Selma, Obama and Hillary
UPDATED BELOW
Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both marched in Selma, Albama, and “made deeply personal appeals to voters in the sanctuaries of black churches”.
Hillary was supported by her husband Bill who was and remains incredibly popular among black voters. On the other there is, of course, Barack Obama who is black himself which should give him quite an edge.
As some others note, Obama’s speech was much stronger than that of Hillary Clinton. Here’s the evidence I’d like to submit (thank you Don):
Obama: “I’m here because somebody marched for our freedom. I’m here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants.�
Hillary: “After all the hard work getting rid of literacy tests and poll taxes, we’ve got to stay awake because we’ve got a march to continue. How can we rest while poverty and inequality continue to rise?�
Obama: “If it hasn’t been for Selma, I wouldn’t be here. This is the site of my conception. I am the fruits of your labor. I am the offspring of the movement. When people ask me if I’ve been to Selma before, I tell them I’m coming home.�
Hillary: “We’ve got to stay awake, we’ve got to stay awake because we have a march to finish, a march towards one America. Poverty and growing inequality matter. Health care matters! The people of the Gulf Coast matter! Our soldiers matter! Our future matters!�
Obama: “I know if cousin Pookie would vote, if brother Jethro would get off the couch and stop watching Sportscenter and go register some people and get them to the polls, we’d have a different kind of politics. Kick off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes!�
It’s not even a contest. It seems to me that it will not take Obama long before having the support of the majority of African American voters.
Meanwhile, and this is something Obama has to keep in mind, he has to make sure that he presents himself as the candidate who is black and not as The Black Candidate. The former has a chance of winning, the latter most certainly not.
Sister Toldjah links to this interesting article at Townhall.com by Carol Platt Liebau who knows Barack Obama from Harvard Law School. A good read from a conservative who respects Barack Obama.
15 Responses to “Selma, Obama and Hillary”
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Hillary’s problem is that she is not a ‘natural’ as a public speaker. Her style is a bit studied and her voice brittle. You can’t blame her for not being charismatic, but there it is.
When she speaks from the same platform as her husband, the comparison is painful, and I feel sorry for her.
And regarding Hillary, there is an interesting article on her in the latest edition of Mother Jones. It describes her as being kind of a “political Rohrshock blot” for the nation, and some of the reasons why she attracts antipathy from both conservatives and liberals.
She’s detestable, but it’s hard to see how she could be worse than the President that we have now.
She’s detestable,
Now you should read the Mother Jones article and figure out which version* of Hillary you dislike, and why.
*I believe the article has 8, from “Eleanor Roosevelt” to “Lady MacBeth”
I find her detestable for mostly the same reasons I didn’t like Bill. You never feel like you’re ever getting the truth out of either of them. They are entirely too coached and fake.
She compounds it by being pro-war and pro-big business (including support for NAFTA and the WTO).
Hillary offers no real break in policy from our current administration. She just hides it better.
The closest thing from that article would be the “Dianne Feinstein” Hillary… but I’m not sure what she really believes. Not that it matters, her actions have spoken.
You Hillary haters don’t know what she is trying to do only because she is not dancing to your tune.
She is abviously trying to be a centrist Democrat. That may outrage the far left and the ‘pull out now’ people, but looking into the future, it’s the only kind of Democrat with a shot at success.
Obama is pretty centrist, too, on a lot of issues, He’s lucky that the spotlight has yet to fall on him from that angle. He is also lucky that he hasn’t been around long enough for every one of his pores to be scrutinied under the microscope.
Pulling out of Iraq now is what the American and Iraqi people want. There is nothing extremist about it. The extreme view is “stay the course” in the face of all the evidence that we are creating more terrorism and putting our kids in unrecoverable debt.
Its true that Hillary is not a natural. She needs someone with Bill Clinton’s natural political talent , but then runs the risk that he’ll outshine her. That’s why they rarely campaign together. I do find her a bit too calculated—while I always found her husband more spontaneous. They do make the race more interesting, but I still wish she’d stay in the Senate, and that Al Gore would make another run with Obama as his VP. He was right about so much that Bush was wrong about.
Kritter re Hillary: “I do find her a bit too calculated”
Which of the Washington gang is NOT calculating?
Dennis Kucinich and Russ Feingold
I watched Barack Obama’s speech and as usual was carried along for the ride. His speaking in incomparable. When Hillary came on I watched some of it but, couldn’t hack the pandering fakery of her style.
Even when they showed Bill on television and in pictures, I gotta say, Obama’s star shines brighter.
Maybe all of them are calculating- but when I look at Hillary I can see the wheels turning in her brain. She’s brilliant, and is probably great one-on-one, but lacks charisma in crowds. She doesn’t create any excitement. Actually, I prefer her husband over her, even with all of his zipper problems.
I like Obama’s speaking style, too, vwcat. He has a rare quality that I last saw with Jack and Bobby Kennedy. Hope he at least snags the Vice Presidency or a Cabinet post— also would make a great UN ambassador. He’s too charismatic a leader to stay in the Senate.