"the agony of defeat"

On June 7, 2008 when Jim McKay words, "...thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat" rang out in his obituary, Hillary Clinton in the great hall of the National Building Museum ended her Presidential campaign.

Reading the New York times Op-Ed page online this morning, came across these following political explanations for this irony.

“If Barack Obama had been born 10 years earlier and had been a candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1992, neither I nor Bill Clinton would have defeated him.”
— BOB KERREY, a former Democratic senator from Nebraska and the president of New School University.

“While everyone loves to talk about the message, campaigns are equally about money and organization. Having raised more than $100 million in 2007, the Clinton campaign found itself without adequate money at the beginning of 2008, and without organizations in a lot of states as a result. Given her successes in high-turnout primary elections and defeats in low-turnout caucuses, that simple fact may just have had a lot more to do with who won than anyone imagines.

“And sometimes your opponent just runs a good campaign.”
— MARK J. PENN, an adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton since 1995 and a top adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

“A collection of Hillary Clinton’s tactical campaign mistakes would be a thick book. But she lost the race because Mr. Obama summoned the support of one group (white, highly educated, reform-minded Democratic elites) that never much liked the Clintons — and of another group (African-Americans) that always did until now.”
— MARK HALPERIN, an editor at large at Time magazine, and JOHN F. HARRIS, the editor in chief of Politico. They are the co-authors of “The Way to Win.”

“The press presented Barack Obama with his two years in the Senate as an agent of change, not a novice. In contrast, ABC’s Charles Gibson asked Mrs. Clinton if she would “be in this position” if it weren’t for her husband.

“To this day, a businessman with no elected experience is considered qualified for high public office; a woman with the same background is called unprepared.”
— CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN, the former Republican governor of New Jersey and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency from 2001 to 2003.

“Hillary Clinton’s campaign was done in by a sense of entitlement and hubris.”
— L. DOUGLAS WILDER, the mayor of Richmond, Va., and the former Democratic governor of Virginia.

“...run a traditional campaign that addressed the perceived challenges facing women (a strategy that worked in her successful Senate campaigns)...But her choice put her at odds with liberals in the primary electorate who wanted new and different, not tried and true. For this reason, it was fatal.”
— JANE SWIFT, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts and an education adviser to John McCain’s presidential campaign.

“Barack Obama’s candidacy was the Clintons’ worst nightmare. They had dreamed of the day when an African-American could be elected president. But they never anticipated it would happen on their watch and were utterly confounded.”
— CARL BERNSTEIN, the author of “A Woman in Charge.”

“This year, millions of Democrats swooned for Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton couldn’t do much about it. Suddenly, college students were registering to vote, and elderly widows were sending money.”
— MICHAEL KINSLEY, a columnist for Time magazine.