18 Million Cracks

I listened to Clinton's concession speech Saturday in the car driving in this heat that feels like it was delivered personally from hell, and dang if i wasn't impressed. And moved. She already had me when she referenced "the moms and dads who came to our events, who lifted their little girls and little boys on their shoulders and whispered in their ears, 'See, you can be anything you want to be.'"

And then she made me think when she said this:

"Just think how much more progress we could have made over the past 40 years if we'd had a Democratic president. Think about the lost opportunities of these past seven years on the environment and the economy, on health care and civil rights, on education, foreign policy and the Supreme Court."

For the party faithful like myself, that was truly preaching to the choir, but dang if it wasn't nice to HEAR it.

But she sealed the deal when she wrapped the speech up by acknowledging the sexism that she encountered during this campaign:

"Although we weren't able to shatter the highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it ... 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. That has always been the history of progress in America."

Read for yourself here.

Yes, I know I am a big sap. I still hate that we had two amazing, historic candidates and we had to choose only one. There are certainly worse problems to have and hopefully it will be a problem we encounter again and again in the future, but this speech just reminded me of what a hard decision democrats faced this spring.