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Footnote in History: Clinton Campaign Dies in Chilly Dakota
Regardless of all of the other indications that Hillary is closing up shop this week, when I hear that she has abandoned her practice of pointing at faces in the crowd that she pretends to recognize, I know that the end is really near.
There's a great on-the-ground report up at the Guardian today:
It was a raw, windswept afternoon when Hillary Clinton appeared on what would have to pass for a stage. There were no warm-up chants, no triumphalist campaign songs, no celebrity supporters, just five local women awkwardly flapping blue Hillary signs.
The audience at this Indian reservation - about 200 counting 14 students on a class trip from Massachusetts and their teacher, who said they were all Barack Obama supporters - was so small Clinton did not even attempt the politician's hoax of pointing to faces in fake delight.
This is what it looks like for Clinton at the end, the last gasps of a dying presidential campaign. When she launched her campaign in January last year, she cast herself as the inevitable Democratic nominee. "I'm in it to win it," she said.
-snip-
A lifetime's worth of ambitions, 16 years of acquaintances in the Democratic party establishment, 16 grinding months of rallies and debates, and $215m (£108m) in campaign funds, all now are exhausted.
So too was Clinton. Her face as she took the stage at the Pine Ridge reservation was drained of colour. People took pictures anyway. Those old enough to remember are still talking about the late Robert F Kennedy's visit to this remote outpost during the 1968 campaign.
They were already talking about Clinton's campaign in the same way: history. "I'm just curious to see her in person," said Beverly Tuttle, a grandmother from nearby Porcupine. That was as far as it went. Tuttle was voting for Obama. "I'm looking at her more like a celebrity than candidate," she said.
read the entire article here
Comments (3)
She could have quit while she was, well, not exactly on top but quite distant from the bottom.
Maybe an ignominious exit is exactly what people who "aren't quitters" need?
June 2, 2008 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
One thing that I find interesting about the Mount Rushmore photo ops that I haven't seen discussed, is that the local Native Americans regard that mountain as a highly sacred site. It was seen as a great act of desecration when Gutzon Borglum carved the heads of the presidents into it. I would think that Obama's or Clinton's people would have been aware of this, but maybe I missed it somewhere.
June 2, 2008 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another tea leaf to divine:
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/more_clinton_clues.php
June 2, 2008 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
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