A Graceless Tuesday, No, A Teaming Up Seminal Saturday, Yes

On Saturday, June 7, Senator Hillary Clinton dropped out of the Democratic presidential race with a superb if according to some, at too late a date, concession speech. Nowhere does “better late than never” apply than to this instance because she ran a great race, exceeded many expectations, and really did get 18,000,000 voters. As to whether the voters she got instead of Senator Obama could be the ones she’d keep against Mr. McCain, that’s another future entry, but…. whether Mr. Obama will keep all the votes he got against Mrs. Clinton against Mr. McCain, that’s something no one questions. But back to Hillary, she can be a force on the Democratic team for decades if . . . she plays like someone who believes in the team. This will require, this time at least, for her to be up on stage but not center stage, as she supports the presidential run of Barack Obama, and more importantly the rights and aspirations of those whose lives will be minimalized, restricted and marginalized by the election of John McCain. She must get the women who truly believe in her to believe in their own vote and their own self-interests.
For those who nit pick and say she should have conceded the night of the last primary, it had been an epic contest, a gut wrenching competition and she just needed (a little) more time. But time, and there’s a fair amount left, can be a great Democratic ally if she can repeat and entreat, and complete her message for the coming election and the coming together of her party. If she does that, Mrs. Clinton will be even more heroic than when she was running for herself, she’ll be running for us all. That said, if she uses this remaining time to November 4th well, the GOP may have nothing to fear so much as time itself, and this was not an age joke.