An interesting assessment, although a bit over blown, I believe.
Quote:
Senator Clinton did all she needed to do: thanked everyone and unequivocally endorsed and supported Barack Obama. One theme stuck out to me: she essentially said that even though she was careful to avoid ever saying that she was running because she was a woman and that people should vote for her because she is a woman, that’s what she believes in private. That’s the theme she spoke of most compellingly. She is Ellen
Malcolm’s spiritual sister. In the end, Clinton remains wedded to the identity politics of her generation and her time. It’s a powerful message after so many long decades and centuries in which women have been denied full equality in law and society. It’s a necessary message and a moral message. But it becomes circular and self-defeating when it becomes its own rationale.
I think history will show that she didn’t quite have the talent to do it on her own steam, but that she made it much easier for another woman to become president one day. Her two biggest problems: She first married a man who was her political superior and was then defeated by one. She is a very talented politician but it was her fate to find her career hemmed in by two even more talented ones: Bill and Barack. She made up for it all with enormous hard work, diligence and ruthlessness. At any other moment, she would have won. But this is history and politics at the highest level. You cannot defeat such a moment if you are a Salieri. And she had to deal with two Mozarts.
Buh-bye – "Yes She Did" – (Via The Daily Dish By Andrew Sullivan)
I somewhat agree with this, But I wouldn’t compare Hillary to Salieri or even her competitors to Mozart. The reason Hillary’s campaign failed is because of the abject idiots who were running the show. Mark Penn, Patty Solis Doyle, the factions within the campaign, the leaks of the infighting, and the list goes on and on…
The honest truth is that Hillary Clinton somehow or another thought that because her husband was the former President, that she somehow was just going to waltz into the nomination for President, however when Barack Obama jumped out front, and beat Hillary in a few of the primaries, Hillary’s campaign had zero clue as to how to deal with it.
Not to mention the fact that Hillary’s campaign, when threatened, began to play the feminist card, the race card, the fear-mongering card, the “Obama is a Muslim” Card, and every other damn card out there, only to see it fly back in their face and hurt their campaign.
Lastly, Hillary Clinton lost for a very simple reason. Because of what she represents, and that is old politics. The Clintons are yesterday’s news, the old kind of Politics, the “slash and burn” style of elections, and people saw that, (I say this in a honest tone and not mockingly….) they really want change, hope, and a new direction, and I am afraid that Hillary was seen as someone from the old school of Politics. She, as some felt, represented the 1990’s era of Liberalism, and people wanted something new.
Oddly enough, it sounds to me like Sullivan is delivering a final swift kick in the rear, rather than offering an object Political assessment……..and he gets paid for this? Quite bizarre, if you ask me.
Others: PoliGazette, Outside The Beltway, Corrente, Cliff Schecter, Fumbling Toward Divinity, About.com US Politics, Power Line, Comments from Left Field, Taylor Marsh and Crooks and Liars (H/T Memeorandum)