Ruthie Kelly’s Portfolio

Photo credit: Greg Eichelberger

I don’t know about you, but I am sick of presidential primary news. The Democratic candidate should have been decided long before now. So Sen. Hillary Clinton’s concession speech on Saturday was a welcomed relief, an end to an extended process that has dragged on far too long.

I have always been a Sen. Barack Obama supporter, but I can’t help but respect Clinton for how much she has accomplished, against high odds. I admire with her persistence and her decision to continue the race when everyone insisted she’d failed, even as I secretly prayed she’d drop out so it would just be over already. I was equally impressed with what she said to the nation on Saturday.

Despite all the questionable instances of dishonesty and dirty politics, she exited the race with class. Her words were more than posturing. They are perhaps the only words from a losing presidential candidate that will actually be remembered because of their significance to so many of the women who went before her and the women who will follow.

One of Clinton’s primary orders of business was asking her loyal supporters to join her in working as hard for Obama as they had for her. This was the best move she could make - refusing to divide the party. She knows it’s more important to have an excellent Democrat in the White House than continue fighting for her lost cause. Clinton has begun to rebuild the broken fences. It’s about time.

Clinton spoke about our priorities: universal healthcare, the economy, education, providing for our painfully recent batch of veterans, civil rights and gay rights. But the most moving part of her speech was on the cultural significance of both a female and an African-American candidate. Most people don’t realize that in our nation’s 230-year history, every single one of our presidents have been white, male and Protestant, with one exception. John F. Kennedy, also a white male, was Roman Catholic. That record, and that expectation, is about to be broken, and the most powerful post in the country can be a realistic dream for everyone. Even though Clinton lost, the fact that she ran at all - and that she got so close - still matters.

“You can be so proud that, from now on, it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories … unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the president of the United States,” Clinton said. “And that is truly remarkable, my friends.”

Every little girl can now take this remarkable fact for granted - that a woman really ran for president. So can every person of color. This election, and these candidates, have paved the way for those of us who will follow.

Clinton did not claim sole credit for this. She made a tribute to all those women and civil rights leaders who went before her.

“Because of them and because of you, children today will grow up taking for granted that an African-American or a woman can, yes, become the president of the United States,” she said.

America needed this nomination process to be over, so the debates between the actual candidates can begin. Normally we would have had several presidential debates by now, not just debates for candidacy. It’s time to move on for this election, but there will be others.

Now the Democratic Party can begin the healing process. Now the nation can begin to consider not who will run for president, but who will be president. Now we can begin to fix everything that has gone wrong.

And if you’re wondering whether it’s possible, the answer is simple: Yes, we can.

Read the original column online here.