Hillary: the agent of change looks forward
Mark Blumenthal of Pollster.com looks at all the rationales that could have made the difference in the Democratic race in New Hampshire. His conclusion? More info and study is needed for most of them, but there’s one that does show some validity already:
I did a quick comparison late last night of the crosstabs from the exit polls and final CNN/WMUR/UNH survey. Clinton’s gains looked greatest among women and college educated voters. That pattern, if it also holds for other polls (a big if) seems suggestive of a late shift tied to the intense focus on Clinton’s passionate and emotional remarks, especially over the last 24 hours of the campaign.
So, to all the supporters of others who were quick to conclude she was ‘faking it’, ‘calculating’ or those misogynists with catcalls of ‘ice queen’, ‘iron my shirts’ and worse, thankyouverymuch.
At the same time, however, I wish to note that an insider to the Clinton campaign confided that now that her consultants discovered that Hillary is ‘different than those other candidates’, they’re advising her to utilize her ‘womanity’ to maximum advantage. For South Carolina, they plan to release this video of Hillary standing next to Tyra Banks, so voters will recognize she has “all the right stuff to outperform all of her competitors.”
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January 10th, 2008 at 5:06 am
When I saw the video those first time I said out loud to no one in particular….”that’s the most genuine, most human she’s appeared this whole campaign.”
Indeed.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:52 am
I dunno, I think she looks very human all the time. But a human who’s a standard politician: careful and evasive. All politicians are scripted and polished to varying degrees and women above all, are scrutinized for signs of emotionalism beyond ’serious face’ and ‘cheerful face’.
I agree with you about ‘genuine’ though. Edwards displayed his most genuine side with the recurrence of Elizabeth’s cancer. Obama has yet to display anything quite as genuine as those two, which helps maintain some skepticism about him.
The pressure’s on all of them to maintain a certain emotional suspense, but a fleeting glimpse of what’s underneath on rare occasions can help voters to connect even more.
January 10th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Will the real “agent for change” please stand up?
I thought this was Obama’s slogan?
January 10th, 2008 at 10:06 am
I wrote a bit last night about Hillary’s comeback and the role that video may have played at my blog.
I think one way of looking at it is that you can’t really go to that “found my broken voice” well more than once — though Hillary’s “that hurts my feelings” showed a humanizing sense of humor I didn’t suspect, to be honest. Meanwhile, it would be nice for the two to sharpen their policy contrasts a bit, outside of the universal/not universal mandate difference there isn’t enough for me to go by, and I’m left wondering which one of these three I distrust/trust the most. Thus, I’m still pulling for Edwards.