It was 10:46 am (I live in Los Angeles) when I got a twitter message from Slate correspondent John Dickersonreading: “AP calls it for this Obama fellow.” I lunged to my computer and verified that, yes, the race for the democratic nomination was finally over. Barack Obama had won. I couldn’t help but feel that this was a historical moment. Perhaps this was because every website I clicked on read, “HISTORIC MOMENT.”

It’s been more than a year since Obama declared his candidacy. I remember people telling me back then that there was no way in hell that a black man was going to get the nomination. I considered it a bit of a long shot myself but was hopeful (yes, I was hopeful before being hopeful was cool).

Now, Obama has arguably been the presumptive nominee for months. Not a day goes by without Obama and McCain taking a couple of shots at each other. But the news still felt important. After all, just because victory is inevitable doesn’t mean you shouldn’t celebrate it.

The main drama of the night centered around what Hillary Clinton would say. Speculation was rampant. Would she concede? Would she drop out? Would she endorse Obama? Her speech, unlike most primary night speeches, was not leaked to the press.

Tension only heightened after McCain’s speech. He seemed to be pandering to disaffected Hillary supporters when he said, “The media often overlooked how compassionately [Senator Clinton] spoke to the concerns and dreams of millions of Americans, and she deserves a lot more appreciation than she sometimes received.” He then gave Obama the backhanded compliment to end all backhanded compliments when he said, “Pundits and party elders have declared that Senator Obama will be my opponent.”

Surely, I thought, Hillary would respond to this. Surely she would reassure us that McCain did not speak for her.
It was, in retrospect, a bad omen when we learned that Hillary would be speaking in a basement with no televisions and no cell phone service — a veritable bunker. And her speech gave no indication that the Clinton campaign was in any way connected to reality. Terry McAuliffe introduced her as “the next President of the United States of America” — all while MSNBC and CNN were running graphics declaring Obama the presumptive nominee.

What she said was astonishing. She congratulated Obama on the race he had “run,” not won. She complimented his campaign’s achievements, but said nothing nice about him. She, again, claimed to have won the popular vote. She touted the states where she’d been victorious. She claimed that she was the “strongest candidate.” She said, “I often felt that each of your votes was a prayer for our nation.” On a night where many were calling for party unity, Hillary Clinton was making herself sound like the messiah. Or maybe a martyr.

But the kicker was when she said, “I want the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected, to be heard and no longer to be invisible.” Wasn’t she implying that they would be invisible if Obama got the nomination? Don’t both of these candidates agree on every major issue?

Shockingly, she did not mention John McCain once. Or George W. Bush.

The question is why? Is it money? After all, her campaign is millions in debt, and her website (which she directed people to yet again) is still taking donations (Worst. Investment. Ever). She might be angling for the Vice President slot, although this would certainly be a strange way of going about it. After all, if Obama gives it to her now, he risks looking weak — like he was forced into it.

Or maybe she’s just delusional.

I wanted to write about Obama’s victory tonight. Because that’s what tonight is about. It is a historic moment, and not just because all the websites say so. But I can’t help but feel angry at Hillary Clinton, who seems so protective of her own supporters and yet so indifferent to everyone else.

--Hillel Aron

Photos by barackobamadotcom