It may have been Hillary’s Clinton’s best speech of her political career. And it was the one that effectively marked the end of it.
Looking sad, resigned and oddly hopeful after a stunning loss to Donald Trump, Clinton acknowledged her profound disappointment in losing the presidential election but urged her supporters to continue her hard-fought but unsuccessful quest to shatter the metaphorical glass ceiling.
“This is painful, and it will be for a long time,” Clinton, appearing at times to fight back tears, told staffers and supporters at a midtown Manhattan hotel. “I’ve had successes and I’ve had setbacks. Sometimes really painful ones,” she added with a wry smile. “This loss hurts, but, please, never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.”
Of Trump — the man she called unfit to be president and who repeatedly referred to her as “Crooked Hillary” — Clinton called on her supporters to root for his success in the office.
“Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead,” she said, saying that she wants her election foe to “be a successful president for all Americans.”
President Barack Obama, speaking from the White House soon after Clinton concluded her remarks, repeated the refrain.
“We are all now rooting for his success in uniting and leading the country,” Obama said.
The speech, much like Trump’s victory address hours before, was markedly gracious and conciliatory after a bitterly combative campaign. Virtually no one — least of all the Clinton campaign, which had planned a massive celebration in the glass-ceilinged Javits Center on Tuesday night — had expected the former secretary of state to deliver her second concession speech of her two presidential campaigns.
But Clinton, whom aides said had prepared both a victory speech and a concession speech despite polling that overwhelmingly showed her the favorite, had the never-give-up tone and rhetoric that characterized both her 2008 and 2016 primary campaigns. She spoke directly to the women and young people who had worked for her campaign, pleading with them not to abandon the fight for an “inclusive” America.
“To all the women, and especially the young women, who put their faith in this campaign and in me, I want you to know that nothing has made me prouder than to be your champion,” Clinton said, her voice breaking up.
“And to all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and to achieve your own dreams,” added Clinton, who was flanked by a grim-faced Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton.
Some in the room were audibly weeping during Clinton’s remarks, as the Democratic nominee put an official stamp on the overnight news that she would not, after all, become the nation’s first female president.
Women indeed had some notable successes Tuesday night that were overshadowed by Clinton’s loss. Three females were newly elected to the U.S. Senate, including the first Latina in Nevada Sen.-elect Catherine Cortez Masto and the second African-American woman in California Sen.-elect Kamala Harris. The razor-thin victories of Maggie Hassan to the Senate and Carol Shea-Porter to the House mean New Hampshire, which went very narrowly for Clinton, will have an all-female, all-Democratic delegation to Congress.
But the failure to take the top job disheartened activists who have been working decades to elect more women to high office.
“The results of last night’s presidential election make one thing clear: Our work is far from over. Like you, we are all in shock and it will take time to understand what happened,” Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY’s List, said in a statement.
Clinton had denounced Trump as not only unqualified to be president but as a man who had disqualified himself by making offensive comments about women, Latinos, people with disabilities and Muslims. She had thought the aggrieved groups would catapult her to victory, eager to keep Trump out of the White House.
But despite a strong ground game and ensuing jump in Latino voter turnout, Clinton could not cobble together the states needed for victory. On Wednesday, Clinton was ahead in the popular vote, but losses in Rust Belt states as well as Florida kept her from winning the Electoral College.
Clinton made no comments about Trump’s campaign season remarks and behavior. But she did send a message that her supporters should not let go of the values they fought for in the race.
“Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power and we don’t just respect that, we cherish it. It also enshrines other things: the rule of law, the principle that we are equal in rights and dignity, freedom of worship and expression. We respect and cherish these values too and we must defend them,” Clinton said.
It was the second presidential campaign concession speech for Clinton, who surrendered the battle for the Democratic nomination in 2008 to Barack Obama. Then, an emotional Clinton bucked up and noted the remarkable progress she had made in coming so close to getting the nomination.
“Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it,” Clinton said in 2008. “And the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time.”
This year, Clinton kept the optimism about shattering that last barrier for women. But she acknowledged it wasn’t going to be her who did it.
“I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but someday, someone will, and hopefully sooner than we might think right now,” Clinton said.
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Hillary Clinton: ‘This Is Painful, and It Will Be for a Long Time’ originally appeared on usnews.com
