November 25, 2009 01:59 PM UTC

Deja Vu: Romanoff vs. Bennet

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• by: peacemonger

I’ve been a Hillary supporter since 1991.

Standing outside of Cherry Creek North 18 years ago, I recognized a man who gave a long-winded speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. I couldn’t remember which southern state he was Governor of, but I approached him anyway. He stood alone trying to start conversations with strangers, since he had just thrown his hat into the ring as one of eight Democratic presidential nominees. I found him charming, friendly, smart, witty and fascinating. Unfortunately, my two-year old son did not, and promptly said aloud, “Go home, Mommy. He’s boring.” Bill Clinton laughed as I excused myself to take my toddler back home.  

After some research on him and his ambitious wife Hillary, I became an instant supporter of them both, and was thrilled when he became President. For eight years as First Lady, Hillary Clinton traveled around the world standing up for the rights of women and children everywhere, and I was in awe. Her years at the Children’s Defense Fund served her well, and I knew one day she would run for President. I also knew I would do anything to help her get there, from my own little suburban corner of the universe.

Fast forward to early 2008. My favorite politician was running for President; colors were more vibrant, the air was sweeter, music was more melodious, and life was good. Women everywhere were dreaming this might be the year — for the first time in more than 200 years, we would finally be equal to men in the most important way imaginable. Every dream of every little girl would become a reality for one of our sisters. It was hard to focus on anything else!

Hillary’s rightful claim to the Presidency had one little problem. Someone named Barack Hussein Obama was getting all the breaks. Oprah had him on her show, Ted Kennedy loved him, and CNN was enamored with him, but I wasn’t (yet).

Didn’t anyone understand this was Hillary Clinton’s race? She worked hard for it her whole life, she put up with her husband’s political ambitions while sublimating her own (we won’t go into what else she put up with here), and she waited patiently for her own turn to shine. She waited, we waited, and we were ready to put her into office, according to “the plan”. Who was this Barack Obama getting all the special treatment that was going to screw up what she so clearly deserved, and what was rightfully hers?

My curiosity eventually got the best of me. I remembered hearing the young Senator from Illinois speak at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and I had to admit, he was pretty good. But Hillary good? I started listening to Barack Obama’s speeches on You-tube, and I was blown away. For seventeen years, I dreamed of my candidate winning “the big one”, and now my political foundation was shaking. Could this new-comer in the Senate really be everything he was made out to be, and even more troubling, could he actually DESERVE to be President before the “Rightful Heir of Her Throne”?  

YES, I decided privately. I could deny it no more; he did. Maybe Oprah knew what she was talking about. Maybe Ted Kennedy knew all along what I didn’t know. Barack Hussein Obama deserved Hillary’s presidency. It was true. But would Hillary give up what was rightfully hers for the good of the Democratic party and for our nation without a fight?

When Hillary lost the nomination to Barack Obama I still cried. And cried. And cried. Her loss was more than just her loss — it was a stab in the back to the world’s majority, women. Although we make up 51% of the world’s population, we remain second class citizens in our own country. Almost 50 Presidents have come and gone — the good, the bad, the mixed, and “the worst one”, but they were all men — every last one of them. Hillary’s loss crushed my spirit, invalidated my dreams, and made me question my faith in a just Universe.

To comfort me, I listened to the speeches of Barack Obama because they were like nothing else I had ever heard before. The man hand-picked by Oprah and Ted Kennedy (not me!) was starting to inspire me. Soon, my empty soul was lifted, motivated, and nurtured by his patriotic  speeches and captivating voice. “We are the ones we have been waiting for”, he promised. “We can do it together, if we stand  together – YES WE CAN, YES WE CAN, YES WE CAN!”

When I opened my mind to the words of Senator Barack Obama, I saw things I hadn’t seen before. White neighbors were talking to black neighbors at the local Campaign for Change office. Latino children and elderly people were pouring into the campaign office to volunteer. Women, people of color, high school students, and people previously disinterested in politics were turning out in droves to rallies, phone banks, canvasses and meetings like never before. Gay and lesbian men and women were volunteering alongside church pastors and PTO parents. College students were taking semesters off to help elect the President that touched them deeply. Neighborhoods were transformed, friendships grew, and magic was in the air. For months, we phoned together, walked together, knocked on doors together, ate cold pizza together, registered new voters together, and had HOPE. When Barack Hussein Obama was elected President of the United States, we cried and danced together.

Nothing could have been better, we thought.  The air was sweeter, colors were sharper, music was more beautiful, and life was good… again. A year later, many of us are still close with our “Obama family” and we still can’t believe we won. Hillary Clinton received the perfect  position in the Obama administration, and some of us feel things worked out for the best.

As much as it hurt to see my lifelong dream of seeing the first woman President dashed on the rocks of time, I learned a powerful lesson. It’s not about us anymore — it is not about a person, or a personality, but the movement we share. IT IS NOT about whether the candidate we expected to see in that seat is there or, if it is someone else. It is not as important who delivers the message so much as it is who heeds its’ call. Gifted leaders emerge, sometimes through years of planning and careful strategy, and sometimes by being noticed at the right place at the right time by the right people.  

Senator Michael Bennet may not have earned being appointed to replace Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar in the Senate in many activist’s minds, but he is there now. After a few months of listening to constituents and finding his “sea legs”, he’s turned out to be (gasp!) a strong progressive after all. Senator Michael Bennet has consistently voted for President Obama’s “change agenda” again and again by:

* becoming one of the most ardent supporters of health care reform in the Senate,

* co-sponsoring the Dream Act,

* protecting our land, water and air,

* strengtening regulations for our food,

* extending unemployment benefits for those who need them,

* creating jobs,

* expanding the safety net for millions of Americans,

* helping financially devestated Detroit through Cash for Clunkers,

* encouraging volunteerism,

* expanding health care for poor children,

* ensuring equal pay for equal work for women,

* supporting our nation’s first Latina Supreme Court Justice,

* strengthening hate crimes legislation to include sexual orientation,

* and much, much more.  

Perhaps Governor Ritter and President Barack Obama saw something many of us didn’t see in DPS Superintendant Michael Bennet one year ago. Like Oprah and Ted Kennedy, maybe they knew things we couldn’t possibly have known. Maybe Governor Ritter looked at the horrible state of the Colorado budget (thank-you TABOR) and said to himself, “This purple state is going to wrongfully blame Dems for this mess. Who do I know that has socially progressive values yet speaks the language of business and can reassure nervous fiscal moderates? Who will independents respect and consider voting for in 2010 if Democrats are due to take a beating? Who will have the ability and the contacts to compete with the fundraising abilities of the aggressive corporate-friendly Republican political machine?”

It matters not to Colorado if it is Andrew Romanoff leading the Democratic troops, or if it is Michael Bennet. If their message of Change is the same, and it is, what matters is that we join that person in getting the job done — fixing the economy, protecting our planet, providing health care to every American, ensuring the civil rights of all people, believing in the hope and the promise and opportunity we all felt in 2008. Andrew Romanoff is a great man, and he will no doubt continue to shine and find a great job, as Hillary Clinton did. If the 2010 Senate race ends the way I think it will, I hope he will join Senator Bennet and Governor Ritter, as well as the rest of Colorado, in getting the job done.

We can do it. We did it before and we can do it again. YES WE CAN BEAT the party of “No”… but only with the right candidate.