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Courting That Critical Sandy Vote

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By DANIEL RUTH

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 26, 2008

At such a late date, this might come as a shock to the supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, but your pol was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

This was not - judging from all the whining, hand-wringing and pouting - a sorority rush that went horribly, terribly awry.

"Politics ain't beanbag" is an oft-repeated truism. And it ought not be an encounter group, as well.

In June, as Sen. Barack Obama was tidying up his hold on the Democratic presidential nomination, former Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman huffed that although she might very well bring herself to vote for Obama, she most certainly was not going to offer to volunteer to work on his campaign.

Fast forward two months to the eve of the Democratic National Convention in Denver and now Freedman was more reticent, telling an out-of-town newspaper she was thinking of not voting in the presidential election this November.

So Goes The Nation

The good news for Obama is no one has ever suggested that as Sandy Freedman goes, so goes the nation.

To be sure, an awful lot of women who supported the Clinton presidential bid are understandably disappointed their horse came up short in crossing the finish line.

If you are a true party loyalist, though, that hardly justifies denying Obama your vote.

Since the end of the primaries there's been a great deal of fiddle-faddle that Clinton's White House dreams were dashed by rampant sexism, media bias and the dark forces of political intrigue, accusations one can only respond to with: "Yeah? So?"

Virtually all political figures in this race had to deal with some form of bias. Obama, obviously, had had to contend with racial prejudice; Sen. John McCain with ageism; Mitt Romney, his Mormon faith.

And Rudy Giuliani had to deal with people who think being a cross-dresser, who was married three times, including once to a cousin is somehow - odd.

Scuttled Ambitions

If Freedman and her sister feminists are looking for the real heavy in this political drama who scuttled their champion's ambitions, they need to look no further than (ta-dah!): Clinton herself.

On the way to mismanaging the biggest campaign indebtedness in American political history at $30 million in the red, Clinton treated her quest for the nomination as if it was a form of Manifest Destiny.

But in the end, she was a lousy candidate with a voice that could implode the Hope Diamond, who was out-maneuvered and out-classed by a better organized, more disciplined opponent. That's politics. That's life. That's reality.

While the nation's feminists have been sitting shiva for the Clinton campaign, the Obama camp has bent over backwards to accommodate all the ruffled feelings, giving the New York senator a prime-time speaking engagement and even allowing her name to be formally nominated with a roll call vote.

What's next? Alimony payments?

Yet Clinton apparently was peeved she was not consulted on the Joe Biden vice presidential selection. Please. Really now, what would she know about how to select a partner?

Keyword: Book of Ruth, to read and comment on Daniel Ruth's blog.

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