Richard MichaelLets Unite! (kind of...)
June 27th 2008 18:34
Joining Forces...
Today was the big day (for some anyway) that Hillary and Obama united in New Hampshire in a town called Unity, to speak and campaign together. It is the first time they've spoken together, and unfortunately it fell a bit flat.
In the days leading up to this event I couldn't help but wonder if there was an outside chance that Obama would name Clinton as his VP. There was no such announcement, and actually the whole shebang, which has been promoted and looked forward to with at least some suspense by all the news outlets, was a bit anti-climatic.
It was what you would expect, the two of them making their fundamentally similar speeches, hitting all the liberal talking points. Even Obama, who's flair for inspiring rhetoric seemed to disappoint a bit, pumping out the kind of political speech in which we've all become accustomed. Moreover, their body language and friendly banter between and after the speeches was a bit over the top and seemed awkward. Overall, the whole rally was somewhat mediocre and boring.
There is one bit that caught my attention however. At one point in her speech Hillary pointed out that in the last ten presidential elections, a Republican has won seven and Dems have only won three. She went on to say, "Think of all the progress we weren't making during those years." Now I have no problem admitting that I am, for the most part, a liberal. But I still have respect for certain Republican presidents such as Reagan and Bush Sr. who not only safely negotiated the end of the cold war, but whose economic policies were the support for the boom America experienced during the 80s and 90s. Judging our past leaders by their party affiliation instead of their policies and integrity, stinks of the bipartisan politics that Hillary and Obama say they so adamantly oppose.
Comments such as those made by Hillary today may not deter liberals like me from voting democratic this fall. However, if Obama wants to win the presidency he doesn't have to win over liberals, he has to win over independents and disenfranchised republicans. When he, or his supporters, judge those who have gone before them only on a superficial level instead of by their merit, it reminds those swing voters that perhaps Obama isn't the change he says he is after all. It reminds them that perhaps he is just as slippery and bipartisan as any other politician; including some of those Republican presidents that Clinton referred to.
Obama and Clinton need to focus on not only saying they are agents of change, but acting and living out those promises of a new politics; a politics based on issues and integrity, rather than superficiality and bickering.
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