Emotional Day for Hillary Backers: My Report From the Speech

Because I live in D.C. and am the Ultimate Washington Insider, I had the privilege of witnessing history today. It was a day that I never thought I'd see: A woman candidate for president, who received the most primary votes of any candidate in history, graciously conceding the nomination to, and pledging to support, the first person of color ever to head a major-party ticket.

Now what was it like in the National Building Museum today?

I attended the rally with a group of active Hillary supporters: Dedicated volunteers and well-wishers. As we stood on the balcony of the museum for three hours waiting for the speech to begin, we kept furtively asking one another what our plans were, quiet so as not to offend the different factions or cause any rifts.

Out of 10 people, two are swearing they will support John McCain (they are part of a splinter group called PUMA: Party Unity My Ass); one has plans to write Hillary's name in on the ballot; the rest plan to support, to varying degrees, Barack Obama (ranging from actively campaigning to just quietly voting for him in November).

So, that small sample would be good news for Obama in his quest to win over Hillary's 18 million voters.

Now for some sketching of the scene. The line to get in encircled the gigantic museum. But, as promised, the doors did open at 10 and I think everyone who wanted to get in did. We were ushered upstairs to the second floor, and we staked out a spot overlooking the press pool. We stood basically frozen in place, fending off newcomers who wanted a peek over the balcony. Well, some of them we let step in to take a picture or something if they promised to then get the hell back out of our space.

From our perch we established a special bond with CNN's Candy Crowley, to stave off our impatience. We waved at her and egged her on as she filed reports and BlackBerry'ed furiously. She was the most well-known on-air talent present on the press risers until Dana Milbank showed up. John King was over on his own stage on the side.

Slowly, famous people appeared on the floor. Terry McAuliffe did several laps, causing little bursts of applause, signing autographs. Then he kept doing it. I thought it was a little bit much, but my friends thought he had earned his ego moment. I don't. Losing elections doesn't earn you anything in my book.

Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen showed up and sat in the small VIP section up by the main stage. Sen. Charles Schumer, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and that fundraiser guy whose name I can't remember joined them.

But my favorite guest was Ms. Gloria Steinem, who appeared in the larger, standing VIP area directly in front of the stage, wearing her trademark aviator sunglasses, which she then took off; carrying a book, looking very thin but very good in her skin-tight black chemise (oops, am I being sexist here?), talking to people, milling around, not sitting in the VIP seating. I thought that must be a statement on her part, like, Hey, I'm no VIP, I'm just here to see Hillary.

The sound was terrible, I had to cup my hand to my ear to understand the speech, and I was only about 200 feet away from the mic.

One of the Hillary supporters pointed out that there were people walking around wearing Obama T-shirts, and they were really not welcome here. I did find it odd that they were there with their T-shirts, but the longer Hillary talked, with her more than a dozen mentions of Obama, the more welcome they seemed.

After the speech, my friend Kai and I went down to the floor, from the balcony, to see how close we could get to the Clintons. Bill was so red. Hillary looked prettier the closer you got to her, but again, I don't want to be sexist.

So what do I mean by "emotional day"? I watched the speech on the Web this evening again, so that I could actually hear 100% of it, unlike in the hall today. The last six months have been very hard for Hillary supporters. The source of the continual bitterness has been half caused by the victim complex the Clintons have, which infects all their supporters' emotions, and half caused by the hateful, divisive stance of many Obama supporters, at least the online ones.

When you hate someone, everything they do, no matter how innocuous, makes you exclaim your hatred for them. And a lot of people hate Hillary Clinton in that way, so that if she so much as burps, she's a racist monster. If her makeup is off one day, she's a tarted-up Satan Whore. If she clears her throat, she's sending a subliminal message to assassinate Barack Obama. Tonight, a lot of the Clinton Derangement Syndrome (CDS) sufferers are changing their tune, because she proved them wrong with a gracious speech extolling her opponent and basically doing the best thing an opponent can do: Exhorting her supporters to switch to him.

The line of her speech that made me tear up was this, delivered with downturned eyes by Hillary: "It would break my heart if, in falling short of my goal, I in any way discouraged any of you from pursuing yours. When you stumble, keep faith. And, when you're knocked down, get right back up and never listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on."

Personally, after so much bitterness, I look forward to the Democratic unity Hillary inaugurated today. Thank you, Hillary.

Comments

[dannyS]

"that fundraiser guy whose name I can't remember"

was it Jerry Lewis?

[Timosha9]

It's been a pleasure following your posts about Hillary's campaign. I'm not a fellow HRC supporter, but I understand the appeal much more than I did 18 months ago.

[hrayovac]

I agree with dct1999 and others on this. How many votes did Hillary get in Iowa? What is the count for those states with caucuses? Violations of logic, ethics, manners and agreed upon principles between Democrats is the legacy of the Clintons in this primary season. It is only marginally acceptable in the most extreme circumstances to compromise your ethics if against a fascist overthrow for example. But it is not OK to twist, distort or change rules when conducting a civil contest within the party you support. I suspect that many more Clinton supporters were of the mentality of the Party-Unity-My-Ass people before the campaign even began.

[CellarDoor]

Well...I apologize but I could not read past the fantasy of "who received more primary voters than anyone in history".

Had you predicated with the phrase "In my opinion," it would have been far more accurate.

Thanks for trying though!

[northcan]

Hillary's campaign was inside fighting, Hillary Clinton was confusing, same message every speech, angry, rocked back and forth between soft spoken and HillRock. It was quite a mess with no direction until April/May when she knew she couldn't catch up. Media speculated around the clock (rightly so), adding to her fuelled anger and comments from the internet. Both Clinton's went balistic..­...that's when she knew inside but then the 'woman' speech started, dedication of this secular group rose up and she found her voice.....­but, in all fairness, It was doomed from the start. Terribly run, managed and outdated.

[chrisbee]

wonderful article, but let's not forget- Clinton did not win the popular vote. More people voted Obama.

[matthewhusseinsmith]

To Clinton supporters,

To want a woman president because she is a woman is not a valid reason. To want a candidate to be president because you believe she is the best person for the presidency regardless of gender or race is the valid reason. If you believe Hillary is that best person, then I respect your opinion.

To blame one's loss on the glass ceiling of sexism is wrong and an insult to the open mindedness of the majority of the American people; the other half of the democratic electorate who voted for Obama, most of them are not sexists.

These are facts.

As a man, I sincerely look forward to a day when a great American woman will be our president.

Now, on to the GE; we respect and understand your sadness that Hillary did not win the nomination; please take time to grieve and decompress; then, let's work together to elect a democrat in the WH.

Some of you, PUMA, may not like like Obama and would rather have a beer with McCain or Bush; please think hard before you want to vote for McCain; you are also voting for the future of your children and grandchildren. The differences in the issues between McCain and the democratic candidate are stark; ask yourselves which candidate, McCain or Obama, is closer to your issues and your needs.

[krisellyn]

This article was headlined incorrectly. When I clicked on it, I fully intended to rip the author a new one. After reading it, I now believe it was one of the nicest articles I've read in a long time. Thank you. It's refreshing to read about the Clintons without getting angry at the writer. But about Terry McCaulliffe, I disagree. He was simply trying to keep everyone happy while they waited that three hours. Terry McCaulliffe has not had an easy life, and he is pure kindness when most would be bitter.

[shrake]

Thanks for the kind words. Terry's fine, I guess, but if you had seen how many personal "victory" laps he took -- at his candidate's *concession* speech? -- it might've raised an eyebrow for you, too

[ashenthorn]

Hillary Clinton delivered a moving and compelling speech. At parts emotional (I teared up at least twice) and at parts simply enjoyable to listen to. However, did it do everything it needed to do to advance the cause of Barack Obama for President? No it did not. Why? Because her argument was entirely issues orientated. "Elect Barack because he, like me, supports (this issue or that)", while the electorate's position on these issues is already pretty much decided. The 2006 election mandated enactment of the democratic party's agenda on Iraq, on a federal government solution to the health care crisis, on the economy, on climate change, etc. What Hillary needed to do was not to convince people that Obama is right on the issues, but to mitigate the damage she caused to Obama in the primary by being not only a non-republican, but indeed a democrat giving voice to and articulating the only conceivable Republican argument for November that could work - that Barack Obama personally is not qualified to be president of the United States - that he's too inexperienced, of questionable religion, might be a black separatist radical, of questionable patriotism, etc. This is where her speech was lacking.

[deadskunk]

Are you a McCain operative? That was yesterday. Today we are one party and we look forward to defeating the GOP in November. Comments like the one you made here, only help McCain.

[ashenthorn]

"Are you a McCain operative?"

I'm providing you with an assessment of how Hillary Clinton's primary campaign will affect the Obama/McCain general election. It's one thing to have partisan republicans articulating the case that Obama isn't qualified to become commander in chief. This can easily be dismissed by independent-minded voters as good old partisan political BS. Those talking points are substantially increased in their effectiveness when they come from the mouth of not a republican, but Hillary Clinton, who will be the star of the Republicans' fall media blitz against Obama. Her task now is to find a way to effectively pre-emept and counteract the use of her by republicans against Obama. That didn't happen in her Saturday speech.

[dct1999]

She did NOT win more votes than Obama, it is not OK to discount the caucus states.

"The source of the continual bitterness has been half caused by the victim complex the Clintons have, which infects all their supporters' emotions, and half caused by the hateful, divisive stance of many Obama supporters, at least the online ones."

Are you seriously trying to make the claim that only Obama's supporters were hateful? I've read vicious, racist, hate filled, statements about Obama from Hillary' supporters. Crazy things like he only married a black woman to appeal to black voters, and he's a militant muslim who hates the US.

By all means continue to praise your candidate, but at least do it from a position of honesty.

[KarateKid]

It's always about her, isn't it? And you Clinton supporters fail to mention how HER campaign was the one who began the kitchen sink strategy that begat the vitriolic response. Now, you all are the victims? Please, I enjoyed my supper tonight and don't wish to upchuck it but you've almost succeeded.

Remember, there are 18 million Obama supporters who did not vote for her. If Obama loses, and she doesn't go all out for the party, it will be remembered if she runs again in 2012. Then, the shoe will be on the other foot, won't it? Then, you'll have to kiss US where the sun don't shine.

[deadskunk]

Are you 12? Politics is not for people who cannot form partnerships. Obama and Clinton both would disagree with your ugly comments. Obama needs Clinton and we need to get behind the candidate and stop yesterday's battle. Lets move on as a team to defeat McCain.

[lauracrawft]

That speech was the most self-centered thing I've ever seen. How do you show up that late on Saturday when you lost on Tuesday. How long did she speak about herself before mentioning Obama at all? The body language was hysterical, when she spoke about herself it was all smiles and cheers, when she made those few mentions of Obama she didn't smile and often looked down. At an Obama rally if supporters boo Hillary or demean her in any way, he sets them straight right at that moment, Hilltown doesn't follow those rules. Then the whole final act talking about sexism and 90 year old voters was a big cop-out. Sexism in the media caused her defeat not poor planning and old-school fundraising, then how did she get those 18 million votes? Can't have it both ways baby. Still waiting for Terry and Harold to go sailing off into the sunset with two straws in a big bottle of rum, if they can find a vessel that will fit both their egos.

[Jezreel]

"The source of the continual bitterness has been half caused by the victim complex the Clintons have, which infects all their supporters' emotions, and half caused by the hateful, divisive stance of many Obama supporters, at least the online ones."

This is the first time I've heard a supporter of Hillary Clinton acknowledge the extent to which Bill and Hillary Clinton's own victim-complex affects those who support them. As a supporter of Sen. Obama and occasional blogger and frequent commenter, I agree that some supporters of Sen. Obama have posted comments that maybe considered divisive and hateful.

But I wonder how much of the tit-for-tat between supporters in both camps issues from an underlying spirit of victimization. In other words, could it be that because so many supporters of Sen.Clinto­n feel victimized they are hyper-sensitive to and perhaps misunderstanding of everything said about their candidate even if it was not intended to be hateful and divisive?

Also, thank you for the information on PUMA and your assessment that most supporters of Sen. Clinton will in fact vote for Sen. Obama.

[dawlishgal]

Perhaps supporters of Obama need a little time to heal too. Hillary's surrogates like Gloria Steinem and Paul Krugman have been calling us "cultists" and "haters" for quite a while now, and any efforts to set the story straight. have been ignored by these high-powered "thought leaders," any accounts of how we supported Hillary and Bill through thick and thin while they were in power and now have plenty of legitimate, well-thought-out reasons to support somebody else (as well as an absolute right to do so without being called insulting names).


Nobody called me a "hater" or a "cultist" when I was supporting John Edwards. I only became one in the eyes of Hillary's fans after Obama began to give her some real competition.

[gaypastor]

This is not ONLY about "who won" but how the game was played. Did Hillary mess up some strategy decisions.­...absolut­ely! Did Obama run a better campaign..­.yes! But that does NOT provide grace for the over-critically, and often completely sexist, treatment she received from the mainliness press, some of her colleagues (who belong to a party that is suppose to care about women) and from MANY DNC leaders (I'm talking to you Dean and Pelosi)! It also in no way excuses the RAMPANT sexism that surfaced in society during her campaign (did you buy that nutcracking device where you put a "nut" in between Hillary's thighs to crush it or did you buy a Bros Before Hos t-shirt showing Obama and Hillary?) I know the DNC wants unity now but "unity" is a two-way street of mutual respect...­and they've lost my respect!!! They way they've allowed one of their sisters to be treated these past months in simply disgusting. And I'm not even going to get into 1) who had the popular vote and 2) who had more experience. Come November I'M VOTING FOR NADER!

[IslandGyal]

BYE!

[mcfried]

Fine vote NADER. But in all your list of grievances note are actually against Obama. Just saying.

[evekendall]

Obama is not guilty of any of those things. He has done nothing but treat her with respect. In his speech on Tuesday evening, he spent several minutes praising her. And in all of the primaries, whether he won or whether he lost, he either congratulated her for winning or praised her for running a good race. Obama is not the one you should be angry with.

[Revrob56]

Friend(hope that didn't sound too much like McCains my friend),

Take a breath and get away from the blogs for a few days, pick a team out of Boston v. LA(not the Red Sox because they just had a bench clearing brawl:) ). Just chill for a moment and then begin to think of the real issues, our children dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, our education system in the tank with a great deal of our kids being "left behind", real folks (our neighbors) losing their homes,
going to the gas station and making the decision eat or drive, a conservative court becoming completely superconservative with Scalia type judges, etc. etc. etc. In short we can't afford tto cast an "I don't care anymore vote" Trust me I know what it's like to lose(e.g. last two elections) but we will lose big and for a long time if we don't come together.

[dawlishgal]

Where were you when Hillary was saying "hardworking Americans, WHITE AMERICANS" (going for the daily double slime of both nonwhites and people who grew up somewhere else)?

Obama didn't invent or sell the nutcrackers, nor the t-shirts, and he had no power whatsoever to stop them. He has been very complimentary about Hillary and her campaign. At the same time, she has inflamed her supporters by conflating Obama with sexism...o­ne crackpot even wrote to "The Nation" that Obama's having pulled out Hillary's chair for her before one of the debates proves he is a sexist! Of course, if he hadn't, her supporters would have used it as evidence that he is a "rude elitist." Anybody who believes the cherry-picked crapola that blames everybody and anybody else for Hillary's losses ought to be ashamed.

Now we are getting the same kind of crap from them about her speech Saturday..­.that he ought to have been there for her. If he had appeared, they would be accusing him of trying to steal her thunder.

I think people are rightly sick of the cherry-picking Bushrovian slime tactics, and it doesn't help Hillary when her surrogates (and she herself) engage in it.

[Bramptonian]

Dawlishgal, I have to applaud you again! You hammered the nail on the head. I was not impressed with this speech - which would have been more effective on the Tuesday of Obama's win. Almost every opportunity Obama gets he praises her but her was still mostly about herself. If she really wanted her supporters to rally around Obama, she would have spoken glowingly about him ; how he's the right person to lead the party to victory, how he's a christian with much the same values and principles as they (the people), how the fact that he's bi-racial should not turn them away from voting but should rather unite them as he sees things from both perspective (after all her campaign it was that sent out nasty e-mails about Obama being a muslim, in costume and all), how much he's the 'cat's meow' etc, etc....
She still needs to address the race issue she brought up and make the necessary corrections.

[BlueAsh]

"a tarted-up Satan Whore"? You said it here -- so don't blame on anyone else.

As soon as people get messed up with their facts, they lose my respect. Stating that Hillary won "most popular votes" with NO qualifiers whatsoever is one example of messing up facts, tweaking the truth, or adhering to truthiness.

[MyThought]

You know - the childish hatred in some of these responses make you wonder how these people got so sick .... really sick with hatred.

It's sad and it's pathetic.