Quote du Jour: Hillary Clinton, "I found my own voice."

I almost got a little weepy myself when I heard that line from New Hampshire last night, just because it's what I've been hoping for ever since she started this campaign.

Yeah, I know the woman who brought on the so-called "tear heard 'round the world" voted for Obama, in the end, explaining that the human moment she was seeking in Hillary was fleeting in the skilled politician. But, to me, that means about as much to the New Hampshire outcome (if you'll forgive the awkwardly limited analogy) as Norma "Jane Roe" McCorvey regretting her abortion means to the validity of Roe v. Wade as a judicial precedent.

The point is that, when the chips were down, New Hampshire voters saw, not an alternate strategy emerging, because even the "Clinton machine" doesn't work that fast, but a glimpse of something genuine from Hillary herself, and this resonated with, not just women, but independent voters and young voters, people who maybe wanted to like Hillary and get to know her, but weren't so sure Hillary wanted to be liked or known.

She and the voters were kind of like two kids in high school who dig each other but aren't quite sure how far out on a limb they should go in expressing it (yeah, I'm all about the brilliant analogies tonight... my apologies. I was up following last night's damn NH coverage well past midnight ;)

So, yeah, everybody, including me, got the GOP race right (except just how much McCain would come back by) and everybody, including me, got the Dems all wrong. But then everybody, including me, was pretty much just reading the polls, and watching pundits rehash the polls. And nobody was polling at the moment when everything changed.

Who knows what will happen next? I can't even project what my own vote will be when I finally cast it in one of the less influential primaries next month. I've certainly given up trying to guess what anybody else is going to do.

But I can say for sure that I heartily endorse this article by Erica Jong from the Huffington Post:

Tears & Fears

Let's just learn patience and try not to predict the outcomes in this amazing year. Yes, pundits have to pund. Columnists need to fill up columns. TV newsreaders need to seem prescient. But maybe we can't predict the changes that have surged in America as we watched rich, old, white men lie and cheat and steal elections, as we watched them enrich their cronies while impoverishing average Americans, as we saw their hunger for oil and their disdain for our lovely green planet, as we watched, horrified, as Mr. Kerry and Ms. Pelosi feared changing course more than they feared the Repugnicans.

So now we have to do the hardest thing of all: not rush to judgment, wait, cultivate watchfulness not opinion mongering. Can we do it?

Our democracy may depend on it.

Kafka had this word over his desk: WARTEN (WAIT). Every writer must learn to do that while the unconscious works and underground forces prevail. Maybe countries have to do that too.