A Miracle in New Hampshire

America, did we just experience a miracle? I don’t know about you, but Dog and I think so.

And it has nothing to do with who won last night.

It’s not about Hillary Clinton or John McCain or any of the other individuals running for president. It’s not about winning or exit polls or ego or how much money you spent or how good you looked or how you crafted a magical message that could both appeal to your base while not alienating anyone else.

The miracle is the message. The miracle is that after this long, exhaustive, surprising, humbling, amazing process that we call democracy, a genuine message is finally starting to emerge from the candidates. And, despite all the posturing and competition that this wonderful, imperfect process engenders, we are beginning to see a Chink in the Armor of The Expected and the Predictable--a tiny crack in which a little light may shine through.

The miracle is about letting go of the illusions that we think we need to win.

The victors in New Hampshire have found their true voices.

It’s no secret that Dog and I have not been too fond of Clinton recently. She seemed too polished, too rehearsed, too calculating. Rather than the strong, brilliant woman that she so obviously is, she seemed to be more about ambition and winning and her own achievement and less so about the greater good for which we imagine Political Service should be all about.

All that changed with one question in New Hampshire. Clinton was down in the polls, projected to lose to Obama by a margin of 10 points or more. It looked like her bright star was fading. She was pronounced a has-been by the media pundits who trounce upon any perceived weakness as an excuse for a news story.

Then Marianne Pernold Young, 64, asked Clinton what she had thought at the time would be a light, personal question…

“How do you do it?” she had asked Mrs. Clinton. “Who does your hair?”

Well, we all know that issue of “hair” can be incite all kinds of emotional trauma, but in this case it incited a little something more unexpected.

For the first time in a long time, or maybe ever, we got to glimpse an image of Hillary Clinton as a real person. And we got a glimmer of understanding of why, after she had already experienced the benefits and the grandeur of the office of president and made millions of dollars in writing and business, why she would persist amid rabid criticism, personal, venomous attacks and physical and emotional exhaustion. In her moment of weakness and vulnerability her ambition was raw—she wanted to make to make the country a better place.

And that moment, that truth gave her the victory in New Hampshire. As she said in her speech last night,

“Over the last week, I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice.”

The other winner in New Hampshire last night also found his own voice.

In the summer of 2007, it looked like it was all over for McCain. His campaign contributions dwindled and his support among conservatives waned.

In a Feb 2007 Vanity Fair article, Todd S. Purdum sums up McCain’s problems…

“John McCain has spent this whole day, this whole year, these whole last six years, trying to "fix it," trying to square the circle: that is, trying to make the maverick, freethinking impulses that first made him into a political star somehow compatible with the suck-it-up adherence to the orthodoxies required of a Republican presidential front-runner.”

That didn’t work so well. When McCain was down, when there was no money coming in, when he had to fire the advisors and was forced to go it alone, guess what happened? He, too, found his own, genuine voice. And that resonated with America.

Although Dog and I do not in any way endorse Mike Huckabee, we must admit that, when he was trailing far behind in Iowa, he said one very wise thing in the Republican debates may have been what propelled him to the front of the pack in that state…

“I'll be true to my convictions, and I think that's what Americans look for -- not someone they're going to agree with on everything, but somebody who at least has some convictions, sticks with them, can explain them, and can at least have respect for people who have different ones.”

Dog says, “Amen!”

Let’s pray for more truth in the long months to come. Let’s hope for a future less focused on fear and more focused on love—Love of our country, love of all of the people in the country and love for all of the people in the world.

Dog bless you all.