| Vol. 3 No. 12 June 12, 2008 |
| When thinking about U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s primary victory over U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton — I realize he is presumptive and it isn’t over until he is declared the nominee at the Democratic National Convention in August — I get flashbacks to my childhood in the 1950s when I had to get vaccinations. The science of vaccinations has come a long ways in the last 50 years. In school, we would have to wait what seemed like an hour as we waited our turn in line for the cruel and unusual punishment of the vaccination. Terror would spread and the dread was excruciating. Back then, it seemed the needles were a foot long and terribly dull as the doctor would cruelly jab it into your arm muscle. And your arm muscle would be sore for several days and the vaccination would leave a scar.But I have to admit that I am probably alive today because I took that vaccination. By taking that relatively little hurt then, I was spared the devastating effect of smallpox, rubella, polio and many other dreadful diseases that would have prevented me from reaching my adulthood and succeeding at what I do. I am now grateful for those vaccinations, no matter how painful they were then. A small dose of the disease — which is what the vaccination really is — protected me from the full-blown disease that I might have been exposed to later on. What do vaccinations have to do with Barack and Hillary you might ask? Well, it was an excruciatingly long and painful Democratic primary season. What had seemed like a sure thing for Hillary back in December turned out to be a down-to-the-wire, no-hold-barred finish last week at the conclusion of the Democratic primary season. As her hold on the nomination began to slip away, Hillary became more vociferous and aggressive in her attacks on Barack. Every little misstep was highlighted, magnified, exaggerated and downright misrepresented. It really started getting dirty when Hillary accused Barack of being an elitist — he an ex community organizer from Chicago’s south side. Hillary began to be portrayed as a shot-drinking, gun-toting “good old boy.” While in December she was the experienced Washington insider, by May, Hillary had become the champion of the little guy. In the warfare of politics, every politician can be a chameleon, turning colors to suit the tenor and hue of the day. In my opinion, Hillary was a master. I say that out of respect and not cynicism. And in early June when the Democratic credentials committee met on May 31 to decide the fate of the delegates from Florida and Michigan — who were not going to be seated at the national convention because the Democratic powers that be in those states moved their primaries up to January in defiance of party rules — Hillary supporters were outside the building where the deliberations were taking place, causing an uproar and demanding justice for the Florida and Michigan delegates. They didn’t seem to care that Hillary had supported the penalty back in January when she thought they didn’t matter. And I was thinking when I saw this on television that it was so much like the hanging chad 2000 election debacle when the Republicans shipped people to the Miami-Dade area to prevent a recount. As a matter of fact, with a number of the tactics that Hillary pursued in her quest for the nomination, I caught myself thinking ‘That is so Republican of Hillary’. And I would get mad and say I wouldn’t vote for her if she got the nomination — me being an ardent Barack supporter since 2006. But now — perhaps because it was Barack who won — I feel that Hillary was the best thing that ever happened to Barack. She did do a lot of ‘Republican’ things to get elected and exposed Barack’s weaknesses. Just like that old vaccination, I didn’t like it when Hillary was doing it — it was painful and scary — but I sure understand now that Hillary made Barack a stronger candidate heading into the fall election. The national electorate will have already heard about Barack’s weaknesses and he will have strengthened himself by the time Republican nominee John McCain’s swift-boating buddies try their ultra-negative campaign against Barack this fall. All of it will be old news. So I say thank you Hillary! You have done the Democratic Party and this nation a service. When Barack wins this fall — I am ever the optimist — it will be because of the challenge that Hillary waged. It is time for all of us — Barack and Hillary supporters — to kiss and make up. The real fight lies ahead. |
| Reflections/Jonathan Gramling Obama and Clinton |