I know this diary wont go over well here as it's a bit assertive and aggressive against Senator Clinton, but she seems to be whole heartedly missing the point on the most important issue of the day and she, her campaign and her most ardent supporters seem to be missing the boat simply to play `gotcha' politics and play the umbrage, faux outrage game.
With all this flap about the bitter-gate going around, its amazing to me that Clinton and her compaign can be so pathologically tone deaf to the electorates feelings as to try and use this as an attack against Obama. She and her campaign are going to learn very quickly about the error of their ways.
I will ignore the media and McCain's use of this issue as they have different vested interests in making anything an issue and for most voters they see these for what they are and ignore them (for the most part).
So I will only focus on how this issue really hurts Clinton and how she is digging her own grave.
I will start with the supposition that Obama's original comments were, shall we say, not very well crafted, especially for someone whose cred is on word craft. That said, the content of the comments themselves is quite accurate, he simply put the mood of the country in an inarticulate way with a poor choice of words.
And from most reporting on the issue where actual people were asked their thoughts (not us chattering class) I've heard basically the following `yup, that about sums it up'. It's only the chattering class and those with a vested interest that want to take umbrage, Joe Sixpack seems to be saying `sounds right'.
81% of the people in this country right now believe the country is on the wrong course. Clinton is one of the biggest Washington insiders and hasn't lived in the real world for a long, long, long time.
Clinton has been essentially running on a 2 for 1 platform and taking her husbands accomplishments as her own and his experience as hers, using 35 years of Washington insider experience as her mantra - touting her political fighting acumen, her heavy weight connections, her ability to know the system and work within the system. What she doesn't realize is when times are tough and the chips are down people don't like that system and don't want another person who knows how to work that system. They want someone to challenge that system.
What Clinton doesn't understand (bafflingly since it's what got them into the white house in the first place) is that when things are bad, people want change, and they get frustrated and, oh dare I say, `bitter'. And when they want change, the last thing they want is an insider or an insider telling them how and how not to feel.
The problem for Clinton is, Obama may have accidentally just hit on the winning theme of his candidacy. Obama has already been running on `hope and change' and as the essential outsider which he gets to own with the most credibility. But Obama hasn't really addressed, yet, why hope and change are important right now and what is lying underneath to make it so appealing. He hasn't really pulled back the façade to show the raw emotions that most of us have underneath about how badly we feel our country is suffering right now.
So Obama's inartful comments actually started to address this and brought them out to the forefront. And you know what the funny thing is? Most people actually feel that way and agree.
And yet Clinton is so tone deaf to the electorate that she manufactures outrage over this perceived slight and may have inadvertently just given Obama the opening he needs to lay those feelings bare and take ownership of them as the real candidate who can make a difference.
But essentially, Clinton is handing Obama the greatest gift imaginable - the number one issue of the election - sadness and outrage over the direction of the country.
The rest is my opinion, slightly amplified, but tenuously possible.
Clinton's manufactured outrage will backfire in epic proportions and here's why. When outrage is manufactured (and pushed as hard as she is pushing it) over real issues, she is, by default, dismissing the issues as being invalid. That's fine if the issues are actually invalid. The problem for her, though, is the issues are more than valid. Further more, when those problems are based on core emotions, to dismiss them or use them politically is always seen as slimy and untoward. And these issues are the best reading of the electorate's temperature right now - and that's both democrats and republicans. So she is manufacturing outrage against an actual issue, the core issue.
Obama has been smart up until now not to actively use these hard feelings in his pitch. He has been vague and touchy feely about hope and change but hasn't really gone too far into why `hope and change' are so important right now. If Obama had gone into the darker side of why `hope and change' were important from the beginning he would have seemed to be an opportunist or an angry man. He would have been seen to be using people's feelings. But now that Clinton has opened the door to truthfully address them, Obama now gets to jump in and take it on board fully and use it because he is responding, not advocating or using.
Obama's remarks hit a chord, a chord of anger, bitterness and frustration that exists in the electorate and if he can stay away from `angry' rhetoric in his response and is reasonable in expanding on his point, he is going to score like nobody's business.
Seriously, Clinton just essentially gave Obama the main issue of the election on a silver platter. And not just gave it away, but is aggressively giving it away and trying to somehow say it doesn't exist. At times I wonder if she is this tone deaf and out of touch?
Now here's how Obama capitalizes - wait for the debate. Let Clinton and her tone deaf campaign keep pushing this issue and let Obama rationally, quietly and dispassionately keep clarifying his stance. Again, it's not like Obama said something inaccurate or hateful, he just didn't say it artfully. All Obama needs is the right platform to put all the cards on the table in an artful manner, and we know when he does that, he knocks `em dead.
And when might a good chance coming up? Hmmmmmm, I'm not sure, but isn't there a debate or something coming up?
You know as Clinton and the media are pushing this issue that it is going to be the topic du jour at the debate. All I hope is that Clinton gets to go first. You know she will not be able to resist her natural temptation to poke at Obama and take jabs. And then, the microphone will turn to Obama....
And in front of a nationally televised audience he will get a chance to put his words right, as he always does, and he will take full ownership of the issue and tie it all together and knock it out of the park.
Because when it all boils down, this isn't about Obama saying something wrong, its about Obama hitting a chord but just having used ill fitting words. And when Obama gets a chance to use the right words, he is dynamite.
So to me, Clinton is giving Obama the biggest present of all - ownership of the most important issue of the election - `it's the people stupid'.
So Senator Clinton, please, please, please keep this issue alive in your petty and spiteful way. Please keep digging your own grave. The more you talk about it, the more Obama owns this issue and the key to defeating you and the republicans. You will seem more and more out of touch with the economic reality of the US and the electorate themselves. You will look like the ostrich with their head buried in the sand sadly replaying your boy who cried wolf game.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what youre going to say - 'another speech, how great' dripping with wonderfully droll and sacrastic tones, but the reality is, Obama will be articulate, thoughtful and sincere and he will benefit greatly from it. As Ive said before, Clinton and McCain would kill for one tenth of that speech making ability.
Its a real issue and it runs deep - `it's the people stupid'.
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