History in the Unmaking

After the historic events that occurred tonight with the close of the longest presidential primary season in American history, it's time for something political. You want a rant? I'll give you one. On this, the night when the nation witnessed the first time in history an African-American has clinched the nomination of a major political party for the Presidency of the United States, what should have been an exciting and joyous occasion was totally upstaged by the unwillingness of that individual's principal opponent to concede -- or even acknowledge the possibility of -- her defeat in the primary contest. It was a sorry, sorry sight.

Sadly, the Clintons -- both Bill and Hillary -- are proving they are even more astronomically narcissistic than anyone previously would have believed. They actually do seem to think they are the reincarnation of Franklin and Eleanor. I simply could not believe her speech tonight following her victory in the South Dakota primary (and, not coincidentally, preceding her defeat in the Montana primary). It was one of the most self-absorbed political speeches I've ever heard in my life.

I readily admit Hillary would be a great candidate for president. With her unbelievable tenacity and seeming ability to go on campaigning endlessly, she would easily bulldoze her way over John McCain and straight into the Oval Office, should she be given the chance. I am also willing to admit the possibility that this speech was just a sign that Hillary is still in the "denial" phase of her perfectly natural and inevitable psychological transition to rational acceptance of her loss. I will happily admit that my instant analysis of her speech tonight may be proven wrong -- and that tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, she will come out and do the right thing, congratulating Obama on his historic victory and committing to do her utmost to see him elected President. Indeed, I devoutly hope this will happen.

But somehow, I suspect that my darker suspicions are correct. Dammit, it's over. It's been over for about a month now. Barring some absolutely unthinkable catastrophe, Obama has secured the nomination by virtue of the pledged delegate count. In light of the simple arithmetic, Hillary should have simply conceded defeat tonight, and offered her congratulations and support to Obama. Her bare acknowledgement of his status in the race, and her statement that she has not decided what to do next in this primary campaign, simply staggers the mind. It appears she still wants to screw it up for Obama somehow between now and the convention in Denver, so that against all odds she will be granted that nomination this year instead of him. There is only one other possible explanation, and it's not a pretty one. To quote her speech tonight, "What does Hillary want?" The answer is she wants to be President, no matter what it takes. I think this speech was her official announcement of her candidacy for 2012 -- and by extension, an indication of her intention to sabotage Obama's candidacy in the election of 2008.

Let's look at the facts. The rumor mill is now saying that Hillary is "open" to an offer of the Vice Presidential nomination. But if Obama offers her the VP slot at this point, he will certainly take on the appearance of having been emasculated, whether or not she accepts the offer. It gives a distinct appearance of weakness for a Presidential candidate to give in to pressure to choose an individual with whom he is so evidently incompatible. It would be said that if Obama could not stand up to pressure from Hillary, how will he stand up to the Russians, the Iranians, and the terr'ists?

If Obama were to make such an offer of the Vice Presidency, I cannot imagine Hillary would accept it on any terms other than on his commitment to make her a virtual co-president á la Cheney. That would obviously put Obama in an intolerable position, both during the election campaign, and -- should he win -- in his subsequent presidency. In 1980, ex-president Gerald Ford campaigned for Reagan to put him on the ticket as Vice President with the understanding Reagan needed the "more experienced" Ford as co-president. Ford's campaign for such an arrangement backfired, and Reagan very properly balked at the entire idea. Of course, Ford had already lost the previous election in 1976, having himself been emasculated in that race by Reagan's earlier powerful primary challenge. Reagan went on to win in 1980 on his own, having avoided emasculation by Ford. I submit that Hillary knows her history.

If on the other hand she were to turn down such an offer of the Vice Presidency (perhaps because he was unwilling to make her a copresident with him), Obama would look even more like a loser than he already would have been made to look by virtue of his being forced to make the offer in the first place. "Poor Barack: his offer wasn't attractive enough for Hillary." Evidently, it wasn't worth much. The obvious implication would be that he wasn't going to be winning the Presidency any time soon. Either way, what a perfect way to maneuver him into looking like a loser. And how convenient for Hillary in 2012.

If Obama doesn't offer her VP, Hillary's surrogates -- all those Geraldine Ferraro types who showed up in D.C. last week to "protest" the "theft" of primary votes from Michigan and Florida -- will raise the battle cry of alleged sexism. Hell, they already are screaming that. One can't have missed the rather intemperate charges being made that Obama is an "unqualified" "affirmative action" candidate, the corporate media has always been "biased" against her, and the "party bosses" have unfairly "stolen" the nomination from her, blah blah blah. Obama's failure to offer Hillary the vice presidency at this point will simply confirm the view of these people that he, and the rest of the party establishment, is irredeemably sexist, elitist, and biased against her (and by extension, them).

Whatever the merit of some of these claims of sexism, the fact is a goodly percentage of the Democratic base, as represented by the hard core Hillary supporters in that portion of the primary electorate that voted for her, is now fully committed to her candidacy come hell or high water. These avid supporters want her to fight on to Denver, and threaten to bolt the party if she is not nominated. The Clintons have carefully stoked the growing anger and passion of their followers, and have nursed the mixed feelings of entitlement and victimization they appear to have. In consequence, Hillary is now in the cat bird seat. Obama needs her (or so she thinks), and she can make any demands on him she wishes in return for her support in the electoral campaign. In either case -- whether he offers her the Vice Presidency, or not -- his path to the Presidency is now much more difficult than it had to be, no matter how much overt support Hillary gives him in the general election.

And it is all so utterly unnecessary. She could have been classy. She could have given a gracious speech acknowledging that Obama has accumulated the necessary delegates to secure the nomination, and offered her unstinting support to him in the tough election campaign ahead, with or without an offer of the Vice Presidency. But that's not the speech she gave tonight. Her all too visible inability to be gracious or even realistic would be sad, if it were not so destructive to the party.

I most certainly hope that I'm wrong, and eagerly await proof of Hillary's good faith. But I'm getting awfully tired of waiting for her to start putting the best interests of the country above those of her own candidacy. In her speech, Hillary answered her question about "what [she] wants" by describing the issues of social justice and equity she so passionately cares about. Sorry, I no longer believe her. Hillary is bitterly -- yes, I mean bitterly -- disappointed. She was "in this campaign to win." Her nomination was supposed to be "inevitable." It's no longer about the Democratic Party, nor the good of the country, and certainly not about the issues of social justice which she claims are the motivating force behind her drive to secure the nomination and her inability to concede. If it were really about any of these things, Hillary would be doing everything she could, right now, to make sure the Republicans don't get the chance to steal yet another presidential election and thereby make those goals of social justice and equity even more difficult to attain than they now are. No, it's not about any of these things. It's all about the Clintons and their precious sense of entitlement.