Winning by Losing
after much wrangling, hillary clinton relinquished her claim as heir apparent
2008-08-27
By Del Walters

Sometimes parents tell their children things that simply don’t make sense.  I remember my father telling me that, “ sometimes you win by losing!” We have been told time and time again it’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game that counts.  In Denver, Tuesday night, before a packed crowd Hillary Clinton went out, gave a speech, and finally lost the Democratic Primary and in the process emerged a winner.

The Hillary Clinton speech at the Democratic National Convention had all the makings of a prize fight.  Terry McAuliffe entered the auditorium as if he were the trainer in a prize fight.  He looked like Angelo Dundee working the crowd before those great Ali fights in the 60s. 

“Is she going to knock it out of the park,” I asked, mixing my sports metaphors.

“You bet,” he told me confidently.  “In a way that democrats will be happy with in the fall,” an aide added.

Moments later he was engulfed by a sea of reporters with television cameras in tow and live shots blaring.  Terry McAuliffe, wearing a dark blue jacket and open collar light blue shirt looked very much like a man who was about to enter the fight of his life.  The problem is, the fight was, and should have been long since over.  It wasn’t.  The Democratic Primary in Campaign 2008 didn’t end until Tuesday night.

Like a heavyweight prize fight, there were the opening rounds that no one paid attention to.  There were speeches by democrats that served as little more than appetizers for the waiting faithful.  Some, like the speech of former Virginia Governor Mark Warner deserved the spotlight, but that spotlight was stolen moments later, by “Hillary.”

That moment began when a video played on the big screens located in the center of the stage, and to the back of the Pepsi Center, telling the Hillary Clinton story.  There were pictures of Hillary Clinton as a child, and Hillary Clinton as a leader for women’s rights, and Hillary Clinton as the champion of health care reform.

“But wait,” wasn’t this supposed to be the convention that hands the democratic nomination to Barack Obama?  Wasn’t this a pivotal moment in black history? All of that mattered little, as thousands began to cheer waving white signs with the word “Hillary” written across them.  Enter Chelsea Clinton.

“I would like to introduce you to my hero, my Mom, Hillary Clinton,” she said, and the cheering began followed by a standing ovation that seemed, at one point, as if it would never end.

That is when Hillary Rodham Clinton, wearing an orange pants suit, stepped up to the plate of politics and as Terry McAuliff said, “Hit it out of the park.”  But the moment was not without its drama.

Early on Hillary Clinton said the words the Obama campaign had waited an eternity to hear.  She urged her supporters, many of whom have been vocal in their cries to “never support Barack Obama,” that winning the White House was the responsibility of all democrats.  “Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose,” she said. “We are on the same team, and none of us can sit on the sidelines.” Again the crowd cheered, albeit a hesitant cheer.  But what was to come next?  Did she really mean it? 

 That’s when the speech took a southward turn.  As my momma would say, Hillary went around the corner, down the block, and through the woods to get to the other side of the street.  I started counting the number of times she began to refer to herself, and not Barack Obama, or John McCain. “I” became the keynote word in what became the night’s keynote speech.  That’s when she “hit it out of the park!”

With the poise of a veteran politician she reminded those in the crowd why she was on her journey and that her journey was the same journey of Barack Obama. She reminded them that national healthcare was more important than bruised feelings.  She reminded the crowd that John McCain is no different that George W. Bush when it came to the war in Iraq. 

“You haven’t worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership. No way. No how. No McCain.”  Then she turned up the heat on John McCain.  In the line of the evening she reminded the crowd that there really isn’t much of a difference between McCain and Bush.  She told the crowd that they would be “together in the Twin Cities, because these days they are awfully hard to tell apart.” 

The crowd went wild, but I found myself wondering, was it enough?

Clinton closed by summoning the ghosts of the Suffrage Movement that gave women the right to vote, and the name of black history’s Harriett Tubman who led the Underground Railroad, and urged her supporters to “keep going.”  “If you hear the dogs,” she said, “keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going.”  Slowly Battleship Clinton was beginning to turn and raise the flag of surrender.

At 11:10 East Coast time the solitary figure of Hillary Clinton waived goodbye to the crowd and walked through the curtain toward the rear of the stage.  Candidate Hillary Clinton was no more.  Campaign 2008 had finally ended and Hillary Clinton had finally conceded defeat.  She left the hall a winner, even though she had lost the race long before. My father’s words immediately came to mind.   She won by finally losing!

No one has been harder on Team Clinton that this journalist.  I have gone on national TV arguing that if Barack Obama acted in defeat as Hillary Clinton has, America would have, and should have called him out on it.  “Sour grapes” is the phrase that comes to mind the most.  Imagine if Michelle Obama was as distant as Bill Clinton, and while many argue Bill Clinton is a former President, I argue he didn’t act like one during the primary.

As I left the arena I asked several people if Hillary closed the deal. “I think she did,” a couple from Denver told me.  

“When did she do it,” I asked?  

“In the last ten minutes of the speech,” they answered. There were three of them. Two were Obama supporters, one supported Hillary.  All three now say they will vote for Barack Obama.  All three are black.

My cell phone rang; it was my friend from Virginia Dr. Caryl Mussenden.  “Did she do it,” I asked again? 

“I think she did,” Caryl eagerly proclaimed. Again she echoed the opinion I heard so many say as they left the arena, that Hillary closed the deal in the last ten minutes of the speech. 

When it was all over I found myself wondering whether she had gone over the top, or did she do just enough?  She did nothing to nullify her own words that are being used effectively by the McCain camp.  She didn’t declare Obama ready to lead on “day one” or to “answer that 3 a.m. phone call.”  As I made my way through the maze of people and heard several die hard Hillary supporters say, no matter what, they plan to stay home this fall. 

Hillary Clinton may have emerged the winner Tuesday night in Denver, but that is the problem.  This convention is supposed to be about the nomination of Barack Obama.  History is about to be made, black history.  The Democratic Party is about to hand the torch to a black man to lead the charge to the White House.  Against that backdrop, I couldn’t help but think why is everyone still talking about Hillary?

Del Walters is an Emmy award-winning investigative reporter, filmmaker and author.