One Tough Filly
One thing you gotta say about Hillary Clinton; there’s nothing brittle about this filly.
Sen. Clinton made a visit to the car racing capital of the world in the days leading up the Indiana primary but the Kentucky Derby was the most prestigious sports event of the week. The derby is called the most exciting two minutes in sports and this year it lived up to its reputation. The competitive race stayed close for most of the mile and a quarter though Big Brown closed strong and finished well ahead of Eight Belles, the filly who ran second.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck soon after the race was over when the runner up’s two front legs buckled under her leaving the beautiful animal incapacitated. She was quickly euthanized and the resulting sadness contrasted sharply with the festive pageantry (not to mention excessive inebriation) associated with the derby.
Elections are often referred to as races but when they drag on and on it’s difficult to see any parallel with anything associated with speed. Even a marathon concludes in a few hours while this election seems interminable. But it’s clear that this nominating process is rounding the clubhouse turn and the finish line is in sight.
Way back in March, following Hillary Clinton’s tepid performance on Super Tuesday, I wondered how long she would continue fighting for the Democratic Party’s nomination given how dramatically she was being outperformed by Barack Obama.
I felt then, as I do now, that she was entitled to stay in the race as long as Obama was still short of the delegate count needed to secure the nomination. But it is becoming increasingly clear that her chances of winning are exceedingly small and that the longer the competition continues, the more likely it is that irreparable damage will be done to the Democrats chances of winning in the fall.
None of this can be lost on Sen. Clinton who is unquestionably as smart as anyone on today’s political stage. She has made mistakes before, including the horrendously managed attempt to pass comprehensive health care reform in her husband’s first term and the overly cautious frontrunner campaign she ran leading up to her third place finish in Iowa way back in January.
To her credit, however, she usually learns from her mistakes. Following the health care debacle, Clinton (and her husband) learned the importance of reaching out to build coalitions. And since Iowa, Clinton has appeared energized and combative, shedding her wonky nature for a more populist and confrontational style.
But, more importantly, I expect she will take these next few weeks to change the tone of her campaign to unify the party so that she will not be blamed for a McCain victory in November. You got to believe that the big shot supporters of both Clinton and Obama and others who remained neutral are negotiating the terms of a post nomination, general election strategy.
Politics is about dealmaking and shame on them if they aren’t laboring to work something out.
Certainly Obama is sending the right signals. He praised Clinton for winning Indiana before it was even clear she had. None of his supporters have urged her to concede. The ball is in her court and she earned the right to do it on her terms. Let’s hope that she will do the right thing and mend fences so the Democratic Party can be unified through November.
I expect the Democrats will engage in a “We Are Family” coast-to-coast tour this summer leading up to a “Let’s Prevent McCain from Giving Bush a Third Term” love fest in Denver in August.
Big Hill is a filly who knows how important it is for the team to win and this year the top seed is Slim and Brown.
