Is Hillary Clinton still hungry?

I am sure that a year from now there will at least be a dozen books written on the Obama campaign regardless of the outcome in November or should he continue to lead on his way to what seems to be the inevitable — the Democratic Party’s nomination.

Everyone is going to want to know just how he did it. Not how he won the presidency— should that have happened by next year — but how he knocked off the perennial power of the Democratic party: The Clintons.

The decline of Hillary Clinton’s campaign can be described as nothing less than a miniature political insurrection within the Democratic party. The party that only nine years ago fought Republicans to the death about a potential Clinton impeachment, has now effectively deserted the Clintons for a much younger, less controversial version of the 1990s Clintons.

Think about it for a second. Obama’s spirit of change is much like what the Clintons were bringing in the early 1990s.

People like change, even if they don’t know where it is headed. It was the same type of change Democratic voters looked for back in 1992. Then governor Clinton had the same rose colored glasses view of the world that Obama now has.

Back in 1992 it was all about “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow” — referring to the campaign’s theme song by Fleetwood Mac. And despite the overwhelming experience of then President George H.W. Bush, people chose the lesser experienced and unknown Clinton.

So you might ask if the Clinton’s invented the modern day “change candidate,” how they could have fallen to the brink of elimination in the Democratic primary. Wouldn’t they of all people know better?

The answer can only be described as this: They lost their hunger and edge. Oh, it is true Hillary Clinton probably cares as much as she says she does. It’s also true that she is as smart as people say she is. But caring and being smart mean very little unless the people feel your sense of caring.

The saying, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” comes to mind. Bill Clinton seemed to have that edge and hunger for the job and showed it back in 1992.

I honestly believe when compared to Obama, Clinton does have more experience.

After all she’s been thinking about the majority of the issues she talks about for at least 15 years or more. But politics is all about momentum, hunger and how both elements connect to voters. At some point in time Hillary Clinton forgot all of that and bought into her front runner status.

It kind of reminds me of the Super Bowl this year. In my opinion, the Patriots were the better team with nothing but history to compete against. But on Super Bowl Sunday, the Giants wanted it more and scoffed at history. They built on their momentum from the past three playoff games and just had an overwhelming hunger that connected with every player on that team. The end result speaks for itself.

And no, my football comparison does not come from me being a Giants fan. It’s just an observation I feel worth noting.

But focusing back on Hillary Clinton, if she wants to win her party’s nomination, she has to find a way — in about two days time — to prove to Democrats that she has momentum and hunger again. Not so much a hunger for the job. I think anyone that gets this far in a presidential nomination process has proven they have that hunger. She has to prove she has a hunger for the people and that the people actually believe her.

Should she not, it will be up to the Republicans to stop the Obama train. Can it be done? Absolutely?

But again the “hunger factor” will apply.

Davon Gray works as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. E-mail him {encode="dgpointofview@comcast.net" title="dgpointofview@comcast.net.