Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - Into the Wild

While I was pretty busy at work yesterday, I have to say that my mind never wandered far from my newly rejuvenated political addiction. As I have made abundantly clear for the life of this blog and even before that back on MySpace, I am a Hillary Clinton supporter, and even though I think she will be an effective president, I was very much in the camp that was starting to feel as if she was facing impossible odds. A candidate like Barack Obama only comes along once in a lifetime, and his ability to inspire people is frankly beyond Hillary's grasp on a good day. With her defeat in Iowa and the polls piling up, I was very much afraid that New Hampshire was a wash.

Indeed, as I trolled the blogosphere and the news sites, there were stories like HILLARY FREAKS OUT, CAMPAIGN OUT OF MONEY, and PLACING BLAME. I was beginning to feel like I did before the November election when Bart Peterson was defeated as mayor of Indianapolis. It just felt like a fait accompli. The press, smelling blood, jumped on Hillary like Jaws in a feeding frenzy, and while I will not argue that she had made mistakes (and that she needs to fire Mark Penn), it just seemed that in the eyes of the press, Barack Obama could do no wrong, and that Hillary was some sort of doddering aunt who needed to be put back in the closet. I was not looking forward to watching the results. I didn't want to deal with the "toldya so" smuggness of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Lou Dobbs (yes, I watched both MSNBC and CNN), and when I saw that CNN wheeled out Ralph Reed from political purgatory, I was ready to crack open the vodka.

Then the exit polls started to be reported. I had sent a text message the night before to Blanch opining a "what if" scenario of the independents in New Hampshire abandoning Obama because it looked like he was such a foregone conclusion that they figured they should go support McCain. It was certainly wishful thinking. However, the exit polls showed that while Obama was getting more independents, McCain was getting a sizable chunk. Hmmm, interesting. Then they said that the number one issue for people was the economy. This was a good sign. Obama has not been an issues candidate. He has been about uniting and change. With "change" not being the number one topic, there was certainly a chance for Hillary.

Then the actual numbers started to roll in, and while Obama lead in the first reporting, Hillary took over and was never behind the entire night. I was certainly nervous, but I was hopeful because she never had the lead in Iowa. Plus, with all of the college towns not reporting, it was easy to see a scenario that Obama would pull ahead. I ended up going to karaoke with Romeo around 9:30 to meet up with Blanche, Mom, and Rockstar, but my mind was never too far from New Hampshire. I was very perturbed that the mobile version of CNN and MSNBC were not updating quickly, and I resorted to having Maestro message me whenever they actually called it. After they called it for Hillary, I left the bar around 10:30 and jacked into political coverage for the next two hours, even rewinding CNN and watching from before the call. I popped popcorn!

This to me is what makes politics fascinating. I discovered in college that I was never really too interested in the minutiae of platforms and causes. What attracted me to politics was the drama. I suppose this makes me part of the problem, but for better or worse, politics is all about strategy and positioning yourself to achieve your goals. Sure, I have an opinion on how things should be in Washington, but what keeps me interested is the behind the scenes maneuvering. It is just so....ah...I can't even describe how excited it makes me feel.

This, my friends, was the absolute best piece of political theater that we will ever be privileged to see. Even if you cannot stand the thought of Hillary as president, you have to admit how amazing this victory was. The most satisfying part of it was watching all the blowhards taking it all in and trying to twist themselves into something that didn't look like an idiot. All of the pollsters, who were so smug in the assertions of clairvoyance were left to ponder exactly how they could have gotten it so wrong.

I loved every minute of it.

We now have a race! Hillary has found her voice, and I am glad she finally listened to the people that were clamoring to know WHY she wants to run. I know she doesn't read my blog, but I said on December 13th that:

"She needs to buy into some of the idealism that Obama has, and give the American people a window into her soul as a person. What are her dreams for America in the next four years? Once she shows that she is not a strident figure all the time, then she will show us why she deserves to be President of the United States."

She has finally done that, and because of it, she can go on and fight another day. I am not counting Obama out of this, not by a long shot, but I am certainly a lot more comfortable with her ability to win it all. The thing to really take away from all of this is something that has been lost in all of this. For the first time in American history, both a black man and woman have won a caucus/primary. We have come a long way!