Law Humor

Howard Wolfson’s gracious endorsement of Obama (and, in passing, an explanation of how Hillary lost)

By Pseudoanonymous

Anyone who can read this op-ed by Howard Wolfson and not believe all but an insignificant minority of Clintonites are not getting on the Obama bus (and not shuffling to the back, either) is either deluded or a desperate Republican partisan. (For the moment, let’s overlook the large overlap between those two sad groups of losers.)

After the deeply felt, personal way in which Wolfson wrote this article–it is heartbreaking to have to write a sentence like “I had no answers when my 3-year-old daughter asked why Hillary had lost or where all the Hillary signs had gone”–the next thing I noticed was a tacit explanation of how the Hillary Clinton campaign lost:

For many of us who were part of the Clinton campaign, Sen. Barack Obama’s appeal was something we understood only in the abstract — data in polls, faces at a televised rally.

Most of us never heard him speak in person. At work 14 hours a day in the war room, we focused on his perceived faults and deficiencies. Our time was spent sharpening and advancing arguments. Skepticism was critical to our efforts. Insulated from Obamamania, I met few Obama supporters and distanced myself from the ones I knew. I lived this way for 18 months.

There’s a lesson there for all of us–get to know the people with whom you disagree. Especially get to know the people with whom you disagree and with whom you must contend, and most especially get to know those with whom you disagree and with whom you must contend and with whom you must someday come to terms, whether you win or lose. It’s not just the human and humane thing to do, it’s the smart thing, too.

via Talking Points Memo

Full post as published by Arkansawyer on September 01, 2008 (boomark / email).