May 07, 2008
The morning after
Well, that was interesting. Obama met expectations, winning a decisive 14-point victory in North Carolina, while Hillary Clinton underperformed, barely ekeing out a 51-49 win in Indiana -- although Obama outspent her by as much as 3-1, softening the blow.
Still, Clinton's argument that she's the more electable of the two took a body blow last night; I think it's likely that we'll see more and more Democratic superdelegates committing to Obama.
The most revealing part of the evening was watching Bill Clinton and Chelsea in the background while Hillary spoke; Chelsea looked stricken, a smile that never seemed to reach her eyes plastered on her face, seemingly experiencing one of those moments where you want to be supportive, but don't have the heart to tell a loved one that they're completely deluded.
There were moments where I thought Bill was either going to fall asleep or wander off stage, but I was more concerned by his pallor, red blotches on his cheeks; the man looks unwell.
Emily Yoffe, who blogs at Slate's XX Factor, captured the moment -- and some of what I was thinking.
I also enjoyed watching the backdrop behind Hillary—the shifting facial expressions of Bill Clinton. I'm always intrigued by the semiotics of what she does with Bill.
At the last few election nights she's had him in camera range as she spoke; whenever she has him close it seems to signal she feels she's in trouble.
At first Bill watched her with that lip-biting look of enchantment we know so well, but as the speech wore on the mask seemed to drop and you could almost read his thoughts:
"Hill, you haven't got it. I've got it, and you haven't, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Hill, guess what, all those years you sacrificed for my career—well, it turns out I wasn't holding you back. You're only on this stage because of me, and even so, now that it's your turn and you had everything in your favor—Hill, you just haven't got it. And let's face it, Obama, he's got it."
The Clintons are positively Shakespearean, don't you think? I remain convinced that the only thing worse for Bill Clinton than seeing his wife fail would be seeing her succeed -- and ending up as the First Husband.
Posted by Mike Lief at May 7, 2008 11:07 AM
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