Plumville in Mourning

There is no joy in Plumville. Mighty Hillary has struck out.

The pundits are currently punditizing mightily on how she, the initial frontrunner, lost, but I don't think they need to go any further than the word she. Too many people disliked her because she was an assertive, competent, ambitious woman. She was a lawyer, the first Arkansas governor's wife to work full-time while her husband was in office. She headed the ill-fated national health insurance program--partially ill-fated because many people didn't like the First Lady of the land participating overtly in government affairs.

Americans have traditionally preferred their First Ladies to be just that, ladies, and very little else. Think of how reviled the activist Eleanor Roosevelt was in her time. The invisible Bess Truman and Mamie Eisenhower were much more the norm--and the public preference. The charming Jackie Kennedy was revered to the point of obsession, of course, but she wasn't a lawyer and she didn't try to get anything done but redecorate the White House. Lady Bird Johnson was charming too, and was instrumental in cleaning up America's highway scenery, but she wasn't the point man for national health care. Pat Nixon was a throwback to Bess and Mamie.

Betty Ford was more controversial, but the things that made her so--speaking out about breast cancer when the very word was considered obscene (breast, not cancer), her face-lift, her addiction, were personal, not governmental. Rosilyn Carter was probably more of a co-President than a First Lady, but again, behind the scenes. Nancy Reagan knew all about scenes, and played hers well, always portraying the (well-dressed) adoring audience to her Ronnie. Barbara Bush was more energetic and engaged us with her candor, but still, no governmental activism. And Laura Bush seems to be a very private person, perhaps a direct descendant of Pat Nixon.

Cindy McCain, director of a multi-million dollar beer distributorship, and Michelle Obama, a highly-paid attorney, owe a lot to Hillary. She paved the way for high-profile First Ladies--and she paid the price.

Now she has to make nice to an effete upstart. Our Hillary. My Hillary. The world is grayer today. As long as she was in the race, I was. Now I'm not.

I've been weeping on and off all day and wondering--did I jinx her somehow. Cookies I like disappear from the shelves, department stores I rely on close down, the only space shuttle take-off I ever watched went up in fames.

Oh damn, my pen's out of ink.