By this time tomorrow, Barack Obama will most likely be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. He will most likely win both Montana and South Dakota, and while those states will not give him enough regular delegates, all indications are that he will pick up enough superdelegates to carry him over the required number. I should be on top of the world.
Tonight, I was sitting at my computer and really felt the passing of an era. I remember how excited I was to vote for Bill Clinton in both 1992 and 1996, and how I vocally defended him during the long Ken Starr hearings and the impeachment hearings. I remember being a bit annoyed when Al Gore didn't ask Bill to campaign with him in 2000. To me Bill Clinton was larger than life, a feeling that lasted quite awhile after GWB entered office.
And then it was over, and Hillary won the New York Senate race, and I thought that she really set a good example in her role in the Senate. When she announced her intentions to run for President, I was excited, and really thought that she had an excellent chance to win.
I never was one of her supporters, but neither was I one of her detractors. I never was one who said "if Hillary gets the nomination, that's it...it's McCain for me!!". The longer the campaign season went on, though, the more I liked Obama, and the more Hillary campaigned, the more she seemed less attractive, but I still held her in regard as a fellow Democrat. I also began a slow realization that Bill Clinton really didn't stand nine feet tall, but was a man with many flaws, and that some of them even bore some resemblance to the "sins" the critics had mentioned.
Now, tonight, with the realization that she most likely won't be around past tomorrow evening, I truly feel sad.
Senator Clinton ran a strong and gutsy campaign, if a fatally flawed one. She thought she would win, but she thought she would win sooner, and never planned for the long run. Still, I hope we will have her drive and energy and enthusiasm behind Obama for the long campaign ahead. She will be sorely needed if the Democratic party is going to go the distance against McCain and the Republicans. There's no doubt that they will use every tactic that Rove left behind, and our party has to come together to fight. It may take some time for some wounds to heal, but if the Clintons and Obamas can come together (and I'll bet they do), the rest of us can too.