The Hillary Waltz function getSharePasskey() { return
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function getShareHeadline() { return encodeURIComponent('The Hillary Waltz');
} function getShareDescription() { return encodeURIComponent('One of the
most valuable lessons the gritty Hillary Clinton can teach the languid Barack
Obama — and the timid Democrats — is that the whole point of a
presidential race is to win.'); } function getShareKeywords() { return
encodeURIComponent('Presidential Election of 2008,United States Politics and
Government,Presidential Elections (US),Democratic Party,Hillary Rodham
Clinton,Barack Obama'); } function getShareSection() { return
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encodeURIComponent('By MAUREEN DOWD'); } function getSharePubdate() { return
encodeURIComponent('April 2, 2008'); } By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: April 2, 2008
Democrats getting jittery about the alienating effects of the endless soap
opera they call their campaign should buck up. These hand-wringers, as the
Hillary strategist Harold Ickes calls them, are not seeing the larger picture.
Hillary is cruelly misunderstood, and she deserves more credit for her
benevolence. Not only does she have a lot in common with Rocky, as she said
Tuesday in Philadelphia, but she has a lot in common with another famous
character the Marschallin in Strausss bittersweet comic opera Der
Rosenkavalier.
The Marschallin is a princess married to a Viennese field marshal who has a
liaison dangereuse with a younger man, Count Octavian. Though shes worried
about her fleeting youth and the fickleness of men, she instructs the young man
on the ways of love and then gracefully sets him free, allowing him to find
happiness with young Sophie as a soaring waltz plays.
Whether or not she wins, Hillary has already given noble service as a
sophisticated political tutor for Obama, providing her younger colleague with
much-needed seasoning. Who else was going to toughen him up? Howard Dean? John
Edwards? Dennis Kucinich?
Obama had not been hit hard until this campaign; he sailed through his Senate
race. Without Hillary, he never would have learned to be a good debater. He
never would have understood how to robustly answer distorted and personal
attacks. He never would have been warned about how harmful an unplugged spouse
can be. He never would have realized how a luminous speech can be effective
damage control.
When pressed about whether hes ready for Swift-boating, Obama has seemed a
bit cavalier. But the Hillary camp will garrote him with his mistakes until he
fully appreciates what garroting feels like. Ickes told a Web site Tuesday that
he has been pursuing superdelegates by pressing the Rev. Wright issue.
Besides coaching Obama, Hillary is also shielding him. If she had not fibbed
about the Tuzla airport landing, and then fibbed to get out of a fib, the press
would have stayed focused on Wright. She has been an invaluable lightning rod.
Hillary has clearly raised Obamas consciousness about the importance of
courting the ladies. Touring a manufacturing plant in Allentown, Pa., Tuesday,
he was flirtatious, winking and grinning at the women working there, calling
one Sweetie, telling another she was beautiful, and imitating his
daughters dance moves by twirling around.
Later, at a Scranton town hall, he went up to Denise Mercuri, a pharmacist
from Dunmore wearing a Hillary button. What do I need to do? Do you want me on
my knees? he charmed, before promising: Ill give you a kiss.
Obama has been less adept at absorbing the lesson of Hillarys metamorphosis
from entitled queen of the party to scrappy blue-collar mama. His strenuous and
inadvertently hilarious efforts to woo working-class folk in Pennsylvania have
only made him seem more effete. Keeping his tie firmly in place, he genteelly
sipped his pint of Yuengling beer at Sharkys sports cafe in Latrobe and bowled
badly in Altoona. Challenging Obama to a bowl-off, Hillary kindly offered to
spot him two frames.
At the Wilbur chocolate shop in Lititz Monday, he spent most of his time
skittering away from chocolate goodies, as though he were a starlet obsessing
on a svelte waistline.
Oh, now, the woman managing the shop told him with a frown, you dont
worry about calories in a chocolate factory.
The Timess Michael Powell reports that, after watching five plump,
white-haired women in plastic hairnets spin the chocolate into such confections
as Phantom of the Opera masks and pink high heels, he ventured: Do you
actually eat the chocolate or do you get sick of it? They giggled at his
silliness.
He looked even more concerned when he was offered a chocolate cake with white
chocolate frosting. Oh, man. he said. Thats too decadent for me.
One of the most valuable lessons the gritty Hillary can teach the languid
Obama and the timid Democrats is that the whole point of a presidential
race is to win.
Its not to share power, or force the squabbling couple into an arranged
marriage. The winner wins, even if its only by a fraction of a percentage
point or one Supreme Court justice. Winning has no margin of error, as the
Democrats should have learned by now. And the winner gets to decide his or her
running mate.
But the ultimate favor Hillary can do for the Illinois freshman is to fight
him full-out until the finale and then gracefully release him so he can find
happiness with another.
Hillarys work is done only when she is done, because the best way for Obama
to prove hes ready to stare down Ahmadinejad is by putting away someone even
tougher.
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