This moment in history

[babylonsister]

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/americandebate/19517734.html

This moment in history
Dick Polman

snip//

All this, and more, is great grist. But let us pause instead and simply acknowledge this historic American moment before it inevitably becomes subsumed by the day's political minutae:

An African-American has been chosen to lead a major party in a presidential election. In the space of four decades, the unimaginable has become reality.

snip//


And it's important to remember that the political media (the same media that Bill Clinton whines about today) basically declared her the winner last year before a singe citizen had cast a vote. Indeed, on the day Obama announced his candidacy, The New York Times took care to remind readers that Clinton was dominant, due to her "years of experience in presidential politics, a command of policy and political history, and an extraordinarily battle-tested network of fundraisers and advisers."

Yet without any serious executive experience, Obama oversaw a $250-million campaign operation that, among other achievements, pioneered new frontiers in small-donor Internet fundraising, captured the "change" theme and owned it, and managed to survive 16 months of unprecedented battle without any changes in senior campaign personnel. Clinton lagged in the money contest, lost out on "change," and had to overhaul her hierarchy. She was consistently reactive. She was outfought, although she remains too graceless to acknowledge it.

Obama is probably tempted to savor this moment in history, to reflect however briefly on how far he has come, in defiance of the odds, and on his implicit message to aspiring non-white Americans. (Indeed, by sheer coincidence, he will deliver his Democratic convention acceptance speech on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech). But this moment for Obama probably will have passed by the time you read this.

So, for instance, what message did Clinton mean to convey last night when she merely lauded Obama and his supporters "for the race they have run," as opposed to showing some grace and praising the race they have won...let the dish begin.

[depakid]

1. Can't even have a reflective article about history these days without a gratuitous slap at Hillary

The real (and only) prize is of course the GE. Lose that and the rest is, well- history.

[noel711]

2. Dick Pohlman is one of the more respected columnists in town..

(by town, I mean Philly Inquirer).

He is no slouch, I read his online blog daily.
(we met him at a local watering hole after a huge Kerry rally in '04)

He has the chops to say what he says. I don't always agree with him,
but he knows whereby he speaks.

He wasn't taking a gratuitous smack at Clinton. He was stating the obvious.

He is no Obama-crat, he dissects him with regularity,
but we need to be honest: last night belonged to Obama,
not to the Clintons.
If the shoe was on the other foot, would you be complaining?