Hillary Clinton, exhausted after months of dogged determination on the campaign trail and with the knowledge that nothing has worked to move ahead of Barack Obama and nothing can work short of scandal, her hopes of re-inhabiting 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue dashed, waved goodbye to her one, good chance of being President Tuesday in Indianapolis.Clinton was bested by organization. Therein lies the reason she was unable to secure the nomination even with her gold-plated credentials - and being Senator from NY State and a two-term former First Lady, is more than golden, it's platinum.
Obama organizers descended on Indiana months ago and began to build a base of operations. With repeated calls to Obama loyalists in neighboring states after losses in Pennsylvania and the Rev. Wright controversy, the Obama campaign was able to mobilize campaign volunteers to help register voters, canvas neighborhoods, and answer questions. Not everyone was convinced, but much of the Obama strategy has been to whittle away at the poll numbers, diminish the status quo, and keep working until the difference between any Clinton win and Obama loss is so close as to be insignificant in the delegate apportionment. And Obama was able to keep the money flowing into his campaign, something Clinton learned all too late. Organization matters. Especially if you're running for CEO of the United States.
The Clintons, who walked on airs and controlled the Democratic Party for over a decade, ultimately succumbed to a case of political gout, which begets hypocrisy, until descending into its own form of tyranny. No one likes a tyrant.
Regardless of the glad-handling and kind words now, don't expect to see the same level of enthusiasm from the Clinton elite during the General Election. Why? This election will be about trying to throw the bums out. And some of the bums have been around a while.
Photo credit: Damon Winter, NYTimes.