Senator Clinton: The Beginning of the End

For those familiar with Shakespeare's Macbeth, the line uttered by Malcolm in Act I, Scene 4, is an apt commentary on Senator Clinton's candidacy:

...nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it; he died
As one that had been studied in his death,
To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd
As 'twere a careless trifle.

Change the subject pronoun and you have the perfect exegesis on an exquisitely flawed campaign, one that began as a presumed coronation and ended with the grim reality of abject failure.  Yet, many commentators, even conservatives such as Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard, have observed that as her candidacy headed for the rocks, a rare form of sincerity obtained. 

Indeed, she actually began enjoying herself and it showed, albeit inconsistently.  A hallmark of successful candidates is not only comfort in their own skin, but a sense of unbridled optimism, the sunny disposition of Ronald Reagan, the irrepressible confidence of Bill Clinton.  Yet for most of her campaign that easy manner and warm, personal charm seemed to elude Mrs. Clinton, until the very end, and by then it was far too late.

She seemed perennially preoccupied with demonstrating that she was a policy wonk, someone to be taken seriously, as though over-compensating for her womanhood.  In doing so she seemed more like the stern school principal than someone who might issue eloquent oratories from the Oval Office.  The lesson for her--alas, one learned in the wrong act of this drama--is that Americans easily suffer personality flaws and quirks, but they can't abide a scorn and they don't like candidates who seem overly concerned with attacking their opponents.

That's what led to her having an even 'favorable'-'unfavorable' ratio:  For every person who liked her there was one who truly disliked her, and whether it's a city council election or the race for the White House, you can't win on those numbers.  So Mrs. Clinton will have to pack up her bitterness and head back to the senate. 

Although it's clear that we're now witnessing the beginning of the end, at least she finally morphed from those cardboard characters she created throughout the campaign into a real person.  It may not be the profile of someone most Americans would want as president, but candor has its own virtues, even when it emerges just as the candidate's fate appears doomed.