Obama Won Fair and Square

When I was a senior in college, the DePaul Blue Demons had such a weak bench that all five starters routinely played the entire game. Nevertheless, they made it to the Final Four before they lost to Indiana State and Larry Bird. They did this by running up big leads with a pressing defense and then hanging on by the skin of their teeth at the end. In their tournament victory against UCLA, they had a seventeen point lead at the half and won by three. Their opponents may have felt as though they could have won if the game had been a minute or two longer, but they lost fair and square.

Barack Obama came from nowhere to defeat the most powerful political operation in the Democratic party and he did it the way that underdogs frequently beat strong opponents. He caught Hillary Clinton flat-footed and he ran up a big lead before she figured out what was going on. By the time Clinton found a way to put her strengths to work, Obama was too far ahead.

I can certainly sympathize with Hillary’s supporters. In the three years following that magical 1979 season, DePaul went into the NCAA Tournament as one of the top seeds and they lost in the first round each year. However, they had no one to blame but themselves for not getting the job done.