2 posts tagged “hillary clinton”

June 3rd, this now historic date in US history, has dragged me back to the blogging keyboard to write about a subject I thought I was done with for quite some time. Even now, after many months getting used to the notion, I can scarcely absorb the significance of the fact that a black man has clinched the Democratic nomination for president of the United States, nary 40 years after desegregation.

While a keen follower of politics, my energy was sapped after the ALP's victory last year. Without Howard around, who was I supposed to hate? Rudd has been a super-competent technocrat, who seemingly inspires through actions rather than words (and God knows if you've heard him speak, words are not his main talent with the notable exception of The Apology). There is not much for me to rail against in the Australian political sphere.

Meanwhile, here in the US, CNN et al managed to dull my interest with their absurd analyses of the candidates -- shallow and sensationalist, typified by their hysteria over a mis-spoken word here, an embarrassing acquiantance there. Certainly the media's anointing of Obama as their chosen candidate from even the early days in the campaign made me a little annoyed that the media tail was trying to wag the primary dog. Then again, when the broad brushstrokes of the frontrunners' policies painted almost indistinguishable pictures (pro-universal health care, pro-environment, anti-free trade, anti-Iraq war), I'm not sure if I could resist the temptation to report on minutiae to distract from the rather dull number crunching that comprise caucuses and primaries.

Hillary will look back at this campaign, and surely should wonder whether if, had she stuck to her knitting -- promoting good policy that had broad bipartisan appeal -- could she have clinched the nomination instead of Obama. Her pandering played right into the hands of Obama's main theme of 'change', and the very politics that the Clintons were so good at was the exact opposite of what was needed for this particular battle.

So now we'll just have to wait and see what Hillary does; mathematically she's sunk, but it would seem highly unlikely that she'll bow out silently. Then again, nor can I see the Obama campaign offering her the vice presidency either; that would simply be counterproductive not to say contradictory.

We live in interesting times!

I think I may have just listened to a speech from the next President of the United States.

One nice thing about Microsoft's corporate clout is its ability to attract influential speakers to come speak on campus. Today, the Microsoft Political Action Committee, a bipartisan group that lobbies on Microsoft's behalf on issues relevant to our industry, invited Hillary Clinton to come speak with us. I only got told by a friend this morning when I arrived at work, although I got forewarning of sorts via an e-mail yesterday about "heightened security" in the area around my building (her talk was held in Building 33, where Microsoft receives all of its important guests).

I rocked up just after 9.30am, and the room was 90% full already! When Hillary finally came on to speak, she was greeted with thunderous applause (with a little extra from a small group of Wellesley alums). Then she spoke off-the-cuff (well, at least without notes) for a good 45 minutes on a wide variety of topics. She may have been labelled as a wooden speaker by some, but surely it's in large part because of the inevitable comparisons with her husband. I found her to be engaging and well-versed on many issues. I also couldn't help but compare her performance to those of Howard and Rudd in Sunday's debate. She was more polished, very deftly mixing putting forth her policy positions with some personal anecdotes and a few backhanders at the current administration.

Hillary's critics might accuse her of wanting to be something to everyone; she would respond by saying she wants to govern for everyone, something that she has done in New York state, approaching all voters even those who normally would not vote Democrat, on what she could do to help. Should she win the nomination, it will be interesting if she can turn around some of the swing states this way, and deflect or neutralize the personal attacks that are inevitably going to come her way. Whatever you might think of her or her policies, my lasting impression is that she's a very, very capable candidate and it would not surprise me at all if she becomes the next President of the United States.