According to both sides, and I believe
this is great news, as it will lead to unity in the fall and victory over John "Keating Five" McCain.
As the loyal readers of this blog know, after Edwards dropped out, I waited a little bit, and then went with Obama because he was a break from the past. While I have been involved here since 1978, most Democrats around here believed in the Clinton model, which is the only way we had won Presidential elections since Jimmy Carter. That, and the relationships formed when Bill Clinton was first Governor and then President, is what led most local elected Democrats to get on the Hillary train; well, that, and they thought she was a lock to win.
I confess that, twelve months ago, while I was not getting on that train myself, I too thought she was a shoo-in, because I thought she had a lock on women (she did) and African-Americans (which she did until Iowa). Iowa, however, changed everything, most notably in that African-Americans looked at the astonishing victory of Barack Obama and said, Holy Smokes, HE CAN WIN. Despite Senator Clinton's best moment in the campaign, IMO, when she broke down the day before the New Hampshire Primary that she would win, she never really regained her stature after that point. With Senator Obama handling everything that came his way, he held steady over the long haul, and won the nomination.
Did Senator Clinton suffer from misogynistic attacks? Yes, but by the media, not the Obama camp; Chris Matthews still needs his ass kicked for what he said about her. To be blunt, the racist attacks against Senator Obama, which were done on the sly by a Clinton campaign that damn well knew better, were more damaging to him for the fall election. Fortunately, there's time to overcome that.
While the Clintons are doing the right thing and I applaud and salute them for it, I am reminded of what my Godfather has told me. The version I remember is that in victory, there is credit to go around; however, when a campaign loses, it is ultimately the candidate who is responsible for the defeat.
Jonathan Alter of Newsweek talks about some of the reasons for Obama's victory and Clinton's loss here; thanks to Wintermute for the tip!
Obama out-organized her and planned this almost like a NASCAR team for the long season. You know there are some tracks (states) more suited to your driving (campaigning) style, and some that aren't. You know that your opponent is going to skip the races you will win, so you are able to amass points (delegates) there, but you also know that if you show up and contest at the tracks (states) you are likely to lose, you can still gain points (delegates) so that by the end of the season, though you may not have won as many races, you're still the driving champion on points. Not only that, he had more sponsors (donors) than his opponent, so he was able to hit them up every time he needed to replace an engine!
It appears to me that the Clinton camp was committed to the Clinton model, which was run more like a prizefighter who was going for a quick knockout. She too had backers, but not nearly as many, so that when she needed more money, she had nowhere to go.
That's why Obama is in the Chase for the Cup and Clinton is in the corner wondering how she lost a 15-round unanimous decision. Make no mistake about it, this was historic, just unsuccessful in its ultimate goal.
The saddest thing of all is that if she had come out before this started and said that the president of the United States lied to her and Congress about the war, and had been forceful enough about it, she could have pre-empted all the
DFHs like myself from going to Obama. Her decisions, from the people with whom she surrounded herself, backfired on her, and her own judgment did her in.
Those of us who have seen what the Clinton loss has done to feminists of longstanding like the folks at TGW need to step back and let them grieve, as for them this is like a death. Imagine if you had worked against sexism (and you're damn right it exists, don't pretend otherwise) for thirty or forty years and KNEW a year ago that you would finally see a female elected President in your lifetime, one who believed in YOUR issues, only to see it snatched away from them. You'd be mighty damned upset, too.
Let them yell, let them howl, let them grieve, and LEAVE THEM ALONE FOR NOW. When the time comes, and it will, some time in late October, they will come to realize that the PLANET might not survive a John McCain presidency, and they will vote for Obama. They will be PISSED about it, but they will do it because they are soldiers, and they have too much heart to work against everything they have fought for all those years to put in place.
For the rest of us, the work will continue, as we have a nominee to elect to the Presidency. He is a man who believes in the 50-State Strategy, as evidenced by his retention of Howard Dean as DNC Chair for the fall campaign. He is a man who believes that we CAN change this country for the better, because the alternative is not acceptable.
He is
Barack Obama, and YES WE WILL.
Midnight tonight is the end of the fundraising quarter. It is critical we meet our fundraising goals if I am to remain in the House of Representatives.
