The Clintons in sorrow as Obama sings ‘Yes, we can!’

By Okech Kendo

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is broke. She is borrowing to stoke dying embers of hope.

The woman who represents corporate America has run out of campaign cash and donors, while her rival Barack Obama’s vote-hunting war chest climbs by the dollar. Obama, the precocious second-generation Kenyan-American is propelled by the audacity of hope, with the call: "Yes, we can!"

Hillary has also depleted the bank of those who believe she still can, as she continues to lose those who believed she could. Supporters are pleading with her to quit with grace than waiting to exit in disgrace, too shrivelled to bargain.

Quit, when your stocks are still redeemable, is the message Hillary does not want to hear — not just yet.

Not that those who say she should leave love Hillary less, but they admire Obama more.

Near the sunset on the gruelling primaries for party presidential candidate, Democrats understand there is more to the race than Hillary claiming she is ready to be commander-in-chief on day one.

"Barack Obama has waged a very effective campaign. He is an unusually capable and talented man. I frankly didn’t know him when I endorsed Hillary last October," a Democratic Party leader and former US senator from South Dakota, who made failed attempt at White House in 1972, told Reuters, last week.

Americans who did not believe a black man could, within their lifetime, make such a winning bid for the White House, are joining the change-hungry. Their inspiration is Obama’s chorus, "Yes, we can!" And they are saying, "Yes, he can!"

Obama is leading in State support, pledged delegates and super-delegates. Super-delegates nominate the Democratic Party presidential candidate during the August Convention, if the race gets that far. The Democrat would then face the Republican nominee John MacCain in the November General Election.

Last week Hillary had a victory in Indiana that tasted like a loss. Obama had a loss that was too tight it seemed like a win.

Hillary’s two-point win in Indiana and Obama’s earlier 14-point lead in North Carolina gave the precocious ‘Kenyan’ new gravitas.

Hillary is in a quandary. Delegates no longer return her telephone calls. Donors are not keen on banking on a candidate on the losing trail. Now, it’s only Hillary who lends to the Hillary campaign.

Obama needs just 150 total delegates to win the nomination. Hillary still must convince 320 to reach the touchline. Even her most ardent supporters say she has no mathematical chance of winning. Not even Tuesday win in West Virginia can salvage her ambition.

Does not believe this is over

Hillary is fighting on, but Oregon and Kentucky, voting on May 20, may not rescue her from the precipice.

The Clinton clan is moaning. After the narrow win in Indiana last week, Bill Clinton was described as looking as "sour as a giant cranberry".

Her daughter Chelsea "appeared to be on the verge of tears".

Hillary, dressed in fluorescent scarlet, was described as "dagger-eyed and guns blazing in a remake of the zombie movie Dawn of the Dead".

The First Daughter who used to introduce her mother as "the next president of the United States" now remembers to add "hopefully".
"Apart from Hillary herself, it is very hard to find people who do not believe this is over," says one commentator.

"She is in denial." The woman is battered, bruised and brazen, but she is not quitting. She borrows to stay on.

From the Obama-Hillary duel we learn that small people across small towns that contribute, say, Sh500 or Sh1,000 are stronger than captains of corruption who donate Sh100m, at Sh1m-a-plate dinners at five-star hotels in Nairobi.

Such are the captors who force ‘bad candidates’ with power to rig elections, so the benefactors can recoup their ‘investments’. Those who donate Sh500 with clean hearts just want good governance.

That Obama could win with petty cash from largely nondescript Democrats is a lesson for Kenya’s would-be presidential candidates.

Hillary is heading towards a fall. Then she would probably plead with Obama to name her his running mate — a potential first woman vice-president of the United States.
The New York senator had tasted White House as the First Lady.

But her attempt to return to Washington as president and commander-in-chief, is in trouble after the Indiana-North Carolina stumble.

Pride is about the only thing that stands between former President Bill Clinton’s wife and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

-The writer (kendo@eastandard.net) is The Standard Managing Editor, Quality and Production

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