When there is a death in the family, experts say that loved ones need closure. Thus we have funerals.
At the Democratic National Convention this week, Hillary Clinton’s name will be placed into nomination for her party’s choice to be president of the United States. And she will fail to garner enough votes.
This end to a long, hard-fought campaign will not be a funeral exactly. But for women who desperately hoped that one of their gender finally would break through the ultimate political barrier, the convention will be an opportunity for closure.
Clinton came close to being a major party’s choice for president. Another woman will achieve it in another day, but this week Clinton’s stalwarts need the opportunity to move through the stages of loss.
They can get started with seeing her campaign through to the end _ at the convention, with recognition of what she accomplished. Placing her name in nomination will do that.
Many Barack Obama supporters seem threatened by the plan to place Clinton’s name before the convention. The amount of skepticism about this joint decision by the Obama and Clinton camps is puzzling. It seems to me this is the best way to unify the party, particularly since Obama now has named Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware of his running mate, eliminating any hope Clinton supporters had that she would be Obama’s pick.
Bill and Hillary Clinton both have been given prime-time speeches at the convention. Those appearances plus placing her name before the gathering could steal Obama’s thunder, some say.
Actually, Clinton runs the greater risk here. Many of her delegates already have switched to Obama, or say they will do so. She could end up looking like she has very little support.
It wouldn’t be true, of course. She garnered 18 million votes.
Clinton isn’t the first woman to be nominated at a national convention.
U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine was nominated at the GOP convention in 1964. And U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm received 151.95 votes from delegates at the 1972 Democratic convention, when U.S. Sen. George McGovern was the party pick.
Clinton and her supporters deserve the same formal recognition that was given Sen. Ted Kennedy when he took on former Gov. Jimmy Carter in 1980. Or that the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Sen. Gary Hart had in 1984 when they lost to former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Some Democratic women who supported Clinton say they won’t shift to Obama because they are still upset. And they may be upset further, by the fact that she isn’t Obama’s running mate. I don’t blame them for being disappointed, but they need to think more clearly.
Women often support a woman for political office not just because of shared gender, per se. They believe that a woman has a deeper appreciation of the issues that particularly impact their gender, specifically reproductive rights _ abortion, birth control, family planning, bearing children.
Obama really needs to get on board with Clinton’s supporters by speaking more forcefully on these issues. But he is the only realistic choice for those who care about these issues.
For example, he supports Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that protects the right to abortion, and Obama says that the next president’s appointments to the Supreme Court will be crucial to retaining that right.
John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, opposes abortion and says that Roe v. Wade was a bad decision, implying that he would cater to religious conservatives in appointing judges and Supreme Court justices who would curb reproductive rights.
Do Hillary Clinton’s supporters truly want to sit out this election now? That could be very unfortunate for the issues they say they care about.
This week they should choose to officially end Hillary’s campaign, while celebrating the success in taking women further than ever before.
And then they should push on for women and women’s causes for the future.
