HILLARY….Tonight has been both a great triumph for common sense and a final, emphatic rejection of the Texification of the Republican Party. Barack Obama’s victory has been huge, and his coattails have proven to be everything Democrats could have hoped for, with pickups of at least five Senate seats and more than a dozen House seats. Conservatives will do their best to spin things otherwise, but there’s little question that the country moved decisively from center right to center left tonight.
I’ll have more to say about Obama tomorrow, but for now I want to end the night with a word about Hillary Clinton. She ran in one of the toughest Democratic primaries ever, against one of the party’s most talented politicians in recent memory, and she took a lot of abuse during that primary — some of it deserved, most of it not. But in the end, despite what must have been a bitter and searing loss, she campaigned tirelessly and wholeheartedly for the man who beat her. This is something that a lot of people doubted she’d do, and frankly, we all owe her some recognition and gratitude for her role in tonight’s victory. Hillary has always been unambiguously dedicated to the Democratic Party and the cause of liberalism, and I think she proved that in the most concrete way possible over the past two months.
Congratulations to Barack Obama for a tremendous victory — tremendous and life affirming. This is his night, and his promise is vast. I hope and pray that he fulfills it.
