Wow. I could have told them this. From The New York Times:
One longtime adviser complained that the campaign’s senior strategist, Mark Penn, realized too late that “change” was a much more powerful message than “experience.” Another adviser said Mr. Penn and Mr. Clinton were consumed with polling data for so long, they did not fully grasp the personality deficit that Mrs. Clinton had with voters.
So they didn't know Hilary was a stuffed Democrat suit with a creaky voice and stilted personality? Guess they really aren't living in the same reality I am, then, if this is news to them. The only difference is now, Clinton's going up against someone with a Kennedy-esque demeanor and actually has something to say, beyond political platitudes. If you think the Kennedy comparison is inapt, think for a minute; what were they saying about a too-youthful, too good-looking, too-Catholic fresh senator with too-little political experience? Here's what Kennedy's closest living aide reminds us:
"I'm tired of losing. We've had these candidates who give those five-point programmes, who sound like they are lecturing at MIT or trying to convince the New York Times board of editors. "That doesn't reach the hearts of the voters. Mr Kennedy reached the hearts of voters. And so does Obama."
Yeah. I'm tired of losing, too, and I've said from the beginning that Hilary would lose as the Democratic candidate. If Hilary wins, America gets Huckabee. But from jump, the Republicans don't have anyone who stands out, and their party is battered and bruised. It's about as lame as the Democrats were in the last election, when the most inspiring prospect for me was that "Kerry isn't Bush." I voted for him, but I didn't care. I just wanted that arch-criminal Bush out of office.
But now, as clichéd as it sounds, as hackneyed as this word is when deployed in a political campaign, of all things – I have hope. And that's powerful stuff, coming from a political cynic like me.
And no, this isn't about Obama being black. Another Korean person asked me yesterday, as Koreans continue to be surprised that a black candidate is beating lily-white Hilary, who seemed to be a favorite amongst the Korean young folks I talked to, "Do you like him because he's black?"
My answer to that is a resounding no, because that's not it. To me, he's an amazing candidate who happens to be black, and for whom his blackness has become a political asset in an America that has truly started to change in terms of race and identity politics. He's not my candidate in this race because he's black. If that had been the case, I, along with millions of other blacks, would have been voting for Jesse Jackson a long time ago. But I didn't, and blacks don't work so simplistically on a political level and never have.
That old, racist line is one I hope is put to rest with this candidate, since blacks have never behaved that way with their votes and aren't doing so in this case. If Obama's blackness is a factor, it's because it's a part of his life that has added an obvious richness to his overall story; if Obama "uses" his negritude at all, it is only as part of his story in complimenting America, as he tells us that his rise to prominence as a fulfillment of real opportunity is "only possible in America." And this is something I am proud to say, even as angry as I have been and continue to be about a whole bunch of things from Katrina to Iraq, is certainly true.
In that sense, I am proud of the ideals that America stands for, and have always been. The Bush administration has me screaming and yelling, trying to remind people of what those are, since many seem to have forgotten, nay – forsaken them completely. Obama's message is that he will build an America based on those ideals, that celebrate those ideals, that will make me able to say to non-Americans that I'm proud to be American.
What Obama has also articulated in his very presence, but hasn't been politically crass enough to actually say (that's something I leave to Bush, who loves to out-and-out say that voting against him is voting for terror, the evil-doers, etc.), is that voting for him is a vote for change, that his win would be the very sign that change has happened.
And the sheer strength of his message, its sincerity and positivity, will allow him to actually say those words when we get down to the finish line and it not sound crass. Watch.
Oh, and lest we forget, there aren't that many black people living in Iowa. So somebody white was voting for him.
I think we've got a live one here!