Letters to the Editor
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@jebldmm
re your "rockstar" analysis...I don't think it's way off, but i think it's still off. Pardon the length but I just wanted to share with everyone a passage from the latest issue of Policy Options (a very well respected Canadian Political Journal - the leader of the oppostion Stephane Dion, is a regular contributer). The piece was written by a Liberal Party campaign manager:
"The desire for change is one of the most potent forces in politics. With very few exceptions, an extended stay in power for one party will generate a desire for political change. The demand can be for different policies, different style or
even just different people. However, the mood in the United States is particularly receptive to a message of change because of the massive dissatisfaction with both the Bush administration and the direction of the country. Only one in four Americans thinks the country is headed in the right direction. For context, around 60 percent of Canadians think
our country is going in the right direction. While virtually every candidate for both parties’ nominations paid at least
lip service to representing change, Obama has become the clear standardbearer for change in the Democratic race and in the country overall. And when the mood for change in the country is that strong, and you represent change, and you are running for the nomination of the opposition party — well, your positioning is pretty good.
In part this is due to a strategic miscalculation on the part of the Clinton campaign. Clinton’s calculation at the outset of this process (more than a year ago) was clearly that being a woman was enough change, maybe even too much change, for a lot of voters. She deliberately underplayed perhaps the biggest change card available — the fact that she would be the first female president of the United States of America. Therefore, instead of emphasizing the change that she embodied and that her policies reflect, she emphasized the safeness of her candidacy. She could be the commander-in-chief. She could win a general election. She had been there, done that. That strategy created the vacuum into which walked Barack Obama. But he did more than just walk into it, he exploded into it. He turned his campaign into a movement. He has made people feel empowered and part of the “change” he promises. He has made people feel that big things are possible. And he has made people believe that he represents a new way of doing politics, not just different policies. In so doing, he has unlocked the key to likely victory in the Democratic primary, and possibly to the presidency. He is attracting people to the political process who have previously not bothered to participate because they did not think it mattered to them who the president was."
- David Herle
you can find the whole article here: http://www.irpp.org/po/index.htm
(it's a really balanced analysis of the race up until this point - he concurs that there's a media bias against Hillary, but doesn't immediately assume "sexism")
cheers!