The Comeback Girl
By Keith Boykin
Tuesday, January 8 2008, 11:26PM
in politics
They said it would never happen. They said the Clintons were politically dead and would never recover from a huge loss in Iowa and the projected loss in New Hampshire. But something funny happened on the way to the nomination tonight. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton upset Barack Obama by pulling out a stunning victory. The polls were completely wrong, and at the end of the day, the pundits were left scratching their heads.
Last month I predicted Barack Obama would win New Hampshire and Hillary Clinton would win Iowa. As it turns out, I had it completely backwards. But oddly enough, I predicted the Republican result completely accurately in both Iowa and New Hampshire. I predicted Huckabee, Romney and McCain would finish first, second and third in Iowa and McCain, Romney and Huckabee would finish first, second and third in New Hampshire. Maybe I'm too close to the Democratic field to make objective analysis.
But in any event, there's something going on in the Democratic Party. The turnout in New Hampshire was historic. Democrats are motivated like never before to elect a president, and it looks like it will be a woman or an African American as the Democratic nominee.
The speeches Tuesday night set the tone for the race to come. Edwards vowed to fight onto the convention and be a voice for the 48 states that had not spoken and for the millions of Americans whose voices are seldom heard in politics. Obama spoke next and articulated an upbeat message of hope for the future of his campaign with the theme "Yes we can." And then came Hillary.
Hillary Clinton said exactly what she needed to say. She said that by listening to the voices of the people of New Hampshire she was able to find her own voice. That's not only a powerful message but a powerful narrative that suggests she heard what the critics had to say. So she decided to be herself, she took over her campaign, she let herself (almost) cry, and she tapped into the women's vote in a way that the old, cold Hillary Clinton of Iowa could never do. She even kicked Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Wesley Clark off the stage for the victory speech and filled it with young people who represent the future of America. New Hampshire provided dramatic political theater and it had the potential to become a defining and transformative moment for Clinton's campaign.
If Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, she can look back at the New Hampshire primary as the place where she began to turn it around. And if Barack Obama should lose the nomination, he might point to New Hampshire also. I find it very odd and troubling that the polls were so far off in projecting the outcome of the Democratic race, and immediately I thought about the history of polling when black candidates run for office. But no matter what happened with the polls in New Hampshire, we have a good old fashioned race on our hands.
There will be no coronation of Saint Barack or Queen Hillary this year. Instead, the Democrats will get what they deserve -- a fair chance to evaluate several good candidates and decide which one they like the best.
sfsinger
January 9 2008, 3:32AM
I don't think the Clintons want to give us a fair chance to evaluate good candidates. I think they want to distort the imagery, lie, and put fear in voters into NOT voting for any other candidate but Hillary. They're no better than Bush. I listened to one of the speeches Bill gave earlier and his basically dissed Obama's plan for a pull-out in Iraq as a faerietale. Let's not forget that people voted for an Iraq pull-out and the Democrats can't pull their heads out their butts long enough to stop giving Bush a blank check to keep waging the takeover - I refuse to call a war. Anyway, I was on the fence about who to vote for. I know who I will not be voting for now.