It’s
quarter to three, there’s no one in the place except Hillary and me. So,
set ‘em up, Joe, I got a little story I think you oughta know. We’re
drinking my friend to the end of a long episode. So make it one for my
beer drinkin’, whiskey swillin’, friend Hillary Clinton here, and one or
two more for the road.
"You’d never know it, but
buddy I’m a kind of poet and I’ve got a lot of things I wanna say. And
if I’m gloomy, please listen to me, till it’s all, all talked away. "
My heart is heavy; I
think you’re the right candidate that the Dems oughta nominate. But
those fools in the party, the one’s with the authority wouldn’t know a
winner if they saw one they’re just so fool-hardy.
They’re stuck on Barack
Obama, the party’s left-wing hand-picked candidate, the chosen one, the
man they gave a rock star welcome to. Oprah Winfrey, Teddy Kennedy,
Maria Shriver, Caroline Kennedy, they embraced that Barack Obama as if
he were one of their own. “Change we can believe in,” they shouted out.
“Yes, we can.”
So many wistfully
remember a simpler time when another handsome young man who had that
special quality called charisma seduced America’s young. That man, John
Kennedy, made it to the White House and then was tragically slain,
leaving a legacy borne of tragedy, if not always an accurate one, of
what was and might have been. Oh, to have that moment of promise back
again.
Of course, America’s
youth latched onto Obama’s dream because after all, youth is a time for
dreaming; a time in life when what the world offers is mostly hope and
the promise for what tomorrow will bring.
That’s a hard act to
follow, my good friend Hillary, as you have had to learn. You offer
experience; no one cares about experience anymore. This is America where
middle-age is old and a long resume leads to forced retirement.
The right wing conspiracy
against President Clinton has turned into the left wing conspiracy
against your candidacy. The Democratic Party is being co-opted by the
radical left, much as the Republican Party has been a prisoner of its
radical right. Take a long swig, Hillary, for the truth is, you’re
caught in the middle of a political coup; the far left is trying
to oust you and your husband of your party’s control.
You’ve been fighting
valiantly; even your enemies have embraced you. It’s just your old
friends, disloyal, thankless people like Bill Richardson, Paul Kirk, Bob
Reich, and Joseph Andrew who have thrown you aside. Money talks in
politics, well, money talks, period, and the Obama machine has bested
you in that department.
And Barack Obama was
thought to be an easy win for the party. After all, he’s inexperienced;
they thought he didn't come with your well-earned baggage. His record
appeared clean. And Barack Obama is a black man, sorta, which would
make him appealing to everyone, wright? Finally, the left thought,
let’s get rid of the Clintons and all their luggage and go with a sure
winner who will owe us his presidency when he wins.
Except, no one had banked
on Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers, Michael Phleger or Khalid Rashid, and
certainly no one had written into the script the very un-Reverend
Jeremiah Wright, Jr. Nor had any of those elitists who support you
thought that a man of mixed-parentage could be considered by those
blue-collar white voters an elitist himself. Of course, when you’re Ted
Kennedy and you’re picking your candidate everyone looks like a regular
Joe to you, even a Harvard law school graduate and a best-selling author
who lives in a mansion in ritzy Hyde Park, Chicago, Illinois.
Now its quarter to three
in the morning and you’re not even tired, Hillary. Everyone is talking
about you as if you’re the Energizer bunny. You’re just hitting your
stride and poor Barack Obama who is so much younger than you the other
day was so fatigued that he couldn’t remember where he was and within
minutes told the same story twice.
Still, there’s a phone
call possibly coming, from the head of the party, telling you its time
for you to go even though Obama has been seriously wounded and despite
the fact that those blue-collar white voters are having a hard time
marking their X on the Obama name. On the other hand, you’re edging up
in the polls and the voters are indeed willing to mark their X on the
Clinton brand.
But the party honchos are
still standing by their baby, either too stupid to realize Barack Obama
is not the best candidate to become the party’s nominee; or too stubborn
to admit their mistake; or so brash that they are willing to bring the
party down by fronting the risky Obama; or too scared to take on the
wrath of the African-American wing of the party who have threatened to
recreate the 1968 convention riots if their man, Obama, is denied the
nomination, even though if the blacks were to do that, it was their man
they cared about and not the party. Is anyone thinking about the wrath
of the women supporting Hillary Clinton?
So really, it is quarter
to three and that phone call is coming unless, of course, you pull an
upset victory in North Carolina, Indiana or maybe Oregon. But, even then
the party will abandon you with the excuse that Obama won the delegate
count when he didn’t anymore than you did. Or with the explanation that
he won more states, which is meaningless because he won caucuses in
states not needed for the real election. And, of course, there’s the
popular vote problem, the one the party is keeping from you by
deliberately denying both Florida and Michigan a recount.
Ok, Hillary, it's very
late and I could tell you a lot more, but, well, that’s how it
goes, and Joe I know you’re getting’ anxious to close. So thanks for the
cheer, I hope you didn’t mind my bending your ear. So make it one for my
Hillary, and one more for the road, that, long, long, road.