Disclosure: I voted for Edwards and then slowly, gradually, moved to the Obama camp.
As I awoke this morning to find an email from Hillary, sent at 2am, announcing that her campaign would end on Saturday, some thoughts came to mind.
I always had a soft spot for the former first lady. She ran, I believe, the most difficult campaign this cycle. She faced the most adversity and showed the most heart and determination on the campaign trail.
Let me explain.
People speak of the tremendous adversity Obama had to overcome in winning the Democratic nomination, and there is no doubt that what he accomplished is an important, significant step in the right direction for American politics. His win is something that few believed was possible last fall. (See Femlaw's recommended diary)
But Hillary, too, faced an uphill climb, and in my mind, hers was worse. People say she ran on her husband's name and popularity, but that’s not accurate. She inherited a damaged surname, one that still reminded people of Bill’s disgraces, and she still needed to define herself as a candidate. And as for popularity? Hillary faced disapproval ratings in the 45-50 percent range the entire campaign. Many people liked Bill, but voted for Obama. In fact, Bill's outbursts and verbal errors on the trail likely hurt her considerably.
Hillary was portrayed as Satan by those on the right, and referred to as a "bitch" or worse in the liberal blogosphere. I didn’t know whether diary titles that referred to her as "Cliton" were mere typos or something else. While Obama had the benefit of a blank slate, one that was eventually painted by months of mostly positive media coverage and a well-run campaign, Clinton began with close to half of America detesting her.
In addition to sexist slurs and insinuations, Clinton battled the perception from the left that she was too moderate. Sure, her vote to invade Iraq was a case of bad judgment, but some poor decisions does not make her a bad Democrat. People were quick to forget that Obama campaigned for terrible Joe Lieberman in 2006, but never let Hillary forget her 2003 Iraq vote.
Once of the most emotional, meaningful moments of the campaign was Clinton's surprise victory in New Hampshire. All but written off after her close, third-place finish in Iowa, Clinton bounded back with a win that no one saw coming. Her emotional victory speech was, in my opinion, her best speech this year.
But people were quick to discount this victory as a reflection of sympathy, especially after Clinton appeared to tear up during an appearance a few days earlier. (I, for one, didn't see these supposed tears.)
This began a long streak of "explaining away" every Clinton victory or talking point.
Obama's impressive streak of victories meant that Clinton should concede ASAP. Her support in large states meant that she was only winning on name recognition. A slim Obama victory in Connecticut was a win in Hillary's "backyard" (completely false). Her support in Appalachia was due to racist white people. Her victory in Florida was due to racist old women. Every time Obama won, it was because of his great campaign. Every time Hillary won, it was on name recognition or race.
The constant, unstoppable criticism of Hillary from the left was sickening. People jumped on anything that could be used against her. She was a neoconservative who wanted to invade Iran, she hated small states, she represented the old, bad wing of the Democratic Party. It sounded like Dick Cheney with his "old Europe" remark.
Every dumb comment by a Clinton supporter was a reflection of HER racism, or intolerance, or ignorance, or stupidity.
If she tried to be personable, she was seen as fake. Her laugh was termed diabolical.
On top of everything, Clinton faced a steady stream of calls for her to end the race. And I cannot imagine the tenacity and determination it must have taken for her to continue campaigning and fighting.
Liberals told her to drop out, claiming that our focus must be on beating John McCain. But she argued that she was the stronger general election candidate. And she would have been. (see fivethirtyeight.com) The GOP would not have been able to dig up much of anything on her that had not surfaced before.
But imagine her disappointment that this argument – her most valid one over this last stretch of the campaign – did not take hold. People continued to dismiss her.
They said she couldn’t win because she had no money, and she had no money because she couldn’t win. And they continued to explain away her victories down the stretch – in Pennsylvania (had support of state leaders), West Virginia (racism), Indiana (racism), and Puerto Rico (low turnout).
People criticize her for having attacked Obama too harshly. (In fact, some of her attacks are now being quoted in Republican ads.) But I personally don’t blame her for something that’s an inherent part of politics.
People speak of how Obama will expand the map, and allow Democrats to compete in places like Mississippi and Missouri. But with Clinton we would have had the upper hand in states like Florida, Arkansas, and West Virginia that have been GOP territory lately.
While an Obama nomination is good news for a lot of down-ticket Dems, above all it is important to have a Democrat in the White House. We could have 60 seats in the Senate, but we’d still see Democrats caving to Bush, as they have been since January 2007.
In the end, personal drive and heart couldn’t save Hillary from her terrible campaign. She had little presence in smaller states, especially those that came later on the calendar. She couldn’t mount a serious attack on Obama without being seen as a bad Democrat or a racist. Obama handled the Wright scandal and the race issue very well. His people knew what to do, and he enjoyed a seemingly endless flow of campaign donations. Having been largely abandoned by the left, Clinton bounced around in the center before crafting a bizarre coalition of women, lower-class workers, the elderly, and Hispanics.
The harder she tried, she only seemed to make Obama a better, more seasoned candidate. Because of her, he found his stride, and he’ll be a much better candidate in the general election as a result of this difficult test.
Obama gave hope to millions, but Hillary was also a trailblazer. She was almost our first female nominee. And she showed awesome grit in grinding out a hard campaign.
She will bow out – finally -- with class. And while it might take a while before she comes around to campaigning hard for Obama, I think she knows what she – as a Democrat – must do to put someone from our party in the White House. And I can’t imagine a better candidate to support and campaign for than Senator Barack Obama.