2008 was the year. Not because Barack Obama became the first black man to occupy the White House. It was a foregone conclusion once he wrested the nomination for the Democratic Party. I remember being glued to my television the morning after Super Tuesday, right before I left for school, looking desperately for signs that Hillary Clinton would have regained the lead over Barack Obama. She didn't - they split the votes and delegates almost evenly. She never did; despite her winning the last few rounds, Obama had already taken an insurmountable lead. She finally conceded the race, and Obama went to the White House.
To me, Clinton was the more popular candidate. She lost because Obama's campaign was far better - it was organised better, was more coherent, and was like a feel-good public relations machine. Clinton's campaign, instead, seemed like a wreckage train. It was full of flaws (among them, ignoring the caucuses, which need better organisation), and very often she needed something dramatic (like tears in New Hampshire) to get the campaign back to life. Ceteris paribus, I would say that Clinton would have won. If only.
It must be evident by now that I am a Hillary Clinton fan. Clinton is arguably one of the most popular politicians that America has ever seen. On the Gallup 'Most Admired' list, Clinton has been the Most Admired Woman almost uninterrupted since 1993. In a poll where even the most popular of Presidents fade out soon after leaving office, Clinton's continuing popularity is indeed stupendous. She has made it to the cover of TIME Magazine on numerous occasions. What makes her special is that she isn't seen as the 'soft power' behind a popular president - akin to Eleanor Roosevelt or Michelle Obama - but is, in fact, seen as the power center in American polity. Even while Bill Clinton was the President, it was her initiative - the health care plan - that caused one of the most divisive debates in American history. Even when she became the Senator from New York, most could see where she was heading. The number of lovers, haters, websites and magazine covers only grew with time.
However, what also cannot be argued is that she is also one of the most hated politicians in recent times. The number of I-hate-Hillary websites that cropped up in 2008 was amazing. Some Democrats were unwilling to vote for her even if she won the party's nomination. I believe that whether you liked Clinton or hated her (according to TIME Magazine, there was no middle ground) came down to your views on ambition.
It would be stupid to say that Barack Obama didn't have ambition. Anybody who aspires to be President of the United States probably does. However, somehow that ambition in Clinton was always criticised. She was very often characterised as the manipulative woman who used her association with a powerful man to climb the ladders of success. She was not what a 'regular' woman should be - warm, caring, sympathetic and congenial. She was seen as aloof, ambitious and arrogant. There has always been a debate on whether the vehement opposition to Clinton was sexist in nature. Would a man have been forgiven for the very same traits that she displayed? I believed he would have. Even for a society that has progressed so much, the 'regular woman' is still not emancipated. There still are stereotypes of what a woman should be like in public life. Being ambitious is probably not one of them. It is okay to be a fashion icon or the philanthropist, however. One has to wonder whether public life in India, with its celebration of self-professed ambitious women such as Mayawati, Mamata and Jayalalithaa, has not been more progressive in this context.
I was personally hoping that Clinton would be Obama's running mate. She wasn't. Now, I am glad she wasn't. As Vice President, her role and stature would have been severely diminished. Today, Clinton is, by far, one of the most successful Secretaries of State of all time. It has been a tumultuous time for the world, and Clinton has been globe-trotting this entire while.
She has indicated that this is the end of her public life, that she will not take up any position in the next Obama administration if he were to win. But as TIME Magazine put it - love her or hate her, you can't argue that she's a fighter. We might still see more of Clinton. As a baby-eyed fan, I hope we do.
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