This article, I think, highlights the largest problem facing the Hillary Clinton campaign right now: she doesn’t want to let go of what she considers to be “her turn.” When Hillary Clinton announced that she was running for president, it was widely speculated that she would be the candidate to win the primary vote. Really, no one could have imagined that a relatively new Senator could have possibly given her a run for her money.
Unfortunately, and to Hillary Clinton’s great regret, those pundits were wrong. And now she finds herself in a neck and neck race so drawn out, so intense, and most of all so unpredictable, that her campaign is finding it hard handling the heat.
Her campaign has struggled greatly with its own identity. While Barack Obama has built his campaign around the concepts of hope, idealism, and ending a war that never should have been waged, Hillary has not yet found her niche. At first, she was experienced. Then, she wanted change too. Now, she’s a freedom fighter, sob story, whiner, preacher of sarcasm, and burster of hopebubbles. After all that her campaign has been through, they still can’t get away from the central theme of “I am Hillary, hear me roar.”
In the end, it all boils down to her disappointment at her stolen inevitability. Hillary Clinton believed that it was her turn. That no one would stop her in a race for the White House, and that she would be able to go back to that hallowed home and once again take up the seat of power (with Bill, of course). They are a family of politics, one that has been through its ups and downs, but has never let go of their big goal: to spend as much time in seats of power as possible. And now, that dream is at risk.
This, perhaps, has been the greatest contrast between the two candidates. On the one hand, you have Barack Obama, champion of the people, hopemonger, dreamer, a man with a dream that encompasses the entire nation. On the other, you have Hillary Clinton, multi-faced, champion of the Clinton, and a woman with a dream that encompasses her and Bill, and damned be anyone who stands in her way.
Comment by Steffy — March 1, 2008 @ 8:38 pm
I am a Barack fan. This being, I think we should follow his lead and spend more time in positive thought than in negative. Isn’t that the larger part of his message? Mr. Kriticle, the way to get votes for Barack is to make statements of all of the great ideas and accomplishments he has earned. Let’s see some of those.