Democrats heading to the voting booth next Tuesday face an embarrassment of riches. Their party traditions of inclusion, expanded rights for all and breaking old barriers are epitomized in Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
The first serious female candidate for president. The first African American. To choose just one is wrenching.
Each would support bedrock Democratic Party principles. Neither would act precipitously. Both have the intellectual gravity the position requires.
But even as the two campaigns slug it out, it's obvious something else is going on. Obama is a young-looking, sort-of newcomer with a gift for oratory and the embodiment of our 21st-century integrated demographic. Clinton is the Baby Boom mom, heir to a political dynasty with long coattails.
Many people are sensing that this is one of those pivotal years in this country when the torch is passed to a new generation. But Democrats should guard against a vague longing for a new morning in civic life. It's just not possible to turn a page and be rid of 16 years of political acrimony, disgraceful misbehavior, lying, assorted policy failures, gridlock (except for bridges to nowhere), attack and natural disaster on our own soil. No, past is prologue. We must work through it.
There is another path to change. It involves diligence, experience, playing through pain. That is Clinton's history. That's why she deserves her party's endorsement.
Take health care, her signature effort as first lady, a defeat that nevertheless raised all the important issues. Her position should be the Democratic Party's position: mandatory universal coverage through simplified private and public plans that follow the model already used by federal employees. Portable plans, not tied to one job.
Obama's plan is more tepid, leaving much to voluntary, job-based coverage. It does not make the necessary leap to universal care.
Both Clinton and Obama pledge to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, but Clinton's view would be shaped by being a player all along. Votes that seemed right at the time can't be simply undone.
Now, the 800-pound gorilla: that Clinton unlikeability factor. Democrats must ask themselves how much of the Clinton back story is relevant to Tuesday's choice, and how much is just the baggage that attaches to all ambitious, focused, talented (and powerful) political celebrities.
Sheila Edwards of Hyannis sums it up in a letter to the editor: "Why can't people see Hillary for the wonderful, strong woman she is? It's not about her husband. Hillary is her own person."
Senator Clinton has endured humiliation and contempt on a Shakespearean scale. Yet she is still standing, still committed to the civic goals she first set for herself at Wellesley. That should tell Democrats something about the inner strength she would bring to the job.
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