Patrick Goggin
By Patrick Goggin
February 20, 2008
Watching Hillary Clinton’s Ohio speech after her drubbing in Wisconsin left me feeling a bit uneasy for her. There she was repeating the same tired lines of her readiness to serve on “Day 1” while her naïve front-running opponent keeps asserting his president-worthiness with his paltry level of experience. This after her campaign had indicated to the media that on Tuesday night hers would be a speech sounding a new chorus. Mid-sentence the speech was cutoff as the networks shifted to Houston and the roar of 20,000 Texans welcoming Barack Obama to the Lone Star State.
The Wisconsin results were indeed telling. Obama made significant gains amongst Hillary’s core constituencies: women and the working class. What seemed like a state primed for a Hillary comeback upset turned out to be yet another landslide in a long list of them for her this month. The double-digit Wisconsin loss, not to mention her trouncing in Hawaii, indicates it is time for Hillary to hang it up and seek the greener pastures of the Senate.
The enthusiasm of the Obama movement will overwhelm John McCain in November as is seen not only in the polling but his more than doubling the votes garnered by McCain in the open Wisconsin primary. With this rising wave of inspired support for Obama will come significant coattails in the general election cementing the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
Hillary has proven during this election cycle her intimate familiarity with such critical issues as health care, education and the environment and knack for crafting detailed solutions to the deficits we find ourselves in because of the Bush years. Is not her penchant for policy wonkiness most aptly suited for the Senate?
Assuming the mantle of the Executive Branch successfully requires a certain kind of individual with somewhat different traits than the typical characteristics of a proficient Senator. The presidency mandates bridging political divides to move the nation forward and enact new policies that will usher in great change when it is so desperately needed. Obama has proven his abilities to bring disparate factions together as evidenced early on by his becoming president of the Harvard Law Review via gaining the support of conservatives and, today, by his ability to pull large numbers of independents, along with some Republicans, from McCain, the former favorite son of independents.
Now is the time for Hillary to salvage her legacy and return to the path of becoming the next Senate Majority Leader. With Obama at the helm of the Executive Branch, Hillary can woman the Senate ship with its extended Democratic majority and be most effective in implementing the policy changes she has so brilliantly outlined in great detail on her campaign website. The sooner she stops attacking the inevitable Democratic nominee the sooner she can get cracking on repairing their strained relationship laying the groundwork on what has the potential to be a truly great, historic partnership between the first African-American President and the first woman Senate Majority Leader.
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