| First, to be up front and in the interest of full disclosure, I'll mention that I'm supporting Hillary Clinton for President. I was one of her very early endorsers, dating back to a Blog post I wrote on December 5, 2006, even before her announcement of January 20th six weeks later.
In fact, I sort of endorsed her for President the very first time I met her in a small group meeting in Portsmouth in 1991, when she was campaigning for a little-known Governor. After her comments as she was leaving I said she should be the candidate for President. She laughed. Just a bit.
I like Hillary Clinton for a number of reasons, which I'll summarize in the next few weeks. I think she's done great things, and I believe that she can win next November. I do happen to also like all of the other Democratic Presidential candidates. Those of us who are Democrats are rich with good men and women who want to be our leaders.
However, as one New Hampshire voter, I'd like to offer some advice to Hillary Clinton. I'll say it this way: Hillary, your "EXPERIENCE" slogan won't work. It won't get you elected. In Iowa and New Hampshire, it won't put it away for you. We're looking for more than that in our next President. We look at the candidates eye-to-eye, face-to-face. We listen carefully to your answers to our questions. That's OUR experience.
Saying you're more "experienced" than Barack Obama or John Edwards or other candidates isn't going to get people to vote for you, because in Politics 21st Century, ideas count more than ever. Ideas will get us out of Iraq, sooner than later. Ideas will get us heath care, real not imagined. Ideas will create an educational system that will prepare our kids for the 22nd Century that many of them will touch, and in which their own children will compete.
Hillary, you've got some tough opponents in the Democratic primaries and caucuses, and they have lots of ideas. You COULD lose the nomination -- and it's probably yours to lose.
Some of your opponents present their ideas better than you present your "experience." You talk a lot about experience, but I'd like to hear more about your ideas, including the new ideas you have. And you do have some, but we have to look real hard because you spend most of your time talking about your experience.
As a sports enthusiast, I don't care so much about what an aging baseball player might have in the form of past records or years of experience; come the World Series what matters most is what he's going to do in the upcoming game. Sometimes his experience might help in deciding that next pitch, but usually it comes down to focusing on the task at hand -- the next hit, the next play, the next run. That's his real worth on the field.
As a New Hampshire voter, I think that you've got to do the same thing. Stop telling us about YOUR experience. Talk with us about OUR future -- the next issue, the next solution, the next hope.
Put your pollsters aside. Forget the focus groups. Resist the "politically correct" answers where you sound like you're trying to satisfy everyone and every interest group. Tell your managers you don't want to be managed. Leave your speech writers' missives at their offices. Forget the cute one-liners that don't tell us much. Don't be overly cautious or calculating. Show your courage, we've seen that before. Be yourself. Just yourself. We'll like what we see.
This advice is coming from a supporter, so I hope Hillary Clinton and her campaign advisors think about it, before they get the message from the voters and it's too late for her to recover. Once Iowa's Caucus gets under way on Thursday, January 3rd, there are only 33 days, or 800 hours, give or take a couple, before February 5th when most of the country will have voted in primaries and caucuses. The race will have been decided by then, perhaps even sooner. So Hillary, now is the time -- before the first contests in Iowa and New Hampshire -- to get those ideas out. Please start right away.
So, quick memo to Hillary Clinton for placement on refrigerator: Challenge us. Talk with us about America's possibilities and our opportunities. Give us your vision. Respect us. Let us see you for whom you are. I think we'll like you even more for that. |
