As tonight's results pour in (gotta love Oregon's haul-ass mail in vote counting) and Obama soars past the half-way mark on pledged delegates, I was thinking about this race and what it has meant.
And I wanted to extend a heartfelt thanks to Hillary Clinton.
Please hear me out below the jump.
Set the way-back machine to January. Obama has just won Iowa and he looks poised to win New Hampshire.
The pundits are falling all over themselves saying that the democratic primaries will be over in South Carolina. "How can she recover?" They're saying. "She loses Iowa, New Hampshire, Obama will win Nevada with the culinary union who will endorse tomorrow, and then he'll win South Carolina. She'll be 0 and 4, how can she continue to raise money after that?"
Then, she wins New Hampshire. As I saw that result come in, I was crushed. I truly believed that it was over. The only way, the ONLY way to stop Hillary Clinton, with all her advantages, was to wipe her out early and consolidate power before she had a chance to respond.
But, as Obama said the morning after the New Hampshire primary, it was right that he lost. Because what they were doing shouldn't be easy. The change they were trying to make should be hard.
But for me, I was just scared. I was scared of Clinton going negative, which I knew she would. I was scared that she would find something, possibly by accident, that would stick to Obama and permanently damage his candidacy. I was scared that he would become just another politician, dragged into the mud. I was scared that Obama wouldn't be able to handle it. That he had a glass jaw when it came to the irrational, racist, ludicrous attacks the republicans would throw at him.
Hillary Clinton has put those fears to rest, and for that I thank her.
As the race has dragged on and the delegate math got farther from Hillary's reach, I like to think that she and her advisers agreed to 'go republican' for the race. The thinking goes (I imagine) that if they played the game like republicans play the game and Obama still wins, then Obama's really all he's cracked up to be and deserves the nomination. However, if he can't deal with this stuff now, then he'll get killed in the general election.
The effective result is that this excruciating campaign against Hillary Clinton has been 'boot camp' for Obama in the realm of a national campaign.
For those of you who haven't served in the armed forces there's nothing nice about boot camp. You're sick all the time, you're always exhausted, you're always running or marching some damn place (often back and forth on the same field for hours). Every muscle aches, you have blisters, strained muscles, you lose your voice, and are forced to sit through some of the most miserable power point presentations ever produced while trying to stay awake. Meanwhile, people are yelling at you all the time no matter what you do, and you truly feel, every day, like you may have made the worst decision of your whole life.
But when you come out on the other end, you know . . . not think, but KNOW what you are capable of. You know where your limits are, you know what it feels like to push past that 'comfort point' that NO ONE crosses unless they have to.
Four years ago, we had a quick and clean primary and ended up with a candidate who, for all his good qualities, could not handle the pressures and rapid cycle of the lunacy we call a national election. He was slow to recognize threats, slow to decide what to do about them, and unfocused about refuting them.
Barack Obama has now faced adversity on a national stage and handled it with dignity and grace. He has kept his eye on the ball, focused on what is important, and he has come out scarred, but strong. I was proud to see him improve in each debate as he got out of his comfort zone and sharpened his answers for the format. I was proud to listen to him after each victory AND defeat. I was proud when he first stood up for Wright and tried to elevate our national discourse. And I was proud when he severed ties after Wright essentially called him a liar.
Barack Obama has grown as a candidate and as a leader during this excruciating primary season. He has been vetted and seasoned by the contest.
The race is cooling down, but it's not quite over. The vitrol from both campaigns (if not their supporters and surrogates) has grown warm and appreciative. I expect these final contests to complete, the Michigan and Florida clusterf**k to be resolved, and for the party to unite around Barack Obama, a candidate who has been forged into steel in the heat of this battle.
And for that, Hillary Clinton, I thank you.
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