IMHO we are seeing Hillary and Bernie evolve as people on the campaign trail. This morning I watched Hillary’s interview with Rev. Al Sharpton on Politics Nation and her demeanor for the first time was appropriate. She broke through the glass ceiling of nice white lady and the warmth in her tone stopped being repetitive. Bernie’s speech in Las Vegas blogged at www.dailykos.com/… was much more consequential for me as a Bernie supporter. He finally moved his message. Everything was more cogent and fortunately the flow of ideas was no longer that stump speech that has become a bit stodgy by now. I really loved the new thinking behind his new speech.
What seems like a lifetime ago but wasn’t really that long, when I first saw the two debate just the two of them (before Iowa, right?), I came in at the beginning of the second hour. Supposedly there were fireworks in the first hour, as if they were more at odds and then they made up in the second. But that’s just stuff I read the next day. I came in and saw them standing together and moving out towards the audience, in turn but in tandem, and really thinking through answers forced on them by what each other said. I thought I wished I could have the two of them running the country. Actually I thought, wow, the two of them together could really run America. But what I think I saw today is that the two are evolving and this primary campaign, before our eyes, is becoming something more than we’ve every seen.
Even if Hillary goes down fighting, again, no one doubts her strength, determination or moral courage; even people who consider Hillary corrupted and compromised should concede that she has true grit. As for Bernie, my feelings get sentimental fast as an ethnic Jew. He looks like all my relatives. Watching his mouth move is like reliving my childhood. The flash for me is how many young people are picking up on him as authentic. This feels a little like a personal vindication for deep-seated sentiments that unite many American jews. Bernie’s call for justice, today, real justice, on the day the nation starts coping with Scalia’s departure, was like a modern rabbi. Bernie was on the money.
However this heads toward the convention in the months to come, I am grateful I live in this time. Watching Obama win was great, especially the excitement. This is the next generation.
The primary process is causing Bernie and Hillary to rub up against each other as people in our national reality competition. They are both so good. They are both getting better. The fundamental similarities in their deepest political convictions make this like a skunkworks think tank. We are watching the two of them co-evolve what it is going to mean to be part of this society from the Dem-side for a generation to come, if not longer. And we are seeing it form. Go Bernie; I love his new thinking; Hillary is a dream come true when she gets real. Just wow.