The Clinton Swan Song
I might have mentioned how I won’t be attending Maureen Dowd’s birthday party any time soon, or offering up the antidote if she were to accidentally swallow her own libelous venom, but her column today has a great quote from Senator McCaskill: “You know, we’ve had some dark days in this democracy over the last seven years, and today the sun is out. It is shining brightly. I watch these kids, these old and young, these black and white, 20,000 of them, pour into our dome in St. Louis Saturday night, and they feel good about being an American right now. And I think that’s something that we have to capture.â€
In the caucuses, where activism and grassroots organization reign supreme, Obama is cleaning up. He’s bringing in hordes of young, excited voters, he’s inspiring the cynics. To the extent that Hillary has been able to stave off Obama’s momentum, she has done it through emulating his candor and empathy, and co-opting Edwards’ populism. Her negative attacks on Obama have backfired, and it is only by attempting to become a better candidate that she is still competitive in this race. I’m oversimplifying the dynamics of this election, but I would say that this prolonged primary is helping both candidates, and more importantly, helping voters to get excited about politics. I think people are excited to vote for a woman and to vote for “Not Bush”, but there should be no confusion about who the truly inspirational candidate is. Obama is going to win this thing, and holy hope in a hand basket, if that doesn’t surprise me a little bit.
3 comments February 6th, 2008