Letter From America
Pride and prejudice destroyed Hillary Clinton
Candidates are often guilty of acting the part the press assigns them. This time last year, the press anointed Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani as the two "inevitable nominees." Even after Giuliani flamed out fairly quickly, Hillary continued to wear the label as a badge of honour. Of course, the press did not consult the voters.
Hillary's pride did not let her take the challenge of the scrawny freshman African-American Senator from Illinois seriously; the one with the funny name and two big ears. As Barack Obama defined himself as a "change" candidate, Hillary's pollsters advised her to define herself as the candidate of "experience."
Experience would trump change every time, they reasoned. With Hillary sporting a 25% lead over Obama in polls as late as early January, their strategy seemed to be working.
Hillary's brain trust was full of "experienced" people who had run Bill Clinton's successful campaign in 1992. They were the new kids on the block in 1992, who ran circles around the aging President George Herbert Walker Bush.
Sixteen years later, Hillary's campaign was a replica of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign. But this is 2008. This is the era of the Internet and the social networks like "My Space" and "Facebook;" the domain of Barack Obama and his minions of young supporters. Obama's message of "change," spread through the internet, suddenly caught fire in mid-January.
No presidential candidate can win an election in the US without raising millions of dollars and spending those on television advertising. Hillary raised funds the old-fashioned way; though celebrity-studded dinners and contributions from a few wealthy donours. Obama raised three times as much through small donations from over a million donours on the Internet.
Hillary ran the best possible twentieth century-style campaign. Barack Obama introduced to the world the methods on how elections are going to be run and won in the twenty-first century.
Iowa caucus, which kicks off the nation's presidential nomination process, has been the graveyard of many a front-runner. The lily-white state does not like favourites; it favours the underdogs. Some Hillary strategists had argued unsuccessfully about skipping Iowa caucus on January 3. With Obama winning the Iowa caucus and Hillary finishing third, her aura of inevitability and invincibility were gone. A narrow victory in New Hampshire saved Hillary's candidacy from a premature demise.
With defeat staring her in the face in South Carolina, Hillary injected some prejudice into the race. Hillary attempted to diminish Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s achievements before the holiday named after him.
King needed President Johnson to enact the Civil Rights Bill, she reminded the blacks. Bill Clinton lumped Obama's victory in South Carolina with those of Jesse Jackson's in the same state in 1984 and 1988, with the clear intent of painting Obama as just another black candidate who thrives on black votes.
With the strategy of wrapping up the nomination on Super Tuesday (February 5), Hillary spent all her money before the 22-state contest. When it turned out to be a wash, a bankrupt Hillary had no plans for the future; she had no foot soldiers in the caucus states.
Obama's campaign was predicated on the long haul. His young caucus and primary workers were everywhere ushering in the "change." In the remainder of February, Obama won eleven contests in a row, essentially ending the contest.
Had the tapes of a ranting and raving Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former pastor, not surfaced in March, the game would have been over sooner. It was then that Hillary threw caution to the wind and aimed lethal fire at Obama.
Hillary claimed that both she and Senator McCain "will bring a life time of experience to the presidency; Senator Obama will bring a speech he gave;" and, "Senator McCain and I have passed the commander-in-chief test; as for Senator Obama, you have to ask him."
McCain campaign is already airing ads with clips showing Hillary uttering the above statements. In trying to damage Obama, Hillary may have mortally wounded the Democratic Party's chances of winning the presidency in November. In May, Hillary injected a dose of racism into the contest by telling the nation that "hardworking, working class whites" will not vote for the black Obama.
Bill Clinton, too, dished out more of his prejudice. "It would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country," the former president said referring to Hillary and McCain.
Bill Clinton was legitimising and reinforcing the attempts by the Republicans to portray Obama as someone less than fully American, with an unknown past, who is not patriotic enough and therefore, cannot be entrusted with the reigns of the US government.
Given such acrimonies history, it will be foolhardy for Barack Obama to offer Hillary Clinton the Vice Presidency.
Blinded by pride and prejudice, Hillary overestimated her power. Her latest spiel was directed at convincing the superdelegates that she is the better candidate. They were not convinced.
On the contrary, it was the threat of 31 of her own superdelegates, 8 senators and 23 congressmen, to endorse Obama without her releasing them, that convinced Hillary Clinton to finally concede and endorse Barack Obama on June 7.
Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed is a Rhodes Scholar and a Daily Star columnist.
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