Sunday, 27 January 2008 03:12 pm
I know *my* preference
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deckardcanineThis month, a Democratic family friend got to shake hands with Hillary Clinton and later Barack Obama. He had an interesting assessment:
Her speech was almost the exact opposite of Obama: he's all poetry without much meat on the policy bones, she's all prose with lots of policy wonk wrapped around a fairly dull manager. He was mesmerizing for almost a half hour, she was very matter of fact for maybe 15 minutes. He works a crowd magnificently, stirring great excitement and passion without even trying to lay out a policy agenda; she is not a great speaker, doesn't generate any great excitement, but lays out a very complete policy agenda. He doesn't talk much about specifics but makes you feel that he really believes what he's saying and will work hard to achieve it; she pretty much only talks about specifics but without a lot of heat or light and leaves you wondering how strongly she feels about any of it (except the really wanting to get elected part). Finally, comparing the handshake experiences: Barack was like Bill Clinton, took his time going down the line, looked directly at everybody he greeted with a warm smile and for that few seconds made you feel like the most important thing in his world for that brief moment. Clinton rushed through it, didn't emote or exude much, and didn't connect all that effectively; for example, I got a chance to do a bit of work-related lobbying by thanking her for her support for drug treatment; she smiled a little bit, said "yes, we're going to..." then was distracted by the next person in line whom she appeared to know, swiveled over to him, and that was that. So there you have it, my analyses of Clinton and Obama from a distance of about 10 feet. Everything clear now, do we know whom to vote for?
Her speech was almost the exact opposite of Obama: he's all poetry without much meat on the policy bones, she's all prose with lots of policy wonk wrapped around a fairly dull manager. He was mesmerizing for almost a half hour, she was very matter of fact for maybe 15 minutes. He works a crowd magnificently, stirring great excitement and passion without even trying to lay out a policy agenda; she is not a great speaker, doesn't generate any great excitement, but lays out a very complete policy agenda. He doesn't talk much about specifics but makes you feel that he really believes what he's saying and will work hard to achieve it; she pretty much only talks about specifics but without a lot of heat or light and leaves you wondering how strongly she feels about any of it (except the really wanting to get elected part). Finally, comparing the handshake experiences: Barack was like Bill Clinton, took his time going down the line, looked directly at everybody he greeted with a warm smile and for that few seconds made you feel like the most important thing in his world for that brief moment. Clinton rushed through it, didn't emote or exude much, and didn't connect all that effectively; for example, I got a chance to do a bit of work-related lobbying by thanking her for her support for drug treatment; she smiled a little bit, said "yes, we're going to..." then was distracted by the next person in line whom she appeared to know, swiveled over to him, and that was that. So there you have it, my analyses of Clinton and Obama from a distance of about 10 feet. Everything clear now, do we know whom to vote for?
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The introvert who knows what she's about.
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I'm sure that eventually this country will have a woman president, and a black president. I have no problem with either.
Could I handle having Obama as our first black president? Yes.
Could I handle having Hilary as our first woman president? Hell, no!