This weekend the suddenly former frontrunner for the Democratic presidential
nomination was shifting some of the chairs on the foundering ship S.S.
Clinton. She fired her campaign manager after Barack Obama swept a round of
primaries and caucuses - Nebraska, Louisiana, Washington state, Maine, the
Virgin Islands.
Hillary! may yet pull this thing out of the
fire, but it won't be easy. For one thing, there's her Bill problem. William
Jefferson Clinton used to have the surest of political instincts. Now every
time he speaks up for the Mrs., he alienates more voters. He seems to have
lost his touch. All those post-presidential years hobnobbing with the power
elite from Davos to Kazakhstan may have taken their toll. It's as if he'd
turned into one of those corporate fat cats he used to inveigh against.
Obamamania mounts across the country, and the Clintonistas still struggle to
counter it. Catch phrases (Experience! Ready to do the job from Day One!)
may not work against a self-possessed candidate the likes of which Democrats
haven't seen since Gene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy back in 1968. Barack
Obama seems to combine the appeal of both, not to mention the grace of JFK
in 1960.
Once again a new generation is insisting on being heard, and it's being
joined this election year by the generation still suffering from Clinton
Fatigue and eager to, yes, move on.
The real drama this year has not been the fall of Hillary Clinton but the
rise of Barack Obama. He's got the touch of the great politician, which
isn't easy to define but is immediately evident on the campaign trail. Call
it charisma, magnetism, charm.
Camus once defined charm as "a way of getting the answer yes without having
asked any clear questions." Any slight policy differences that Barack Obama
may have with Hillary Clinton may be unclear, but the two couldn't be more
different. She seems charmless, he irresistible. The personal, as it turns
out, really is the political.
Who would have thought it? Eloquence still seems to matter in American
politics. So does a dogged insistence on victory, however improbable it may
seem at times. See the surprising strength of both Barack Obama and John
McCain.
One of the surest signs of a free country is that it'll surprise you. A lot.
By that standard, there's no doubt that this is still the land of the free.
More surprises doubtless await in what already has been a most surprising
year.