2007-2008 was a heady time for liberals.
Bush was still president, appointing reactionary judges, embarrassing us daily in the eyes of the world, and passively working his way toward one final, colossal fuck-up by ignoring warning signs in the overheated housing market, but Democrats had regained control of Congress in the 2006 midterms and looked like a better-than-even bet to win the White House.
Better yet, Democrats had not one, not two, but three dynamic candidates: frontrunner Hillary Clinton and challengers John Edwards and Barack Obama.
At getunderground.com, we did profiles of all three. Our main editor, Mindy Nettifee, chose Barack Obama. Fellow features editor Aldra Robinson, a Southerner with populist inclinations, profiled her candidate of choice, John Edwards. Since no one else at the site was interested, I wrote a piece about Hillary Clinton.
At the time the feature was posted, Hillary appeared almost unbeatable. She was way out front in the polls, had racked up by far the most endorsements, and had a big war chest. There was enthusiasm behind Obama, but he had only been on the national stage three years at that point and many (including me) wondered if he had the guts and stamina to beat the Clinton machine, let alone the GOP. His smashing success in both regards was a political feat that still amazes me to this day.
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