I was never going to vote for Hillary in the primary. The reason: the war vote. And for reasons not relevant here, I struggled between Obama and Edwards (Edwards pledged delegate in 2004) last year and settled, just before Iowa, on Obama.
Of course, all the garbarge that Hillary and Bill have done during the campaign and especially the stuff they have done since Hillary lost the race in February has harden my opposition to Hillary.
But as we go into the final month of primaries the key question is not: Whether Obama will win. Obama will win. The key question is: Will Hillary do the right thing when Obama locks up the nomination? Will she drop out some day in early June when Obama gets to 2025 and then work to unite the party?
I surprised myself with the answer: Yes she will.
In many ways, Hillary has acted like Darth Vader in the last few months.
She has made outrageous statements: Obama is a Christian "as far I know." McCain and I can be commander in chief, not Obama.
She has made stupid attacks: Obama is change you can xerox. Obama won't debate me.
She mocked Obama and those of us who support him in Rhode Island.
She has allowed people to play the race card on her behalf. After South Carolina, Bill says: Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in 1984 and 1988. Her NH co-chair wonders if Obama was a drug dealer. LBJ is more important than MLK for civil rights.
She has completely disrespected the rules of the Democratic party: Caucus don't count. Pleadged delegates do not matter. Red states do not matter.
She has played this race as if she was a republican. As Keith has said: She as attacked Obama as if she was the republican and Obama was the democrat.
She, Bill and her followers, have denounced those who turn away from them. John Kerry is "dead to them." Bill Richardson is Judas.
She has followed Stalin's example and wants to count the election in Michigan as a fair and free election.
Even when she leaves Obama alone, her actions have been outrageous. The Bosnia lie was just unbelieveable and the attempt to explain it away even worse.
I understand why so many on Kos have denounced and rejected her.
And yet, I believe, there is still good in her.
In a place buried deep in her soul, under the Lee Atwater and Karl Rove tactics, beyond her current delusions that she can actually win, Hillary Clinton is still a Democrat. Although she has often betrayed the beliefs of the Democratic Party and spent the last two months trying to stage a coup against the Democratic party, I think she does care about things important to Democrats.
And not only do I believe there is still some good in her, I believe Obama can bring that good out. I met Obama once in the fall of 2004. I am ashamed to say now, what was my take on him then: Too nice, too decent, too humble to go anywhere beyond the senate. And as much as I found him inspiring, I resisted him for three years. I had been corrupted by the old politics of division that Joe Andrews wrote so forcefully about today.
In the last year, I have realized the power, dare I say, the force, of his decency. Obama calls us to listen to the angels of our better nature. I was never more proud of him as when I watched him not throwing Wright under the bus in his race speech. The best thing to do was to throw Wright under the bus at the earliest possible moment. But there was something more important than being President for Obama--it was being true to himself and his values. And his angry and hurt were real on Tuesday when he was forced to divorce Wright. (By the way, a big Clinton supporter in my office has changed his view on Obama because of how he dealt with Wright. In fact, he told me today, we need to wrap this primary up.)
Obama will have the grace to reach out to Clinton after he locks up the nomination. He will not gloat (nor should we). He will win her over. He will reach that part of her that believed that McGovern was the answer in 1972, that brought her to work for the Children's Defense Fund, that brought her to Little Rock for love. (I live in LA. In 2006, I went to Little Rock for business. Based on what I saw there, it was love. Little Rock is nothing a Wellesley and Yale Law School grad would chose for any other reason. In the Clinton Library, there is one picture of Hillary on field looking into Bill's eyes that tells you it was all about love--not the calcuation that defines her now.) Hillary was a true believer once in hope, love and the future. She will be one again. And Obama will help her redeem herself. Hillary will actively work to heal the spilt in our party.
The cynics on Kos will say I am naive. I know that this will not be easy. But if there are no Red States and Blue States, just the United States. Then, there are no Obama Democrats, Edwards Democrats and Clinton Democrats, just Democrats. If you believe that Obama can bring this nation together to achieve a greater purpose, then I think you should also believe that Obama can bring this party together too.
There are too people dying in Iraq for us to fail to unite as party. There are too people hurting with home foreclosures and $4 gas to worry about a silly intraparty civil war. There are too people losing health insurance, or working two jobs to get by for us to waste our time hating Hillary--when we will need her.
Yeah, there is still good in her. She will do the right thing.