Campaign Narnia: A Deeper Magic?

Prince Caspian, the much anticipated second movie based on the books of C.S. Lewis' Narnia series, opened earlier this month. It follows the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

As I watched Senator Clinton speak after the Montana and South Dakota primaries last evening, I can't help but think of that first Narnia book.

On first glace, John McCain would seem like the lion. Strong willed, sometimes to a fault, with a sturdy constitution that has withstood great pressure and pain. Lions lead battles. They are kings of the wild. In the books, the lion in Narnia has existed "since before the beginning of time." That is not far from the description Senator McCain uses for himself, "I'm older than dirt," and in the spirit in which the Senator from Illinois reminds Americans of every time he thanks Senator McCain for his "more than half century of service."

Senator Obama is like the wardrobe, something magical that helps bridge between two worlds. In the wardrobe's case, one in England and one of Narnia. People come in contact with the wardrobe and are transported to a new place in time. Obama's personal story, racial background and post-partisan outlook places him between two worlds. In the case of the Pevensie children in Lewis' books, the wardrobe helps take them from life as usual in war-time England to a new hopeful world of dreams. Obama's appeal, in part, is his ability to transport his audiences to a new place of possibility. Even dreams for some.

That would leave only one descriptor left for Senator Clinton. Described too often as icy and tough and literally described by Don Imus in 2006 as a witch, Clinton would on the surface play the White Witch in campaign Narnia.

However, watching Senator Clinton over the past few weeks, she seems to be more of the lion who comes back to life. Hardball's Chris Matthews said it well in watching Senator Clinton's victory speech following the West Virginia primary, she looks like "she knows something we all don't know." We saw that same smile following her win in Kentucky and we saw it last night in her speech in New York.

I have to agree. The campaign is over and yet she continues to campaign, and she seems to have an odd confidence - as if she knows something we don't know.

Have more delegates than we know privately endorsed Clinton, allowing her to reveal them at the convention? Maybe there are more Democratic superdelegates available than the public knows of? What if there are super-duper delegates in the Democratic primary who can trump the super-delegates? The Clintons have, after all, been through Presidential campaigns before. Maybe they know things; things we don't know.

At the end of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the lion is seemingly killed by magic, but comes back to life in order to win the great battle.

The lion's opponents are stunned. Their jaws drop and all they can say is, "No!"

The lion explains, "that though the... knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which....did not know."

For all Senator Obama's magic, Senator Clinton continues to smile. Is there a deeper magic still that we don't know?