She may concede tonight, she may not, but her towel is already in the ring and her corner has packed up to leave the ringside. This marathon fight is effectively over, and even as a staunch supporter of her opponent I cannot help but feel a little sadness for Senator Clinton tonight as she makes her last move, whatever it may be.
No matter which side you are rooting for, it's always a sad moment when a great fighter finally goes down. And what a tough and mighty fighter she has been!
I never bought into Senator Clinton's candidacy, not because I support the candidate who would eventually hand her a defeat, but because I disagreed with almost everything about her candidacy and ultimately her campaign.
I disagreed with her judgment which, as Iraq proved, seemed to rest on a calculated reflection of popular sentiment rather than the clear and decisive judgment of a leader. I found very worrisome that instead of leading with conviction even when a position is unpopular, she seemed to go with the polls.
I disagreed with her vision for America's place in the world, as many others eventually did, also, after she made her shocking comment about obliterating Iran. I disagreed with that habit that she shares with her husband of often coloring the truth and sometimes withholding it.
As a New Yorker at the time of her two runs for Senate, I disagreed with the wasteful and imprudent manner in which she and her staff ran her campaign for a second Senate term. This year I disagreed with her claims to readiness that were not borne out by her campaign. I disagreed with her husband's sense of entitlement to power beyond those of fellow citizens. And, needless to say, over the past five months there has been a great deal to disagree with regarding the rhetoric and tactics of her campaign.
But she fought tough and often, she fought rough. She used every method in the book and then some outside the book. Every now and then, her dutiful husband used the ringside chair on her opponent. Sometimes they used the pepper spray. She fought like no other candidate has fought since Ted Kennedy took Jimmy Carter to the convention, and she gave every drop of sweat and blood. Whenever she was written off for dead, she seemed to pull a miraculous and frustrating comeback.
She made mistakes, and often she publicly slipped on those mistakes. She was failed by her staff, but most importantly, she was failed by her preference for loyalty over competence.
However, as this gruelling fight comes to an end, there are quite a few things that noone can take away from Senator Clinton now. That she has made history, that she has reshaped the narrative of American politics in a fundamental way, that henceforth America can say, yes, with the right campaign and the right message, anyone woman or man can make a winning bid for the Presidency of the United States, that many millions, especially women, have felt a new empowerment because of her candidacy, none of that can be taken away from her. That she has, clearly and decisively made it possible for us to imagine a female President of The United States in our life time and left a remarkable and indusputable reference point for my God-daughter to point to should she ever aspire to the highest office in the land.
So, folks, it is one hell of a fighter that's going down. In a different year under different circumstances there is no doubt that Senator Clinton would have breached that frontier that she stood ever so poised to breach, and as she makes her exit from this staggering historic stage, I feel a heavy heart today even as I look foward to the visionary leadership of our party's nominee.