Listening to Hillary Clinton's warm-up act for Barack Obama at the
Democrats' still slightly divided convention, it occurred that, if only the
lady had been that graceful and gracious, that poised and personal, as in
control of herself and her surroundings, and just generally as
well-organized and focused during her long, long and almost, almost
successful drive for her party's presidential nomination ... she herself
would have been giving the acceptance speech at the Democrats' national
convention.
Even through the distorting lens of the television camera, you could feel
the same thought percolating through the convention itself. But it's too
late now. The die has been cast, or rather the votes have been.
So there was Hillary Clinton, the presidential nominee who might have been,
demonstrating that she would have been the better choice by showing how
defeat had improved her. Life is just full of ironies. Defeat is the
greatest of teachers but, as Senator Clinton demonstrated this year, its
lessons may come too late.
Never mind. Hillary Clinton saw her duty Tuesday night - to her party, to
herself - and she did it with a dearly earned dignity. From the first lines
of her speech to the last, she plugged the young comer who somehow had
managed to beat her and all the odds to grab the nomination. And she was
just as forceful, and repetitious, all through her performance, punctuating
it with Obama ads.
All right, the speech was mainly about her campaign and her life story, but
what else could she have done? She's a politician, after all, and the Obama
people can't complain about her repeated endorsements of their man, who is
now, at least formally, hers.
The criticism that Hillary Clinton didn't devote her whole speech to
describing her erstwhile opponent's life, deeds and shining virtues lacks a
certain charity. What was she going to do, praise his many years of service
- civil and military - to his country? His constancy of purpose when it
comes to this or that issue he keeps finessing? His qualifications as
commander in chief? Please. If she'd done that, she would have blown the
credibility she's earned at such great sacrifice over these past 18 months.
Somewhere in her performance she went through her party's usual list of
failed statist panaceas at home - think Hillarycare, think Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac - and tried to slough off her own inconstancy in a war abroad.
(Do you suppose she still assumes it would take a "willing suspension of
disbelief" to think the Surge would work in Iraq? Tell it to the Marines.)