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Obama Earns Historic Distinction In Extended, Exciting Campaign

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 5, 2008

Now that Sen. Barack Obama has enough delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination, the history-making victory by a black candidate is complicated by another first: a runner-up who doesn't know how to count.

On a day that should have marked the beginning of political reconciliation, Sen. Hillary Clinton said she would check with her supporters and party leaders to see what they wanted her to do.

Her spokesman said she will continue to badger unpledged delegates and "take stock." She needs to put a fresh battery in her pocket calculator and look at the total. The score isn't tied. There is no overtime. Obama won.

He won by campaigning hard in small places, building a great grassroots organization, winning lots of endorsements, getting lots of small checks from lots of everyday folks and selling his message of hope and change. There is no better salesman and orator in politics today than Obama.

He ran uphill all the way and he made mistakes, but Obama never lost his cool. All he lacks is a congratulatory handshake from the loser.

As soon as Obama became the frontrunner, Clinton led her campaign toward an acrid style that reminded her critics of the worst of the Clinton administration: the Lincoln bedroom, the secret health-care sessions and the flexible definition of "is."

Instead of putting the emphasis on the many weaknesses in Obama's platform, she stressed how her share of the vote was weightier than Obama's, how she could win in November and he couldn't.

Questions of racism and sexism emerged and divided the party. Husband Bill diminished Obama's victory in South Carolina by reminding us that Jesse Jackson had also won there, wrongly implying that the Obama and Jackson campaigns were comparable.

She unnecessarily minimized the role the Rev. Martin Luther King played in getting civil rights legislation passed. She made up a story about fearing sniper fire in Bosnia. Later, in explaining why she was refusing to drop out, she stunned the Obama camp by bringing up the Robert Kennedy assassination.

At her best, she energized women voters, retirees and middle-class workers. Her celebrity, strength and experience raised realistic expectations that she could be the first woman to lead a major party, and even be the first woman president.

Her supporters are naturally disappointed. And that's the proper emotion, not anger.

Now, instead of conceding to Obama, she continues to agitate. She tells supporters, "The question is: Where do we go from here?" They need to reply that it's not Denver, with hopes of defying the delegates and upending Obama.

In February 2006, we urged Clinton not to run, telling her, "You are the most polarizing figure in the Democratic Party, and your negatives among likely voters are prohibitively high ...

"Many people simply don't trust you ... You are too much the Washington insider to convince voters you would fix a political system that seems remote from everyday life... Please, don't run."

Now 28 months later, the party is split. The plea needs updating. Hillary, please, stop running.

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