An end to the Clinton campaign and a South Dakota “victory” speech with everything but a concession and endorsement. You know, the things it needed.
But despite a wave of negative response to the speech, I’m inclined to take Barak Obama’s generous view, which is to say that he’s formed a veep selection committee and is moving on regardless of her campaign.
As hers was a a loss due to campaign mismanagement more than anything else, this has to be a particularly bitter pill. If she had competed in the caucus states, spent more on outreach and less on advisors and senior staff, she probably would have won despite Obama’s strengths.
The arguments about sexism are deranged. Very few people voted against Hillary Clinton the woman. A whole bunch voted against Hillary Clinton the person. I, for one, would be thrilled to vote for a competent, upstanding woman, but I won’t be doing it because she’s a woman any more than I voted for Barak Obama because he’s a black man. I don’t deny that a lot of people do it, but it’s a crazy political calculation that puts sex or race first among voting criteria. That’s not to deny the benefits of having a woman or a black man as president, just that it’s nutty not to elect whomever you think is best regardless of race or gender.
It’s worth remembering as well that Hillary Clinton is a terrible feminism. When women came forward with claims of sexual harassment at the hands of Bill, she always impugned their character and motivations. It was never Bill’s fault, it was always the fault of the women. Being a hound dog enabler isn’t exactly model feminism.
Further, a strong argument can be made that her qualifications as “ready on day one” were based primarily on her marriage, hardly the stuff of inspiration for little girls. Indeed, I’m hoping my daughters choose better role models, and I would see nothing wrong with Barak Obama being one of them.