The Clintons' leadership of the Democratic Party was great for the Clintons, terrible for the Democratic Party: They lost the House, they lost the Senate, they lost state legislatures and governors' mansions, and in the end Clinton couldn't even bequeath the White House to his Vice-President in a time of peace and prosperity. Yet his First Lady wound up with a Senate seat. After a decade and a half of his neo-monarchical stewardship, you get a real (if discreetly expressed) sense of frustration from a big chunk of Dems that the first woman candidate should happen to be this particular woman.
And yet it's doubtful anyone other than Barack Obama could have inflicted this defeat on her. Take him out of the race and who wins Iowa? Up against Edwards, Biden and Richardson, she'd have been leaning even more heavily on the identity-politics card. Obama trumped the one thing she had going for her. He's a reminder that this system rewards those who see their opportunity and seize it. In that sense, if no other, he's this season's Bill Clinton. |