Clinton Needs To Shed Old Ways And Be Young At Heart
To hear Timothy McCarthy tell it, Barack Obama’s stunner in Iowa over the the well oiled machine of Hillary Clinton was not just an upset for the Illinois senator, it marked the beginning of the torch being passed to a new generation. `` His victory tonight was historic; the lecturer on history and literature at the Kennedy School of Government wrote through an email. ``I was in a room filled with thirty-somethings, all of whom sensed that a new day is dawning in America. As Howard Fineman said on MSNBC, tonight allowed us to turn the page of history and finally embrace the future.’’
The comparisons between Obama and John F. Kennedy have been documented time and again throughout this campaign: Obama, is 46, Kennedy, at 43, was the youngest elected U.S. president; Obama has a stunning, well educated wife, Michelle, and two daughters: Malia Ann and Natasha ; JFK and first lady Jacquelyn Kennedy entered the White House with two children: Caroline and John Jr; and now Obama seems to have matched Kennedy in arousing the youth to believe in a candidate determined to change the status quo. According to an Associate Press poll, 57 percent between the ages of 17 to 29 favored the youthful Obama, a candidate who, after all, distinguished himself early on as opposing the unpopular war in Iraq. Clinton’s initial support for the war, by comparison, seems to have clung to her like a piece of dirty lint.
Still, it’s early; Clinton has the resources, and most certainly the drive to bounce back after a disappointing defeat. She is married to the ``Comeback Kid’’ after all, so the New York senator won’t be in short supply of coaching as she heads into New Hampshire. And similar to her dismal debate performance at Drexel University in Philadelphia ; Clinton has proved herself able to learn from her mistakes, lick her wounds, and roar back like a pit bull, like she did during the Las Vegas debate when she devoured her opponents in the first 10 minutes of the debate.
The dilemma for team Clinton is they have a short week of campaigning before the New Hampshire primary, with Obama carrying a steam of momentum that will be hard to slow down before Tuesday. Another problem facing the junior senator is that she placed third behind John Edwards, so Obama is only part of her problem. As Thomas Patterson professor of Government and the Press at Harvard University, and author of the ``Vanishing Voter’’ pointed out: ``Clinton and Edwards are joint worst enemies at this point. One on one with Obama, either might have a chance of beating him. By splitting the not-Obama vote, Patterson wrote, they almost assure him of a New Hampshire win. That's the problem when three strong candidates, not just two, move onto the New Hampshire stage as a result of the Iowa caucuses.’’
So Clinton has been handed a new playbook: she needs to think young, act young, and most importantly appeal to be young, and must do so in convincing fashion, or the torch may be passed to Obama sooner than any of the pundits thought possible.
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net
The comparisons between Obama and John F. Kennedy have been documented time and again throughout this campaign: Obama, is 46, Kennedy, at 43, was the youngest elected U.S. president; Obama has a stunning, well educated wife, Michelle, and two daughters: Malia Ann and Natasha ; JFK and first lady Jacquelyn Kennedy entered the White House with two children: Caroline and John Jr; and now Obama seems to have matched Kennedy in arousing the youth to believe in a candidate determined to change the status quo. According to an Associate Press poll, 57 percent between the ages of 17 to 29 favored the youthful Obama, a candidate who, after all, distinguished himself early on as opposing the unpopular war in Iraq. Clinton’s initial support for the war, by comparison, seems to have clung to her like a piece of dirty lint.
Still, it’s early; Clinton has the resources, and most certainly the drive to bounce back after a disappointing defeat. She is married to the ``Comeback Kid’’ after all, so the New York senator won’t be in short supply of coaching as she heads into New Hampshire. And similar to her dismal debate performance at Drexel University in Philadelphia ; Clinton has proved herself able to learn from her mistakes, lick her wounds, and roar back like a pit bull, like she did during the Las Vegas debate when she devoured her opponents in the first 10 minutes of the debate.
The dilemma for team Clinton is they have a short week of campaigning before the New Hampshire primary, with Obama carrying a steam of momentum that will be hard to slow down before Tuesday. Another problem facing the junior senator is that she placed third behind John Edwards, so Obama is only part of her problem. As Thomas Patterson professor of Government and the Press at Harvard University, and author of the ``Vanishing Voter’’ pointed out: ``Clinton and Edwards are joint worst enemies at this point. One on one with Obama, either might have a chance of beating him. By splitting the not-Obama vote, Patterson wrote, they almost assure him of a New Hampshire win. That's the problem when three strong candidates, not just two, move onto the New Hampshire stage as a result of the Iowa caucuses.’’
So Clinton has been handed a new playbook: she needs to think young, act young, and most importantly appeal to be young, and must do so in convincing fashion, or the torch may be passed to Obama sooner than any of the pundits thought possible.
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net
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