Hillary the Admonisher

My favorite part of Hillary Clinton's speech last night was when she admonished her followers not to put their affection for her over the issues. When she reminded them that what's at stake is far more crucial than their loyalty to her. When she reproved them for thinking for even a moment that her historic thrilling campaign was more important than the real campaign to defeat the Republicans.

Where any of her followers could have gotten the idea doesn't seem to have crossed her mind. The fish stinks from the head down. The Clintons' narcissism (and yes, I know, it's an overused term but if there was ever a moment for it in our national life, this is it) perfumed every bit of Hillary's campaign, and it leaked down to her contributors and followers. "Were you in it for me?" was her funniest line of the night.

In this morning's Times there's a piece about the Hillraisers, the people who raised over $300,000 for Hillary, many of whom are apparently bitter and angry that they were not given rooms in the Denver Ritz-Carlton, as the early Obama fundraisers were. They are so mad, according to the Times, that some of them are flying home today and deliberately missing Obama's speech on Thursday. (If you're not nice to me I'm just going to take my private plane and go home.) These are people who, may I remind you, were thinking about their Cabinet and sub-Cabinet positions, who were dreaming of Ambassadorships, who were on the verge of looking at houses in Georgetown. They're miserable. They lost. They were wrong. They're worth millions, or in some cases, billions, and they're not used to being wrong, much less to paying a price for being wrong, and they can't stand it. There's an expression for this -- narcissistic mortification -- and you can smell it all the way from Denver.

My other favorite thing about Hillary's speech is that she wrapped herself up in Seneca Falls, and my God Harriet Tubman, even Harriet Tubman, and yet somehow she never once referred to Roe vs. Wade. She never once mentioned choice. She never once said the truth, which is that any Hillary supporter who doesn't understand that this issue alone is the reason to vote for Obama has no business pretending to be a Democrat. I realize that sounds as if I'm admonishing her, but I caught the admonishment bug last night and this blog is an attempt to shake it off.

Comments

[Sebastian11]

Well said.

[coachwrite]

Amen!
Shame on McCain for selecting an uneducated, inexperienced, narrow-minded, hockey Mom
to be a heart beat away from the Presidency...it's appalling and patronizing to all women when there are so many others who are more qualified...and probably more threatening to his "male superiority".
Sister Sarah chose to have the child who now is dis-enfranchised to make her own decision about her own body and its use. At seventeen, was it statutory or consentual? Had she had sex education and applied it, would she be pregnant? What about the father, doesn't he get a vote? Or is parenthood a punishment for giving into the hormones God gave us to ensure continuation of the species?
The implications are frightening, particularly to those of us who were alive prior to Roe v. Wade.
Abortion is not birth control, but in the nineteenth century it was a private matter between a woman, her doctor and her God.
For a party who espouses limiting government, why are they so interested in bringing government into our bedrooms, bathrooms, and operating rooms?

[paintpaintpaint]

Come on, Nora.... this is politics. I was a Hillary voter, too, but she LOST. She did her best (and I think she can hold her head up high forever because she was amazing) and now she wants, more than anything, for there NOT to be another Republican term. What's so bad about that? It's awful that Hillary and Obama had to run against each other, but apparently he won out (by an ever-so-slim margin, but that's the way it goes sometimes). So stop picking on her! What the heck was so narcissistic about her? Stop being mad, keep being smart. We wanted her for her, but also because she had good ideas. One of her ideas is to get a democrat in the White House. She's had enough all through her campaign, being the one most picked on and made fun of. She doesn't need her supporters turning on her now.

[dahpunkster]

HI! Please don't ever stop writing your opinions, I admire people with guts! Can't believe her supporters would be such babies and walk out of the convention over something so trivial as whose hotel room was fancier! Will be voting for Obama even though Hillary was my first pick. Just wondering ,Nora were you at the convention this year?
Kristy /aka Punky

[sjeanf]

Hillary's speech was smart and gracious. We need more of that and less of what this author is offering. It's time for a change.

[jaf]

Nora I find you, once again, to be one of the smartest and funniest women in America. My fantasy is for you, Liz Winstead, and Rachel Maddow to get together and do commentary on a regular basis.

[diogeron]

As far as I'm concerned, I'm willing to give her a pass because she and Bill did what they needed to do last week to put a Democrat closer to the White House. Now, she can do what no other person in the Democratic Party can do: make a compelling case to those few women who think it's just about voting for a woman that anyone who votes for McCain because of Sarah Palin is voting against everything Hillary Clinton has stood for as an elected official. Palin is opposed to abortion even in the case of incest and rape, gay rights, national health care, drilling in Anwar, wants creationism taught in public schools along side creation (and alchemy in chemistry?), opposes separation of church and state, embryonic stem cell research and on and on. Like Hillary said in her speech, "No way. No how. No McCain." Just what part of "no" don't the Hillary voters thinking they might vote for McCain understand?

[BigBen]

Maybe Hillary should have asked you to write her speech! That way she would have gotten all your needs met. And you could have praised her for a wonderful speech.

[confuseddemocrat]

Be nice to Hillary she is needed to counteract Palin

[silverliner4]

I'm getting real sick and tired of the Hillary haters. It really is about YOU people, not the Clintons.

Nora Ephron is obviously no better than that self-hating Andrew Sullivan. He can't get over the fact that the Clintons are more popular than he is, either.

What cause does Ephron have to take it upon herself to 'admonish' Hillary? If Hillary had touched on the points Ephron so badly wanted her to mention, then Ephron would have had a field day wasting her time on a blog entry entitled 'Hillary the Spotlight Stealer', probably saying that her speech sounded too presidential. Okay, so Hillary lost the primary. Can't you win with some grace instead of continuing to offend those who still have a thought and a care about who we want to vote for?

The only narcisissm I smell is coming from the Obama-supporting Hillary haters. They now sound like THEY are part of the 'vast right wing conspiracy'. The truth is that if there are former Hillary supporters who can't bring themselves to vote for Obama in November, it's not the candidate; it's because his supporters can't stop attacking the Clintons just to fuel their own egos and further Obama's chances. Maybe I'm naive, but I thought Zimbabwe was the only place that kind of intimidation happened in elections. Nora, go back to writing bad chick flick screenplays and musing about how idyllic a place Manhattan is for your film settings; that is offensive enough.

[danielmcvicar]

I voted for Sen. Clinton in the California primary, and gave money to her campaign. But when it became clear that there was no way that she could win, and she continued and continued, still asking for money for her campaign, she seemed to be guided by her own sense of entitlement. She certainly was spending other people's money for herself, not for a campaign that could have won. This made me regret the vote I cast for her.

She can take Ted Kennedy's example and be an effective Senator. We need her there.

[BigBen]

Yeah and divide the nomination process and scuttle the chances of Jimmy Carter and put Ronald Reagan in office for 8years. What a wonderful example(of self interest).
Have you forgotten what he actually did?

[AshevilleVoice]

What a breathe of fresh air to read your post, Nora Ephron!

Hill was my #1 pick until it started to look to me like she wasn't running as a Democrat. She made appallingly little appeal to my sense of social justice, egalitarian principles, or opposition to the Neocon conservative smear tactics or the far right.

She used tactics, in her desire to prove herself more worthy than Obama, that propelled me to support Obama. By the time that her campaign was distorting the facts of the primaries held in Fl and Mi to the point where she was asserting that the elections were being intentionally manipulated by the DNC, it was obvious that she wanted to win the way that any Neocon does- by any means possible.

I was left wondering why I needed to congratulate her for "creating party unity" when she only undid a fraction of the damage she did in fracturing the party to begin with. I am uneasy with the notion that I need to overlook her methods and embrace this woman as an icon of my daughter's hopes for the future. This kind of "unity" that requires a suspension of rationality leaves me out.

If Hillary had not used her Rovian tactics, she would have had my support. But that support would have shifted to whomever became the Dem nominee instantly. The candidate I've preferred first has never been nominated, and I didn't need a roll call or cathartic moment to move on.

[NicasioKid]

That McCain would risk so much as to choose Palin shows you how up against the wall his campaign really is following Obama's success at the DNC. Yes, McCain managed to steal some thunder from the DNC media coverage, but so what? It blows over and here we all are, pondering who is best qualified to run this country, including the person in the #2 spot. The "cleverness" of McCain's ploy is already wearing off. Palin is going to get raked over the media coals. You can hear all the sputtering as they try to define it anywhere from crazy to dangerous.

[NotMcCain]

Yes, desperate. And I bet Rove told him they could gamble with Palin, squeak out a win, then have her resign for "family" or "health" reasons and put in Romney as VP..

By winning, McSame could also get the unelectable Lieberman at State.

It's a pretty clever plan, even if it is utterly insulting and demeaning to women (and to voters in general).

[hrare]

One reason I came to support Obama is that he is a unifier and knows when it's time to move on. The kind of leadership we need. The kind of lead we should all follow.

Hillary's speech was magnificent. When she said "were you in this for me?" it was clear that this is the question she had already asked herself as part of the process that brought her to that point, a doubtless painful process of soul searching and acceptance. Hillary done good.

It's time for us to do the same. As Hillary has given her support to our chosen leader, let us give recognition and support to a great lady, a great patriot and imperfect human being who will doubtless continue to play an important role the future of this country.

[plebeianswillrevolt]

nice retrospective analysis. your comments make some alternative motives very clear. One massive manipulation.

I also like the term "narcissistic mortification". I'm going to do more research on it.

[Democrab]

You continue to prove that the pen is truly quicker than the mind.

[Swerinjer]

its obnoxious s*** like this is why I switched to mccain. Yes Im a disgruntled Hillary supporter and yes Im voting mccain out of spite. No not because of Palin but because of the deplorable behavior of the obama cultists and the profund unfairness and misogyny to Hillary from the msm media.

[TekMaestro]

Your nose, your face, your choice.

Remember that choice when your child gets killed in a war waged just for profit... when your home is foreclosed because of predatory lending... when you lose everything you own to high hospital costs because you had to choose between food and medical insurance... when you can't afford to put gas in your car to drive to work... when your taxes go up and the "over 5 million" crowd's taxes go down. Then see whose deplorable behavior and profound unfairness and misogyny you will have to blame.

You won't have to look far - just in the closest mirror.