When the final analysis of this Democratic primary is written, the story will be that a black man and white woman had a very similar, but not identical task: make their identity part of, but not the whole of the change they offered, and to sell that change by making it palatable to the country, or at least the not insignificant (and not necessarily racist or sexist) portion of the public that, rightly or wrongly, was wary of digesting that change.And the outcome of that story will be this: When the final analysis of this Democratic primary is written, the story will be that a black man and white woman had a very similar, but not identical task: make their identity part of, but not the whole of the change they offered, and to sell that change by making it palatable to the country, or at least the not insignificant (and not necessarily racist or sexist) portion of the public that, rightly or wrongly, was wary of digesting that change. And the outcome of that story will be this: Barack Obama was able to do it, but Hillary Clinton was not. The media, myself included, has been tough on Hillary at times. She’s had an unfair ride. She’s burdened by problems, including some created by her own husband that were not of her making yet were her obligation to correct or at least manage. It’s not been a fair campaign for Hillary, and from the start. But she could have done it. She could have made the first-woman-ever opportunity both a vessel for changing a country in which a majority of voters and recent college graduates are women, and a winning strategy at the same time. But for reasons that may perplex us, and may have to do with those unfair and ineluctable burdens, she was not able to make the sale. --Tom Schaller
