Clinton’s Graciousness

Fallows thought that Clinton’s speech was gracious. He adds at the end:

Obviously this counts as gracious only if she follows the logic of the results and leaves the race now, or at least calls off the kind of campaigning that does the Republicans’ work for them.

I didn’t see it myself. There were a few moments when she almost seemed classy … and then they slipped away.

Reid On Clinton

The Senate Majority Leader is underwhelmed by Senator Clinton’s vow to "totally obliterate" another country:

Well, I am certainly doing my best not to take sides in this presidential thing. But I think that flexing our muscles, threatening people, threatening countries, is not the American way. We have — as President Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt said, "speak softly, carry a big stick." Words to that effect. And that’s what I think we should do. Speak softly, make sure that people know that we can react if we have to, but let’s not go around threatening people.

Von Hoffmann Award Nominee I

"’Obama by double digits’ in N.C.: Predicted by a blogger using a sophisticated model that ignores … what’s been happening in the campaign. Like Rev. Wright. I predict this person is wrong!" – Mickey Kaus, Monday, who predicted that John Kerry would be humiliated by early defeat in the 2004 primary election and that 9/11 would be out of the headlines by Thanksgiving of the same year.

The Shamelessness Of The Clintons

A reader reminds me of some basic truths:

My good friend, you’re missing the point.  You keep waiting, expecting, and predicting that Hillary Clinton is going to give up, throw in the towel, make a concession speech and go back to the Senate.  Every time things get worse you make that prediction, and she keeps going.  And that is what Bill Clinton really brought to American politics: the total lack of shame, decency, and a sense of the appropriate. 
 
How many times was Bill Clinton pinned to the wall over countless misdeeds, and each time–when any normal human being would turn red, mumble an apology, and slink away–he held his chin up high and went forward.  Being grilled on 60 Minutes over his countless affairs?  Being sued for sexual harrassment?  Being caught in a lie in front of the whole world?  Nope, no big deal, business as usual, let’s move forward.

Honestly, can you think of ANYTHING that would have caused Bill Clinton to just hang his head in shame and to retire from public life?  And if you thought he was bad, there is poll result, delegate count, fundraising statistics, whatever that would cause Hillary Clinton to quit.  When this is all over, when Obama or McCain or whomever is elected president, Hillary Clinton will still be standing in front of an almost empty room with a sagging Clinton 2008 banner behind her, still talking in a hoarse but measured voice about legal options and taking her case all the way to the Supreme Court.

I don’t think I can honestly be accused of missing the sociopathic tendencies of the Clintons. But it’s always worth remembering from time to time.

55 – 45

Clinton gets bragging rights for Indiana. But it’s basically a tie. Overall, counting both states, Clinton won 1,273,696 votes; and Obama won 1,528,897. It was a 55 – 45 percent win for Obama in the popular vote. And it’s now basically impossible for her to make a popular vote argument, even with Florida and Michigan. After the last month of unremitting Freak Show attacks, that’s a remarkable show of strength and resilience. Obama’s delegate lead grows. He will have the majority of the popular vote. He has far more money and far more donors. The logic of Clinton’s remaining in the race dwindles to the point of vanishing altogether.

Know hope.

Black Voters Did It

Obamarallyemmanueldunandafpgetty

Here’s what now seems obvious: African-American voters killed the Clinton candidacy. It is a fitting end to the Clintons’ campaign and an almost Shakespearean coda to their career. The Clintons were exposed in their long-running exploitation and reliance on minority votes. No group was more loyal to them than African-Americans; and in the end, like everyone else, African-Americans realized that the Clintons are frauds, disloyal to the core, cynical to their finger-tips, and finally, finally, returned the favor. A reader writes:

I found it striking that Clinton did not even pretend to be courting African Americans in North Carolina. Had the tables somehow been turned and had Obama’s soul been implanted in her body, he would have made a show of at least organizing one major African American outreach event there or in Indiana. Obama went bowling in Altoona, after all. I kept expecting Hillary, ever since South Carolina, and certainly since Louisiana, to give her own major speech on race to a black audience in which she expressed sincere regret for Bill Clinton’s Jesse Jackson and related comments by her surrogates.  She could have done that while still stressing that her and Bill’s mistakes were innocent in their intent, but that she is someone who looks not only at intentions but effects and regrets the rift.

Instead, she let Ferrarro rub salt in the wound.  Don’t get me wrong.  Obama is such a talented candidate and such a symbol of hope to African Americans that he was going to get 80% of the black vote no matter what.  But 92% and even higher than that in Gary!  She got numbers in the past few states worse than Nixon and worse than Reagan.

After what the Clintons did in this campaign, and what they’ve revealed about themselves, and their alliance with Fox News and Bill Kristol and Pat Buchanan, this couldn’t be more appropriate.

This will be history’s verdict: in the end, the Clintons were defeated not by Republicans, but by African-American Democrats. How wonderful. How poignant. In the end, the karma gets you. Maybe it had to be this way. But this final coup de grace against these awful, hollow, cynical people is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

(Photo: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty.)