Hillary's in, and I'm pondering why I'm happy to see her run.
Consider this irony: She's got the most money, the most connections, and the broadest support of any candidate. But for me, she's still got irresistable underdog appeal.
So I'm liking that she's running, and I'm liking that I'm liking that she's running.
Reasons why on the flip.
Smear campaigns work like this: The ones doing the smearing look ugly and vile, but it doesn't matter, because they're nobodies. (In fact, right-wing commentators carefully cultivate their nobody image, because it protects them from being held accountable for their inaccuracies and outright lies.)
But the ones getting smeared—who are somebodies—they get some of that ugliness on them, and it often brings them down. Kerry, the rich, handsome war hero, is very much a somebody. The press and the populace all knew the swiftboat stuff was total garbage, but it created a narrative that played into Americans' self-loathing impulse to see a somebody brought down a notch.
Hillary may have found a way to spin this around. Right-wingers continue to rant against her, and left-wingers foolishly repeat the right-wing talking points, but both have lost all traction.
Why?
Perhaps Americans' typical antipathy towards somebodies has a flip side, a side that appeals to our aspirations rather than our resentments.
Perhaps some of us can imagine what it means to be a somebody and to be attacked by nobodies.
Of course, most people have never experienced being smeared in the press. But they may know what it's like to be shunned by a clique, or backstabbed by coworkers, or to have competitors circulate ugly rumors about their business, or to appear at a public meeting to face a mob whipped up by unscrupulous rumormongers, or to be conned and then ruined by a Uriah Heep.
Even if they've never raised their heads high enough to attract poison-tipped slings and arrows, they may imagine the feeling.
That feeling—the memory of those painful experiences—is what's under my skin, and it's making Hillary's example irresistable to me.
How has she survived and thrived? Not by heavying up her armor. Not by engaging and overwhelming her opponents. Not even by appealing for public sympathy.
Instead Hillary has just gone her business—being a Senator, building personal relationships and support, getting and using power.
And I really admire that.