I felt today a cross between Bobby, the unmarried suffering star of the 70’s hit musical Company and country singer Lorrie Morgan, who sang the 1998 country music hit ‘Go Away.’ The “I’m conceding, no I’m not” antics of the Clinton campaign today have been tragic to follow. Bobby struggled though George Furth’s 11 scatological, 1-act plays set to Stephen Sondheim’s brilliant songs on relationships and friends, while Lorrie couldn’t figure out what she wanted. All I could think, Mrs. Clinton here is the perfect narcissistic vehicle for your career meltdown. If you watch the video of Barcelona (1st video below) and instead of a 1-night stand make it our 16-month one, we’re pretty close.

Splice in Lorrie’s inability to make up her mind… (2nd video) and add in a dash of Elaine Stritch singing The Little Things we do Together (3rd video) and you have life on your campaign buses the final days and weeks where your tight circle were the only ones you listened to when the rest the media and Democratic Party nation begged you to do the right thing. Those were your secret retreats each evening and must be where you got your ‘perfect relationship’ subtext for staying in the campaign and screwing over the party that created you in the first place.

If you’re not careful though, you could end up on the business end of mocking, as Elaine Stritch’s character learned the hard way in “The Ladies Who Lunch” (last video). The point is, Elaine’s character gets it. She sees she is one of the women of whom she sings so derisively about before crashing to her chair in a drunken heap. She sees how she became so malleable a shape shifter much like your abandoning the Wellesley and Ivy League pedigree to bowl and belt down boilermakers with the boys, trying to be something neither of you are. Let’s hope that is one lesson and outcome you can skip.

I so admired you for the backbone and support during your husband’s administration. I heard you give a speech in 1995 that absolutely blew me away. You were licking your wounds from the healthcare ambush and I knew you would be back and was a supporter… until you were unable to stop shape shifting, look in the camera and say, “I was wrong, I made a mistake” about Iraq and then the rest of the consultant run campaign. The 3 am advert against a member of your own party was the tipping point for me. Had you said, you were wrong, that would have been the difference and you would not have had to resort to the many slimy, calculated mis-statements that only hurt you.

The world is not against you and your husband Madame Senator. I still think you would be an excellent President. This year though it is Barack Obama who deserves our entire party’s support. We need something to change. Living abroad these ten years has been tough.

You don’t see the derisive, blaming looks from neighbours or have your accent be so off-putting people just stop talking to you in mid-sentence because they cannot get past American hubris and arrogance. You think it’s tough in Appalachia (and it is) try being an American working on projects with multinational teams knowing that troops from your country are killing and destroying the homeland of your Iraqi neighbour or propping up a regime that killed the brother of your Pakistani code writer.

Dreams die very hard Mrs. Clinton. As Howard Dean said in his intro talk last Saturday at the By-Laws committee meeting, “I was talking to Al Gore on the phone in 2000, steaming at the way I had been treated and screaming in to the phone “WHY SHOULD I SUPPORT THIS PARTY AFTER WHAT THEY DID TO ME!” And Al said, “because it’s not about you, Howard. This is bigger than any one of us, this election is too important to the future of our country.”

He was right then. Howard Dean is right now. So please find the ways and means to be gracious tonight and support the rebuilding of the party.

It’s not about you Mrs. Clinton. It never was.

Barcelona

Go Away, No Wait a Minute

The Little Things

The Ladies Who Lunch