As I write this the recommended diary list here at Kos is 80%+ filled with responses and ruminations to Senator Clinton's unfortunate and offensive choice of words in trying to equate the current Democratic campaign to that of the too soon ended run of Bobby Kennedy in 1968.
That the remarks were ill-chosen and tone-deaf to the realities in which Barack Obama daily finds himself in America 2008 is impossible to argue. Instead of focusing on her remarks, I would like to focus on the Obama campaign's response, because to me it demonstrates one of the biggest reasons I support their work: amazing grace.
Mr. Obama began his run with the promise of a new brand of politics. In modern American politics, the boiler plate response to ill-chosen words is to repeat them in the worst possible reading and then provide assurances that you do not approve.
When Mrs. Clinton made her recent statements, Mr. Obama's campaign could have done that. They could have pounced on her for her inartful choice of words, amplified and repeated them in their poorest reading and sought an opening to draw this protracted primary to a close. But they did not. The first public statement from the Obama campaign was short and to the point:
Senator Clinton's statement before the Argus Leader editorial board was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign.
-Bill Burton, Obama Campaign Spokesperson
There was no claim that these words proved some underlying character flaw from Mrs. Clinton. She was not branded morbid, as he was once branded elitist. There was no statement issued on the political implications of her remarks for the Democratic party. There was not an implication that she intended to raise the possibility of assassination for political purposes. There was simply an acknowledgement that those words were unfortunate.
Then David Axelrod went on Hardball to defend Mrs. Clinton from AP allegations that she was raising assassination as a rationale for her campaign:
As impossible as it sounds, he gave the benefit of the doubt to a political opponent. There was no, "as far as I know"; there was no wiggle room. Imagine that. This campaign is not a vicitm of attack but a sympathetic voice understanding the long hard and, yes, bitter road that has been traveled. Mr Axelrod famously said that the Obama campaign would have "no a$$h*les" on it. No a$$h*les indeed.
Many of us are appalled at the words Mrs. Clinton chose to justify her continued campaign to the Argus Leader. But I am hopeful that when the history of this race is written, whatever the outcome, it will include Mr. Obama's gracious description of her historic run:
Senator Clinton has shattered myths and broken barriers and changed the America in which my daughters and your daughters will come of age, and for that we are grateful to her.
-Senator Barack Obama
I am about to have a daughter of my own, who I hope can be President one day, if that is what she chooses to be.
It has been speculated that the ability of the Democratic Party to heal itself will be predicated on "the way the loser loses." I agree. But even more important perhaps will be the way that the winner chooses to win. Barack Obama has shown a willingness to win with grace and dignity. A willingness to reject victimhood for himself and those that support him. A willingness to shoulder the burden and the danger of being an African American man running for President. That willingness to embrace what is right over what is expedient is amazing to me.
Make no mistake, Mr. Obama awakens each day with the very real specter of danger for himself and his family hanging over him.
Rather than being victimized by this possibility he chooses to believe that he and his family will be okay. He chooses to believe that America in 2008 is different than America in 1968. He chooses to believe these things and keep running with his head held high for us. To me that is amazing grace personified.