Indeed. Thanks. I remember some of that stuff, though obviously not all of it.
I guess part of it is that I also remember Clinton’s (eventual) willingness to support Obama enthusiastically and unify the party.
From http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=76913, April 16 debate (she was closer then to Obama than Sanders is now to her, looking at pledged delegates only, and I was itching for her to throw in the goddamn towel already):
"Obviously we are still contesting to determine who will be the nominee. But once that is resolved, I think it is absolutely imperative that our entire party close ranks, that we become unified. I will do everything to make sure that the people who supported me support our nominee.
“I will go anywhere in the country to make the case. And I know that Barack feels the same way, because both of us have spent 15 months traveling our country. I have seen the damage of the Bush years. I’ve seen the extraordinary pain that people have suffered from because of the failed policies; you know, those who have held my hands who have lost sons or daughters in Iraq, and those who have lost sons or daughters because they didn’t have health insurance. And so, regardless of the differences there may be between us, and they are differences, they pale in comparison to the differences between us and Senator McCain.”
Then, on June 7, shortly after the race had been mathematically decided in favor of Obama, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/us/politics/07text-clinton.html?_r=0:
“The way to continue our fight now, to accomplish the goals for which we stand is to take our energy, our passion, our strength, and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States. Today, as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate him on the victory he has won and the extraordinary race he has run. I endorse him and throw my full support behind him.”
She said something similar at the convention, too: “Let’s declare all together with one voice right here and right now that Barack Obama is our candidate, and that he will be our President!”
When we got to the general election, I spent a number of days canvassing in Allentown, PA. I met several people who said they had been ardent Hillary Clinton supporters. (I’m sure there were others, but these ones all took pains to point it out to me.) All of them expressed disappointment that Obama had beaten her (“she really was the better candidate,” said one), but NEARLY all were very happy to vote for Obama.* As someone else put it, “She’s working to elect him, so I guess he must be okay.”
So, a worthwhile reminder of what actually went down, and a useful reminder of how fence mending can be successful in changing the way the narrative is recalled. If Clinton does win the nomination (and the presidency) as Obama did eight years ago, and if Sanders supports her as unequivocally as Clinton supported Obama back then, it’s quite possible I’ll remember this primary season very differently from the way I’m viewing it now.
*There was one notable exception, a feisty older woman who spoke darkly of “people who didn’t want a woman to be President.” She had heard a rumor that Obama might put HRC on the Supreme Court, though, and as she explained, “no way am I voting for that John McCain”…I bet she eventually did pull the lever for Obama, but I wouldn’t put much money on it!