A local professor has been making observations on the ground in New Hampshire.
Northern Kentucky University communications professor Dr. Cady Short-Thompson is in New Hampshire as part of a once-every-four-years academic project. She is filing her impressions of the presidential primary campaigns.
Report from New Hampshire
BY DR. CADY SHORT-THOMPSON | [email protected]
Here are some excerpts:
Law School’s Presidential Payoff (January 7th)
If one evaluates the payoff for earning a law degree on the current presidential field, the Democratic frontrunners are certainly getting mileage from their academic pedigrees. And in this case, even the spouses of Senators Clinton, Edwards, and Obama are successful attorneys. Never before have the frontrunner couples been this well-educated and powerful.
As such, it comes as no surprise that these Democratic frontrunners are such masterful communicators. Whether communicating interpersonally, answering questions in town hall forums, debating or in press conferences, the 2008 contenders communicate with remarkable ease, especially noteworthy under tremendous pressure to perform flawlessly and on very little sleep. As a professor of Communication, this contest has been a treat to observe and analyze.
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One More Clinton Needs to Speak (January 6th)
I have heard Senator Clinton and President Clinton speak eloquently this week. At several Clinton events, daughter Chelsea Clinton has attended but stood silent. A lovely and certainly very bright young woman, she just smiles and waves to her mother’s audiences, then leaves to stand in the background.
Women politicians typically feature their grown children in political ads and public speaking settings as evidence of successful parenting and a major accomplishment. While the Clintons have largely protected Chelsea from the glare of the media spotlight, I think she would help her mom’s candidacy by speaking or at least verbally introducing her to voters. Clinton is not attracting young voters like Obama is, nor is she attracting young women. This is a very close race where all strategies and tactics must be employed to maximize success. If Chelsea is even a fraction as strong of a campaigner and public speaker as her parents, she could help reach these needed demographics and perhaps offer insights into Hillary’s softer side and enhance the perceptions of her likeability.
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Obama’s Wave (January 4th) Although he is a political challenger, Obama possessed various symbolic trappings of incumbency this morning—a full cadre of secret service agents, credentialing procedures, reservations for the public, and full security sweeps and event monitoring.