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Get used to hearing that, people. Because you're gong to be hearing about it a lot.
Hillary Clinton's historic but ultimately flawed campaign is finally over, and thank god. Now time to start creaming McCain. And with his awful, awful speeches and even worse policies, that's not going to be too hard.
Big update: a summary of tonight's speeches:
Awkwardly and falteringly delivered, with bad intonation and creepy fake smiles, to a very small room half-filled by an elderly white audience -- in New Orleans, so I guess the white folks were bussed in from Mississippi. (Seriously: no black people in the room? In New Orleans?) In the background, an unflattering green backdrop reveals a new slogan: "A Leader We Can Believe In".
This speech -- and that crowd -- was an excellent indication of why democrats are going to win in November. McCain's campaign is a shambles, disorganized and demoralized. Its candidate is out of touch and unlikeable. This is another Dole candidacy, and that's great news for Obama. The campaign is so adrift they scheduled McCain to speak 20 minutes before Obama started speaking, leaving McCain to get cut off literally in mid-sentence to announce Obama's nomination. Even the new slogan is terrible. Like Hillary's grating "Yes We Will" chant, adopting an awkward re-wording of your opponent's successful slogan merely underlines just how bereft of new ideas your campaign really is.
"Whoops, I didn't get the presidency! Shit! And I'm personally out $11m, so, uh... make me Vice President, because I really won! Seriously! I got the popular vote, if you don't count the states that didn't vote for me! And remember to keep donating, because I'm gonna be really broke if you don't!"
The reason Hillary isn't dropping out, by the way, is because the rules say she can't continue to raise money to pay off her debt if she drops out of the race. Her campaign is in $21m worth of debt, so the only way to get her money back is to give her hard-core fans false hope that she will stay in, and take it to the convention, or maybe get the VP slot, or something, whatever, as long as they keep donating. As soon as she breaks even she will drop out. I don't think she seriously expects to get the VP nod, in the same way that I don't think she seriously has expected to win for quite some time. She just didn't have a good exit strategy (and still doesn't).
What is there to say? The man knows how to give a speech. It was no Yes We Can (New Hampshire), no Change is Coming to America (Iowa), and certainly no 2004 DNC speech. But it was still eloquent, and passionate, and sincerely delivered by a candidate who I truly believe wants what's best for the United States and the world and has good plans, practical plans for making it happen.
The reason I love Obama as a candidate is because I believe in him. I believe in him without cynicism, knowing that while he isn't perfect he is genuine. A political candidate that I trust so deeply is unprecedented in my short life of following politics, and it is refreshing and inspiring to me and many others of my generation to be able for once to put aside cynicism and sarcasm and truly unreservedly support a cause. I love Obama for giving me that opportunity.
And now, for the first time in my life, the good guy, the guy who should have won, is the guy who did win, and he gets to fight the general election and has a good chance of becoming one of the most powerful leaders in the world. That's a wonderful thing.
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Comments
Leah
Laurie
Leah
If she tries to contest the convention then I agree that would be divisive. Taking time to finalise her campaign and come to whatever accommodation is reasonable to make sure that relevant elements of her platform and the interests of the people who voted for her get included, respected etc. in the final campaign is hardly deeply cynical. If you want an object lesson in the value of leverage for getting your policies in play, take a look at Edwards, whose poverty agenda was barely name-checked, even in return for his endorsement of Obama.
I definitely want the primaries to be over, but it's still important to bring them to a close in the right way. The way things have played in the past month or so, with the media drumbeat for her to get out of what has been a very close race, and one which would, by past precedents, have gone to a contested convention, doesn't exactly help. Nor does the kind of language that's being used about later primaries and voters as irrelevant, or the way that the pro-Obama passion from some supporters edged uncomfortably close to entitlement to the nomination.
Had it been a landslide for Obama, then fine, I'd get the demand for her to step aside, but it hasn't.
Polarising the two, with Obama cast in near-messianic terms and Clinton (rather than McCain!) as the enemy sucks. When you impugn and mock her character in the way you've characterised it in this post, it comes off as alienating and disrespectful, both of her and her supporters. Obama's now the presumptive candidate for all Democrats, and supporting him shouldn't equate to mocking the choice of almost half of some of the most dedicated of the people he's representing.
Laurie
Staying in the race at this point is exclusively a self-serving move on her part. If I thought she was really doing it because she deeply cares about her issues and wants them addressed, I might have more sympathy. I don't deny that she cares about those issues, but staying in the race and weakening the party does nothing to achieve those goals. Her reasons for staying in at this point are strategic at best (VP nod) and purely financial at worst.
You also seem to be ignoring the two paragraphs I spent mocking McCain's awful, awful speech. Nowhere did I mock Hillary's dedication or her policies; the only thing I'm criticizing is her classless refusal to admit she's lost, and it deserves the strongest possible criticism.
Leah
The way you characterise her in the 'Whoops' paragraph doesn't comes off as simply criticising her for refusing to admit she's lost. The important distinction being between mocking her character (money grubbing, ditzy, entitled) and criticising her current conduct. The first comes off as disrespectful and divisive towards her and the people who voted for her, the second is fair game.
I don't think this is a particularly good medium to argue over it in though. We can disagree at length in person in a couple of days, so I'll defer till then.
Leah
I think it's awesome that someone as inspiring and intelligent as Obama is the nominee. Both candidates are historic, skilled and incomparably better than Bush McCain, so it's thrilling to see the fight shifting firmly to that.
ed
Also, you are far too optimistic about November. OH and PA are going to be challenging, with all those hill people. McCain will do much better in debates than he does with speeches, and you know Barry isn't so hot at the debating. And of course, they're going to roll out some major racism. So we shall see. I am cautiously optimistic, but I remain a bit worried.
Anyway, Hillary is quitting in a few days, so I doubt that she's staying in for the money. It's not like she and Bill will ever have trouble fundraising. She wants to influence the platform as much as possible, but I guess she saw that staying in would likely just hurt her cause.