In Memoriam
The Last Days of the Clinton Dynasty
The former first family stopped thinking about tomorrow.
(Page 2 of 2)
At a rally in a Des Moines high school on Sunday night, he poked fun at these slash and burn political tactics, and had the crowd of over 1,000 eating out of his hands.
“I do not choose to run because of long-held ambitions,” he said, and joked, “I know that people have been going through my Kindergarten papers.” He continued, twisting the knife, “I did not choose to run because it was somehow owed to me, because it was my turn.”
On Thursday night, Clinton appeared before a crowd of Iowans who chanted “New Hamp-shire” and “Hill-a-ry” as she tried to convince the world that she had always intended to run a national campaign.
But the external show of enthusiasm could not hide the blow the defeat represented to her campaign. “This is really sad,” I heard one supporter remark to her friend as she made her way out of Clinton’s speech.
After Clinton addressed her supporters in a hotel ballroom downtown, Obama electrified a crowd of several thousand at the Hy-Vee Hall. “You said, the time has come to move beyond the bitterness, and pettiness, and anger that’s consuming Washington,” Obama beamed.
The biggest obstacle Obama had to overcome in this campaign was the perception that he was a lightweight and that the movement he was building wouldn’t translate into actual votes. Now that he has shed this perception, he will ride the wave of change to the Democratic nomination.
Though some would hesitate to be so bold, as far as this observer is concerned, the era of the Clintons is over.
About the Author
Philip Klein is The American Spectator’s Washington correspondent. You can follow him on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/Philipaklein
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SKEPTICS LIKED TO portray Obama as a rube, but he played this one beautifully. While Clinton faded in the days leading up to the caucuses, Obama found his stride, and there was a sense that he was tapping into the gut of the Democratic voter the way Bill Clinton did in 1992.