dems lost both Houses under his Presidency.

RJ Crane, topplebush.com

[justobserve]

They forgot and the Clintons only reminded them of their good time, not the bad and the ugly. Obama didn't remind them, the media didn't too, so as old people they don't have technology at their fingertips to look for information themselves. That is why they are believers of the Clintons who talked from both sides of their mouth and don't know anything better.

[BitterInPA]

Should we thank Mayhill Fowler for the latest distorted distraction of the race, that of "bittergate"? I spent years defending the Bill and Hillary Clinton. I have seen first had how people on the right hate them. They could rarely articulate why, they just did. It took the past few weeks for me to finally get it. It's all about her. She will do anything, including destroying her own party in her quest.

[drugwarfighter]

Rumor has it that Laura Bush is going to run for president in 2012 based upon her
White House "experienc­e." And another rumor is that Chelsey Clinton will run in
2020 based upon her White House "experienc­e."

Perhaps Chelsey will have to compete with Monica Lewinski for the nomination.

[Levittown]

I have two headlines that will be displayed with the Jon Baitz and Mayhill Fowler columns. One is from 1948, " Dewey Wins ! " and from 2003 " Mission Accomplished !". These banners will be carried around the convention hall when Hillary is nominated to clean up the mess in Washington. It will be a sorry day in American politics if Hillary is not on the ballot.