An improbable rise, a sad decline

I've intentionally withheld comment on the events of Tuesday night's elections in North Carolina and Indiana. I've been kind of just sitting back and processing everything, reading opinion pieces and listening to pundits shout at each other on TV. But for the first time in this election season, after so many calls for Hillary to end her quest, this one feels like the real the thing. There is no wind in her sails. Even her allies are abandoning her ship.

When you think about this whole Hillary v. Obama race for the Democratic nomination, I mean really think about it, it's pretty damn amazing. Monumental even. Something that future generations of historians and political scientists will teach classes and write books about.

On one hand you have an American man of mixed race origin, a man whose name is odd and different and rhymes with the name of a terrorist responsible for the worst terrorist attack in US history, a man raised by a single mother abroad in the world, a man with little or no ties to the Democratic Party machine up until a few years ago, storming onto the scene and usurping power from one of the most powerful political dynasties in the history of this country.

On the other hand you have a former first lady and sitting US Senator from New York, a graduate of Yale and Wellesley, the overwhelming presumptive nominee less than a year ago, a woman reduced in recent weeks to borderline obscene displays of political pandering, sad embellishment of credentials, hyper-machismo, and David Duke-esque race-baiting in a desperate attempt to make the case for her candidacy's legitimacy. You also have her husband, a former two-term President and proud torch-bearer of his party, sadly spiraling out of control publicly again and again and again as the pangs of desperation and frustration begin to wear on his mind and inspire him to petulant, red-faced outbursts, as evidenced by the latest cringe-inducing example here...



And really, you know you're fucked when Bert and Ernie are taking you to task...



And this spoof may be the most hilarious AND depressing thing I've seen about the fall of Hillary. If you're at all familiar with the Hollywood film noir classic, Sunset Blvd., the story of a delusional, fading starlet, this will kill you.



In the end, I think that this election will mark two things that future generations will most take note of. First, it'll be a sign that the United States of America is removing it's head from it's ass, or sand, choose your own metaphor, about race. Secondly, it'll mark the time in history when the Internet wielded it's power to truly transform the political landscape, because I don't think that there's any way that Obama's rise could have ever occurred in the span of time that it did if not for the ability to circumvent the traditional fundraising and organizational powers that be within modern political parties.

It's an exciting time to be alive in America right now, isn't it?


Addendum: Peggy Noonan has some great thoughts on all this in WSJ here...

Damsel of Distress