The Energizer Bunny

She keeps running, and running, and running....

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton lost a lot more than she won yesterday.

What did she win? She won a short-term political victory. She vindicated herself and her campaign for the presidency, at least in her own mind. She won another state primary, by a respectable majority. She proved that win-at-any-cost can win--despite the cost. She proved that harsh words, the pretension of strength, negative attacks, distortions--plus a few outright lies--are still effective weapons in swaying the American electorate. More's the pity. Shame on us.

What did she lose? Sadly she lost what little affection may have been left for her (I speak for myself, of course, but I suspect for millions of others.) She sacrificed admiration, respect, and the trust of a preponderance of the American people. Worse, she lost them not only for herself, but also for the party she purports to represent. She reduced the level of discussion to scrappy trivia, personal attacks, and the vanity of one-upmanship. I do not buy the claim that she and her campaign campaign promulgate that Senator Obama has used these cheap strategies in the same way that she has.

Senator Clinton won a personal political battle yesterday. She can call that a victory. But she won it in a way that risks losing the larger and vastly more important war to redeem the American soul and repossess what once was a fine, generous-hearted country--a war that she could have helped us win by showing us her best qualities rather than her worst.

Don't call me a sore loser. I would have wanted to support the senator. I would have wanted to celebrate this victory, if it had been won without leaving so much destruction in its wake. I once liked her and respected her. It has been her choice to wallow in the mud of divisiveness and slander rather than to yield a single inch of ground. Too bad for all of us.