By KENNY MACK is a writer, comedian, and occasional pundit living in Santa Monica.
I’M NOT THE KIND OF GUY TO SAY “I told you so.” Besides, it’s not like I need to. My readers know I predicted Barack Obama would be our next president back in April. Still, after he won the Iowa caucuses and took the lead in every poll in New Hampshire last week, I thought I’d be able to gloat a little, until I saw Hillary Clinton break down and cry on national television. Now I’m worried about her.
If it had been an isolated incident, I could move past it. But it wasn’t. It began back in October at the debate in Philadelphia when she was asked her position on New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to give driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. As we all know by now, Clintons position themselves, they don’t take positions. So she tried to have it both ways saying, “I did not say that it should be done, but I certainly recognize why Gov. Spitzer is trying to do it.”
I started to get concerned around Thanksgiving when she was interviewed by Katie Couric. She was asked how disappointed she would be if she wasn’t the nominee. She responded by saying, “Well, it will be me.” When Katie pressed her about whether or not she had even considered the possibility that she won’t be the nominee, she said, “No, I haven’t.” As someone who saw the writing on the wall a long time ago, I started to have questions about her mental health.
Then came Iowa — and there’s no denying that Obama took her out behind the woodshed and gave her a good whooping. Across the board in every category, he won and she lost. He made her look exactly like what she is — a relic of a bygone era. After Iowa, he rode a wave of hope into New Hampshire and the debate last Saturday where Hillary went from denial to anger. She was literally angry that she wasn’t being associated with the catchword of the campaign — change. “I want to make change,”she said,“but I’ve already made change! I will continue to make change! I’m not just running on a promise of change, I’m running on 35 years of change!”
A few days later, with Obama taking an impressive lead over her in every poll in New Hampshire, she moved on to acceptance. She was at a coffee shop talking to a group of women (shocker) and was asked,“How do you do it?” That’s when the woman who would be commander in chief showed that she is,in fact, just a girl (not that there’s anything wrong with that). “It’s not easy, it’s not easy,” she said with tears welling up in her eyes. When I saw it, I thought to myself,“are you crying? There’s no crying in presidential politics. There’s no crying in presidential politics!”
Which brings me back to why I’m worried for her. A wise man once told me that the key to a lasting, happy marriage is to pick the hill you want to die on. I took that to mean the key to a husband’s happiness is knowing when to let the wife win. Bill Clinton has been letting his wife win for so long that she’s deluded herself into thinking she’s a winner. Bill is the only person in her world who can speak the truth to her, and he’s not doing it. He’s the only person on earth who can tell her that she can’t win the nomination, much less the presidency. He needs to do this right away because if she stays in this race until Feb., 6, she is looking at the worst month of her life: Consecutive losses in five states leading up to Tsunami Tuesday where she could actually lose her “home” state of New York (which would put her Senate seat in play in 2012).
At this point, Bill Clinton needs to tell his wife that it’s time to find the least humiliating way out of this race. Because if she does-n’t have the common sense to drop out of this race for the sake of her own future in the Senate, she should at least have the common decency to get behind the eventual nominee for the sake of her party. I know he doesn’t love her any more, but his wife is crying on national TV. She needs you, Bill. Get her out of there and take her home.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 9, 2008. Read the original PDF.