Political Tidbits
Hillary’s super-grit
By Belinda Olivares-Cunanan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:01:00 05/15/2008
The 7.9-magnitude earthquake that hit Sichuan province in China last Monday afternoon tugs at humanity’s heart. TV cameras have left unforgettable pictures of young students being pulled out of the rubble and homeless people shivering in the rain. The earthquake has struck while China is in the midst of furious preparations for the August Olympics in Beijing.
Earlier, a series of natural disasters struck across the globe—e.g., the deadly cyclone in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta and tornadoes in central United States. As the world watched, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao made every effort to differentiate his leadership from the heartless junta of Burma (Myanmar), by rushing to the quake-stricken areas and welcoming foreign aid.
Let’s storm the heavens with prayers to spare our country from similar calamities, even as we pray for all those in foreign lands who have lost loved ones and homes, and whose lives have been shattered.
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Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s camp is making light of the spectacular 2-1 win of rival Hillary Clinton in last Tuesday’s primary in West Virginia. Obama had earlier conceded that race to Clinton and in fact showed up there only once. Math pundits chorused that the win did not affect the total delegate count; but what they failed to say was that West Virginia consists almost entirely of white rural working Americans, the core of America’s vast heartland.
Obama scores big in the urban areas among black, youth and liberal voters, but he has failed to touch base with the rural folk that West Virginia represents. No one wants to talk about it, but beneath that folk constituency are anti-racial sentiments. The superdelegates, some 240 of whom still remain uncommitted, are surely studying this problem closely.
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The call for Hillary to quit at this point is growing louder, but the lady just refuses. In fact her super-landslide victory in West Virginia has encouraged her to push ahead, and her endgame may be to push all the way to the August convention where superdelegates will decide the winner. Hillary hopes to convince them she has what it takes to win over John McCain or awaits a really serious blunder by Obama.
In her West Virginia victory speech, she termed the fight-to-the-finish with Obama as “good for democracy” as people are now hotly debating issues. Slowly she’s turning that vaunted true grit to her advantage. As the New York Times editorial put it, “We believe it is her right to stay in the fight and challenge Barack Obama as long as she has the desire and the means to do so,” adding that this is “the essence of the democratic process.”
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What the media term the “super-grit” of this first major female presidential candidate has awed the world and is gaining support for her: The latest Gallup poll shows that 55 percent of democrats want her and Obama to continue fighting it out.
A recent article also said it’s not just the women who support Hillary but a growing number of white men who used to look at her candidacy with disdain. It said that “When a woman does ascend through the glass ceiling into the White House, it will be, in part, because of the race of 2008, when Hillary Clinton broke through the glass floor and got down with the boys.”
On the other hand, writer Gail Collins said: “After this campaign, nobody in America can ever seriously argue that women aren’t capable of being in armed combat.” She then ribbed 46-year-old Obama for looking so tired that he “seems ready to topple,” reminding him tartly, “If you want to be the most powerful elected official on the planet, you ought to be able to outlast a 60-year-old woman.” Indeed, the wonder is that despite her breakneck campaigning, her hair is always in place, her face carefully made-up and her pantsuit unruffled. What a dame!
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What began as a sing-along 62nd birthday party staged by Nelly Natividad-Valdez for husband, University of the East Law Dean Amado Valdez, at Pilita’s Restaurant in Greenhills last Saturday night ended up as a political event. Former House Speaker Jose de Venecia came sans Gina, who was abroad. But a well-kept secret was that former President Joseph Estrada would show up too.
The two bitter rivals in the 1998 presidential election sat across from each other, looking quite comfortable as they sipped wine and traded political “chismis” [gossip]. Estrada was called to the stage by Nelly who emceed the program, and he immediately noted the interesting political mix (which included Heherson Alvarez, who filed the impeachment complaint against him). Nelly said it was well learned from ex-Speaker Joe’s rainbow coalition.
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Estrada cracked jokes about his conviction, pardon and plans to run again and then belted out two songs: his favorite composition, “Kahit na Magtiis” and “How Soon” in deep basso. By then, a curious crowd had gathered outside the glass walls, listening to Estrada. De Venecia couldn’t be persuaded to sing, arguing with a laugh that the reason his opponent was able to garner many more millions of votes over him was precisely because he couldn’t sing.
Dean Valdez later explained that Estrada had earlier consulted him on whether he could run for president in 2010, and his reply was, “I’ll give you my opinion if you’ll come to my birthday party.”
It had been over 10 years since I saw Estrada face-to-face and I noted that he still looks quite good except for a few pounds in the mid-section. Nelly said on stage that Estrada perpetually smells good with his own secret cologne, and the latter quickly sent for a box from Polk St. and gave it to her, “Para lagi ding mabango si Dean.” [“So Dean will also always smell nice.”] As guests posed for photos with him, he looked at all the personalities in government and with a laugh quipped to the photographer, “Give me a copy so I can send it to Malacañang.”
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