John Dickerson, Slate.com's chief political correspondent, was less than thrilled with Hillary Clinton's DNC speech last night.
Contrary to the long list of political and media pundits, Dickerson felt she left quite a bit off the plate. What she served was a 5 course meal minus 4 courses.
In the end, she may have not given enough reason for her supporters, whether they be delegates, fundraisers, or more to the point, her voters, to get behind Barack Obama in his campaign for the Presidency of the United States of America.
More after the jump...
Dickerson starts off by sublimely praising, yet carefully tweaking, Hillary Clinton's remarks likening them to the wounded war hero as seen here:
http://www.slate.com/...
Watching Hillary Clinton speak at the Democratic National Convention, I was reminded of one of those old war movies in which the wounded hero melodramatically says to his comrades, "Go on without me."
The old complaint about the Clintons is that they only care about themselves. They'll do anything to win. They never let go. Clinton turned that stereotype on its head in the centerpiece of her speech. "Were you in this campaign just for me?'' she asked, and the correct answer, surprisingly, was no.
This subtle tweak begs the question, of HRC supporters, "who are you for, me or the Democratic Party?", correctly I might add.
Throughout the campaign attack after attack was lobbed at Barack Obama for his lack of experience. His lack of leadership. His lack of you name it...he must have lacked it.
Be that as it may, HRC did a resounding job of highlighting the importance of this election using choice examples as Dickerson alludes to below:
Everything seemed to be at stake for Clinton. She said the issues she'd fought for all her life would wither if Obama was not elected. She linked Obama to continuing her husband's legacy. "We did it before with President Clinton and the Democrats. And if we do our part, we'll do it again with President Obama and the Democrats." She told the story of her gender's emancipation and the fight against slavery and then rolled the entire history of progress behind the Obama candidacy. Before that history of progress could continue, "before we can keep going, we have to get going by electing Barack Obama."
Dickerson praises her, but notes she didn't do enough to tell her supporters to stand behind Obama in his candidacy in this pivotal election that will determine whether, or not, the United States continues the Bush doctrine or start anew with new leadership at the wheel.
But there was one big flaw in the pitch: Clinton never made the case that Barack Obama was ready to lead as commander in chief. That was her strongest argument against Obama during the primary—so strong the McCain campaign is recycling her ad about the president answering the phone at 3 a.m. Maybe Joe Biden is planning to address that issue for Obama, and Clinton needed to stay focused on convincing her supporters. Still, it felt like a hole.
We've seen throughout these tumultuous Democratic primaries the negatives that were tossed at one another by the different political campaigns - the national security issue, the ready for leadership question, the attacks on gender and race from surrogates, the triangulation of voting constituencies, etc, etc, etc.
In any event, Clinton scored high marks for her speech and what she outlined within it, however will it be enough without the explicit instructions to her followers that they stand united, arm in arm, with their Obama counterparts?
Furthermore, Mickey Kaus, of Slate's Kausfiles blog, parallels Dickerson's thoughts when he writes:
http://www.slate.com/...
You know how when you give a party, you have a great time and there's this warm glow as you think about it? And then you start remembering the guests who didn't show up, and you get a little annoyed? Hillary's speech last night was like that. Effective, but then you realize the things she didn't say: 1) Obama won fair and square; 2) "Things get a little rough in the course of a campaign, and the Republicans will no doubt try to use some words said in the heat of battle against our nominee. But I came to respect Barack Obama for his __________ [insert sterling character trait]." 3) Specifically, he's more than ready to be commander in chief.
It's quite apparent Kaus shares in Dickerson's lack of enthusiasm.
Be that as it may, Dickerson seems to take a wait and see approach. I'm with him, but it does strike me as provocative the questions and issues he and Kaus have with her speech as not many of the other political and media pundits have addressed the issue.