Obama Clinches With Class; Pit Bull Hillary Won't Let Go

Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s speeches yesterday demonstrate exactly what went right with this campaign.

The longer the seemingly endless quest for the nomination went on, the happier I was with my decision in March to endorse Obama. While I don’t expect that an Obama candidacy will really change much, he just has so much class, I find it impossible not to like him.

Remember eight years ago, when GWB ran as “a uniter, not a divider”–and then proceeded to run the most divisive and partisan presidency in my memory, and perhaps in the history of the country? I don’t think that would happen in an Obama presidency. At every crucial moment in the campaign, every time another candidate (like Hillary or McCain, and certainly like GWB) might have lashed out, he delivered a beautiful, genuinely unifying speech. He was graceful in apparent defeat, and remains graceful in apparent victory.

As Alternet put it, “as is his style, Obama appealed to Democrat’s better angels to unify behind a campaign for real change.”

Listen to Obama’s language last night, starting with his remarks about Hillary:

Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton.

There are those who say that this primary has somehow left us weaker and more divided. Well I say that because of this primary, there are millions of Americans who have cast their ballot for the very first time. There are Independents and Republicans who understand that this election isn’t just about the party in charge of Washington, it’s about the need to change Washington. There are young people, and African-Americans, and Latinos, and women of all ages who have voted in numbers that have broken records and inspired a nation.

All of you chose to support a candidate you believe in deeply. But at the end of the day, we aren’t the reason you came out and waited in lines that stretched block after block to make your voice heard. You didn’t do that because of me or Senator Clinton or anyone else. You did it because you know in your hearts that at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — we cannot afford to keep doing what we’ve been doing. We owe our children a better future. We owe our country a better future. And for all those who dream of that future tonight, I say – let us begin the work together. Let us unite in common effort to chart a new course for America.

Clinton, on the other hand, gave out two conflicting messages. To the larger public, she’s still not letting go:

In the coming days, I’ll be consulting with supporters and party leaders to determine how to move forward with the best interests of our party and our country guiding the way.

That same Alternet article raised a disturbing specter of Clinton the pit bull, clenching her teeth around Obama’s metaphorical pant leg and refusing to let go:

Clinton left open the possibility that she would contest Obama’s delegate totals within the party’s governing bodies. Just this past weekend, a top campaign lawyer accused the party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee of “hijacking” delegates after that body accepted a compromise on seating the Florida and Michigan delegations. It remains to be seen whether Clinton will appeal that decision to the party’s Credentials Committee.

“Now the question is, where do we go from here, and given how far we’ve come and where we need to go as a party, it’s a question I don’t take lightly,” she said.

Yet, to her private e-mail list of supporters, she sent a much more conciliatory message:

I want to congratulate Senator Obama and his supporters on the extraordinary race that they have run. Senator Obama has inspired so many Americans to care about politics and empowered so many more to get involved, and our party and our democracy are stronger and more vibrant as a result.

Whatever path I travel next, I promise I will keep faith with you and everyone I have met across this good and great country. There is no possible way to thank you enough for everything you have done throughout this primary season, and you will always be in my heart.

Sincerely,
Hillary Rodham Clinton

Let’s hope this is the real Hillary, and not the pit bull. It is long past time to get on with the business of showing McCain for the shallow, hypocritical Bush Lite he has become.