Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - Posts
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I was not one of those people who cried when I heard Obama's now-famous speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Nor did I find it so spectacularly brilliant as to be beyond any critical analysis. I thought it was a really good speech, but I also felt it was too laden with buzz words meant to signal that he was indeed a different kind of black candidate. When he said: "There's not a black America and white America ... there's the United States of America," and the crowd went wild, I disagreed. We all know that there are two very distinct Americas separated by class and color. I understood that people embraced the speech because its sense of optimism went right to the heart of American idealism—not American realism.
I also did not get all warm and teary about Obama's Philadelphia speech last March. It was an important and necessary speech, for sure; but again, I found it too calculated and believe it was mostly meant to appease white voter anxiety about the Jeremiah Wright controversy and assuage fears that Obama might be a closet racist and black militant.
As I watched Obama's speech last night, however, I could not stop crying, and I was surprised by my reaction. It, too, was clearly a carefully scripted, political speech. So why did it crack through my cynical and hardened heart? Because it allowed me to take a deep breath of relief.
I've been holding my breath throughout the primary campaign, waiting with dread for his candidacy to implode—for him to be struck down by scandal, dirty political tricks, racism, a media obsessed with his being "the first black man" with a realistic chance at the presidency. And, of course, I thought the Clinton Machine might take him down. Seeing him on that stage yesterday, regal in his bearing, unapologetic for having stuck to his audacity of hope, knowing he had won a battle he fought hard for and won fairly, and with dignity and grace—two words that can no longer be ascribed to the Clinton candidacy—made me deeply hopeful. That's why I cried. I felt happy for him, for us, for this country. Yesterday's speech not only went to the heart of American idealism, it also wrote a new narrative for American realism. Whether Obama wins or loses in the fall, we all won something special yesterday.
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You've been reading their thoughts on Hillary Clinton's campaign for the last six months or so. Here's your chance to ask a question! XXers Emily Bazelon, Melinda Henneberger, Dahlia Lithwick, and Meghan O'Rourke will be chatting online on washingtonpost.com at 2 p.m. ET Thursday.
Last week, Dahlia batted down the canard that we'll never see another woman presidential candidate in our lifetimes if Hillary is denied, and today Meghan has a piece saying that Hillary's problem is that she hasn't been enough of a feminist. Melinda has written recently on Hillary's RFK assassination gaffe and her "hardworking Americans, white Americans" comments. And Emily is ready for the Dems to unify.
Submit your questions now and go to the washingtonpost.com on Thursday to see the XXers in action.
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Amen (so to speak), Dahlia and Melinda. My quick take-away was this: Hillary Clinton is trying to create an equation between her campaign and a kind of religious quest. She told her supporters that every vote of theirs was a "prayer." (So votes for Obama were what? Votes for the devil?) She implied that her supporters were "invisible" to everyone else. She stressed her dedication to public service. Softening her voice, she said she just wants what she had "always wanted," namely, to help fix health care and end the war. (Never mind that she voted for the war.) She animated the cultish, irrational mob impulse in her supporters. (It's no accident that one of the first "invisible" voters she mentioned was a nurse.) Then she said: "I want to hear from you. I hope you'll go to my web site HillaryClinton.com and. share your thoughts with me .... and in the coming days I'll be consulting with advisers and party learders to determine how to move forward."
Now, after that speech, how many supporters are really going to log in to her message boards and urge, "Bow out gracefully, Hill"? No; she's preparing us for the Great Schism. The moment when the Democratic Party, like the Catholic Church once did, breaks into two camps that can't reconcile their values.
Hillary's right, in a sense, that the way we elect our party nominees is a little ... complex. Even flawed. Sure. That's open for debate. But not WHILE the election is taking place. For better or for worse, we don't rewrite the rules midgame in American politics. Or at least we don't do that most of the time. And that's always been what made American democracy robust. The primary system is one the United States has followed for a long time. And Clinton doesn't get to change the rules midelection simply because they don't favor her. So I find it disingenuous—deeply, deeply disingenuous—that she claimed last night she really cares about "the deepest values of our party." Ours is a system of representative democracy. You don't get to throw a temper tantrum just because "your vote" wasn't "heard." After all, every time there is an election, some voters feel remorse that their candidates didn't win. If each of those candidates stirred up their supporters to the point where, as Dahlia put it, they looked ready to set off small brushfires, we'd be living in a much more violent country.
So you know what, Hillary? The deepest values of the party would suggest that you don't emotionally manipulate those who have less power and less authority than you. They would suggest that you don't stir voters into a moblike frenzy.They would place on you the burden of acting like a representativeup someone who can compromise gracefully, negotiate wisely, and be generous even when the world does not bow to your will. Instead, you're creating a schism within the Democratic Party. If you really think there's a problem with the way primaries are run, take it up after you bow out.
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When you call my name, it's like a little prayer/
I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there/
In the midnight hour I can feel your power/
Just like a prayer you know I'll take you there
—Madonna
OK, so now we know what's on Hillary's iPod. But was Hillary's "Like a Prayer'' speech ("I often felt that every vote was a prayer for our nation,'' she said) a threat or a promise? Was it a ham-handed demand for the No. 2 slot? (Pony up, friend o' mine, if you don't want 18 million angry Democrats on your front lawn by daybreak!) Or was it on the contrary her way of making sure he doesn't offer it to her—if he did so now, he'd look like the sort of person who gives in to blackmail—while also guaranteeing that her supporters are good and mad when he does not offer it to her. (And if it's the latter, she may or may not be on to her own sabotage; the proof that not everything she does is on purpose is her strange insistence on using and reusing that completely discredited battle cry about staying the course. "I'm so proud we stayed the course together,'' she said last night.)
There has never been anything wrong with her decision to stay in the race; it's how she waged war that was at issue. There is nothing wrong with the fact that she did not concede last night, either. But her mouth says unity, and her feet say kick him where it hurts.
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It was a joyful moment after all. I ran upstairs and woke my daughter and my son to tell them. Their world will be different than ours, and that's a good thing.
The great James Baldwin said, "I love America more than any other country in the world." There's a very important second part to that quote, but tonight, I'll just leave it at that.
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