Presidential Politcs - The Week That Was

So ends the week that saw Barack Obama to become the first African-American presidential candidate. So everyone makes the big point about. It also overlooks that he is the first person to actually have pulled himself up by bootstraps into national political life since Bill Clinton and maybe even more so than Bill Clinton - Obama just paid off his student loans a few years ago.

Probably a good thing that it finally came to an end. I suspect my wife's reaction to the words "Hillary Clinton" was similar to many of us - boredom edging into frustration into disgust.

Scotland's The Sunday Herald had a lot to say about Obama finally getting the Democratic Party's nomination. Hillary's last hurrah captures the weirdness of this past week.

The speech that followed defied belief. Pressure for Clinton to bow out has certainly been ugly at times but refusing to admit Obama had won crossed the line, separating determination and delusion.

and then:

Clinton is not a natural public speaker. Her cadence is stilted, her mannerisms awkward. It is no stretch to say Obama won the nomination at the podium. But yesterday she found a grace and good humour that has too often been lacking. "This isn't exactly the party I'd planned," she began, "but I sure like the company."

***

After paying lip service to her "friend" without acknowledging his victory, Clinton ran through some familiar themes: the swing state argument, her claim to have won the popular vote, her readiness to lead, and the people who "reached out to help me, to grab my hand or grip my arm, to look into my eyes and tell me don't quit, keep fighting, stay in this race for us'."

The Guardian had this to report:

In her speech, Clinton went a long way to making that process a little easier. She tackled head-on the ferocity of the emotions that have grown in the party. She argued that the prospect of another Republican in the White House should unite them all behind Obama, and said she would be personally committed to that goal. She borrowed one of Obama's own campaign slogans. 'So today I am standing with you to say: 'Yes, we can!',' she said. 'We cannot let this moment slip away. We have come too far and we have accomplished too much.'

At such words, the Democratic establishment's biggest fear - the nightmare of a convention fight in Denver - evaporated in the humidity of a Washington summer afternoon. In an appealing, joky turn of phrase, Clinton admonished any of her fans who were even thinking of letting their defeat turn them off voting for Obama: 'Please don't go there. Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from looking forward. Life is too short, time is too precious and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been.'

So much for Rush Limbaugh's wet dreams of Operation Chaos.

Back to The Sunday Herald for its editorial US has changed, but can it go all the way?:

"The political reality for Obama now is that another kind of division may yet prove his downfall. Hillary Clinton's failure, and where her devoted support will now go, could determine whether or not McCain wins and subjects the US and the world to another four years of the Republicans.

This will mean no change in Iraq or Afghanistan, little prospect of peace in the Middle East and, without dialogue, the acceleration of US tension over Iran - which is already being talked of as the next Iraq."

The Sunday Herald also a fun bit of political satire with OK, Hillary, what’s next for a woman of your talents?.

HC: Who ever said I wanted to be vice-president?

BO: You mean, you don't?

HC: Hell no. It's worth less than a bucket of cold spit. I'm no second fiddle. I can be more powerful as the first female majority leader of the Senate.

BO: What are we talking about then?

HC: I want you to offer me it so that I can turn it down.

BO: Okay. I'll think about it.

Even reading something like Obama Maps a Nationwide Push in G.O.P. Strongholds shows the efforts being made to unify the party:

"In one telling example, he is moving to hire Aaron Pickrell, the chief political strategist of Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio — who helped steer Mrs. Clinton to victory in that state’s primary — to run his effort against Mr. McCain there. In another, aides said, he has tapped Dan Carroll, an opposition researcher who gained fame digging up information on opponents’ records for Bill Clinton in 1992, to help gather information about Mr. McCain. That is the latest evidence that, for all the talk on both sides about a new kind of politics, the general election campaign is likely to be bloody.

Mr. Obama’s campaign is considering hiring Patti Solis Doyle, a longtime associate of Mrs. Clinton who was her campaign manager until a shake-up in February, the first of what Mr. Obama’s aides said would be a number of hires from the Clinton campaign."

And al tlhis the week that Bo Diddley died.