The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

Is This Really Goodbye?

Emily, I'm with you. Last night, despite the hoarse, bordering-on-Howard-Dean-breakdown speech, I felt a wave of gratitude toward Hillary. Even Maureen Dowd felt it. She managed to get through nearly two-thirds of her column this morning and keep her Hillary hatred in check. And this morning I found myself giving my daughter a spontaneous what-we-owe-Hillary speech on the way to school.

One form this wistfulness takes is the very beginnings of suspicion about Obama, or at least reluctance to being sucked into the charisma. And this, for me, is focused on that "Yes We Can" video. Each time I watch it, I find it a little more creepy. First of all, I'm not so happy to see him surrounded by the likes of Amber Valletta and Scarlett Johansson. This blind Hollywood love is a little too Clinton throwback to me. Secondly, the phrase "Yes we can" is not one I find inspiring (It's better in Spanish). This is not Martin Luther King Jr. territory. It's more like the kind of pablum you hear around D.C. public schools. Thirdly, the worrisome thing about Obama is that people see in him what they want to see. The George Packer piece in last week's New Yorker inadvertently got at this in his quotes from Robert Reich. Reich talked about how the power of Obama, like the power of Robert Kennedy, lies in "his effect on others rather than in any specific policies." The "Yes We Can" video captures the most disturbing aspect of this phenomenon -- a group of people, and not necessarily intelligent or admirable people, literally stealing the words from Obama's mouth. In that video, Obama fuses with the supermodels and Hollywood starlets. They all forge into one big, bright light shining in your eyes. 

Charisma is strange like that. It leaves you feeling high and ungrounded. Women (outside of Evita, of course) have good reason to be wary of it.

Of course, none of this will help Hillary. Wistfulness is usually a feeling you have when the game is over.