no hope for hillary/mccain
by Jeremy Skinner
Published: February 26, 2008
Lately, as a segue into drawing distinctions between himself and the soon-to-be Republican presidential nominee, Barack Obama has been praise-mocking John McCain for his “half-century” of service to the nation. McCain responded by suggesting an Obama-McCain debate on age, in which he would no doubt accentuate his most recent message: “That young whippersnapper doesn’t know a thing about hope.”
Of course, no one would deny that McCain also knows the importance of hope. Surely, it helped him endure five and a half years of captivity and torture.
Unfortunately, McCain’s greatest hope is not to change America, but to become president - at any cost. The likeable candidate from the 2000 Republican primary is MIA; or AWOL; or maybe he’s a POW of the right wing.
Whichever is most accurate, one thing is clear: the old McCain (sorry!), who stood up to his party and its failed leader, is gone. In his place, we have the new McCain, bear-hugging George W. Bush just as he did in that famous photograph. He now supports the irresponsible, unfair tax cuts he previously voted against. He says we could be in Iraq for a hundred years. Worst of all, the former victim of torture has now voted to condone it.
Backing up a bit (Hillary Clinton’s presidential obituary, albeit fully written, can’t be published yet), in the Democratic primary, Clinton also continues to question Obama’s message of hope. Maybe next, she will try to appropriate the “hope” theme the way she has tried to claim she is the true candidate of change. Of course, Clinton’s claim to hope - like her entire political career - would surely be derivative of her husband, the boy from Hope.
McCain calls Obama’s hope a “platitude,” Clinton calls it false; with 10 primary victories in a row and polls in Texas and Ohio showing Obama breathing down Clinton’s neck, who’s the one with his/her head in the clouds?
To help me answer my question I watched Clinton use an election night to give her stump speech on national television (which couldn’t compare to seeing Obama in person the day before), and it was confirmed to me that she has moved beyond the clouds and is on another planet altogether. She was routed (I can use that term; even the AP uses it) in the “Potomac Primary.” Usually, that would at least call for simple congratulations. Instead, Clinton pretended the elections in Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. - not to mention 7 other primaries - never happened.
With or without her concession, voters across America are choosing Obama. Now, Clinton wants to claim she’s the underdog. Unfortunately for her, being repudiated does not make you an underdog. As much as she wants to be, she is not Cinderella. (But if she agrees to be Gretel to Obama’s Hansel, then I’ll stop being so hard on her!)
Obama says that “the wheels have come off” McCain’s Straight Talk Express. Clinton can’t accept that the electorate has fallen off her bandwagon.
In the end, Barack Obama’s campaign has been an unlikely journey. But so has John McCain’s eight-year campaign: he somehow morphed from the knight in shining armor into the prince of darkness. Still, of all of the candidates (yes, including Dennis Kucinich!), Hillary Clinton is the one living a fairy tale. Hey, if the shoe fits…
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