I lament not having Hillary as our Presidential nominee... in 2004. At the time, nuanced, fair and graceful Kerry got slimed, swiftboated, drowned on media noise and swallowed alive by the GOP.
I wasn't alone in fervently wishing for someone who could go down on the gutter to brawl with no holds barred, reality denying, soundbyte talking, relentlessly attacking GW, with the kitchen sink and every thing else on the kitchen. But the Dem that campaigned like that wasn't running. She thought her odds were not "inevitable" and just let Bush get another term.
I saw the same lazy pragmatism in her 2007 campaigning. It was all in the bag, we dems were hers already, why bother wooing us ? Just like she figured that "blacks will vote Dem", Hillary acted like all of us would vote Dem, regardless of her lack of effort to win us over.
Then she got her wake up call, and she took a war path to protect "her territory". Alas, it was too much, and way too late.
Her race baiting served the opposite function: It drove Obama and the African Americans closer to each other. Her divisive talks of "experience" did the same on age groups. We young at heart rallied behind "our guy" after such blatant attacks from someone who rejected us.
The rest is history... But I still regret not seeing this fighting spirit on 2004. Or even 2000. THAT was the time to put up a fight, to not concede in less than 24 hours like Kerry, and to not lower our guard to GOP like Al Gore. And at the time, Hillary was AWOL.
Too bad, she would have been my perfect candidate then
UPDATE: OMG, Kerry is losing to Donuts! And are people bitter with Hillary or what ?