A Toast To Hillary

I don’t see myself as someone who is easily moved to tears, especially in matters concerning politics. I have been an avid follower of this presidential race from the beginning, I have been watching, listening and reading all about the candidates the last 16 months. I started out with the idea of supporting Hillary and then early on, as I was exposed to the other candidates, I became intrigued by the number of democrats I thought had valid and worthy things to say about our country. I decided to hold off deciding to choose until after I had gotten to know them and their policies a bit better. It became clearer that there were a few in the bunch, besides Clinton, ie; Kucinich, Obama, Edwards, and Biden, etc…that had some interesting ideas.

What use to be a lean steady diet of Jon Stewart and Bill Maher had now become a veritable smorgasbord with the likes of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Chuck Todd, Tim Russert, Maureen Dowd, Arianna Huffington (just to name a few) invading my home at all hours of the day and night.
Armed with information, I chose to support Barack Obama. I felt intuitively that he was the change that our country needed and that he was someone who, through it all, displayed great confidence and integrity, even the way he would say “we” and “our” as opposed to “I” and “my”, it always seemed like he was more connected to the rest of us. For these, and other reasons, I chose to support Barack Obama over all the other candidates. I watched as it came down to just the two of them: Barack and Hillary. I watched as the endorsements unfolded, the delegates were counted (and recounted) and the mud was slung. I watched as she and her campaign lied, exaggerated and insisted that they were winning even when the numbers never added up. I watched as the Democratic Party became more divided and looked as if it was becoming fractured beyond repair. I began to lose all respect for her and her campaign managers. Until finally last Tuesday night arrived and it happened, right after Montana’s numbers were in: Barack Obama was named the presumptive nominee. Now, I thought, if only Hillary would just accept this reality and help the party reunite.
After what seemed an eternity, yesterday afternoon Hillary Clinton endorsed Barack Obama for President. An event I had been waiting to see happen for what seemed like years, all the while anticipating a feeling of victory and great satisfaction.
As she approached the podium, my partner and I sat on the sofa, celebratory drinks in hand, we turned up the volume on the TV with rapt attention… that’s when it happened… as I watched her approach the mike with her mother, husband, and daughter in tow I began to cry, I couldn’t contain my tears, I just wept. I was extremely moved. It wasn’t the words she used or how she delivered it, they weren’t tears of happiness that Barack had won, or a great relief that finally this part of it was over. No, there was something more basic about it, the human element, the frailty of it, the realness of what was happening in that very moment and how big it all really was, the awesome reality of what she had tried to do, the work she had put into it, it all struck me in that instance and my tears continued to flow throughout the speech, I felt like I was seeing her for the first time: real, humble, an American, a person, a woman.