The results of the South Carolina primary indicate that "hardball" lost and "civility" won. Hillary got on Face the Nation this morning and pretty much argued that hardball is the name of the game. It's the way to WIN. It's the way the game has evolved over the past 30 years. Partisanship wins the day. All is fair in love, war, and politics. She was unapologetic even as she was touting her ability to unite everyone. The only disclaimer was her statement that the Democratic Party will stand together as one after the political battles are done.
Her tone and statements were defensive, argumentative, and unapologetic. She stands for the past and the politics of partisanship. She epitomizes "Hardball." She's lost her voice to husband Bill. South Carolina showed us that "Pit Bull Bill" was not helpful to Hillary, in fact it pretty well smashed the politics of the past for the time being unfortunately. There was Bill, giving the concession speech. Where was Hillary? Who's running for President? From the New York Times:
As Mr. Obama’s supporters gathered in a downtown convention center here and Mrs. Clinton was on the plane to Tennessee, former President Bill Clinton gave what amounted to the campaign’s concession speech, a reflection of how he emerged as the proxy candidate as his wife campaigned in other states. In that address, at a rally in Missouri, he said of Mr. Obama: “Hillary congratulated him, and I congratulate him. Now we go to Feb. 5, when millions of Americans can finally get into the act.”
Obama was more conciliatory on This Week. He seemed to be a cautious but confident winner as he fended off the questions of George Stephanopolos.
STEPHANOPOULOS: They look at everything through racial lines, gender lines, geographic lines. They tend to segment people.
They say that it was your campaign playing the race card.
OBAMA: George, I'm not going to continue sort of the tit-for- tat. I think that the results yesterday spoke for themselves, that people wanted to move beyond some of these old arguments, and they want to look forward to figure out how we pull the country together and move forward, and that's what we're going to do during the remainder of this campaign.
Later in the interview, Obama again refused to take the bait:
STEPHANOPOULOS: The longer this campaign goes on and the nastier it gets, the more pressure that's going to be on both you and Senator Clinton to come together and show a united front in November. Are you open to having Senator Clinton as your running mate, and vice versa serving with her?
OBAMA: Oh, you know, I think it's premature, George, to talk about running mates. I mean, we've got a lot of election left here. So all of us, I think, are competing vigorously. Senator Edwards is running a terrific campaign as well.
And what I want to do is try as much as possible to spend the remaining weeks and potentially months of the campaign talking about the issues that all Democrats should be concerned about, and I think all Americans should be concerned about.
Obama is learning the ropes of a presidential campaign when he answers baited, leading questions with talking points. It's frustrating but should remind us all that there are issues to discuss folks! He is the candidate right now who is doing the best job of focusing on the issues and reminding us that he's running for President of ALL of us, not just the Democratic Party.
Hope won in South Carolina... by a lot. Stay tuned and stay hopeful. Maybe Barack Obama CAN be a winner using the politics of the future. Maybe he CAN get the younger generation to give up their apathy and cynicism regarding "politics as usual" and get involved enough to put him over the top.
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