WE are the solution, Hillary. Not YOU.
Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 06:27:50 AM PDT
It's about whether we choose to play the game, or whether we choose to end it; it's change that polls well, or change we can believe in; it's the past versus the future. Barack Obama, 2/12/2007
It was at this moment, during his brilliant speech in Madison on Wednesday, that the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. I fully realized that it's Hillary who's been talking fluff all along. All of this "solutions over speeches" is yet another Rovian tactic -- accuse your opponent of your own greatest sin.
After all, it's easy for Mark Penn to cherry pick policies that poll well and offer laundry lists calculated to "sell" Hillary to a carefully chosen demographic. It's easy to tell people what YOU are going to do for THEM.
"Do you want the excitement of speeches or the empowerment of solutions? ... Hillary is a solutions person." Bill Clinton, 2/13/2007
No, Hillary. WE are the solution. Not YOU.
For all of the cynics who have said: "How is he going to accomplish all of this 'change?' I need specifics." -- well, the answer is right in front of you, growing more powerful day by day.
WE are instruments and wielders of change. WE are about to become part of the most interactive, transparent and motivated government in history. This is supposed to be the government of the people and by the people, not of and by Hillary Clinton.
I want you to know that I used to ask the same questions about Barack. Where are the details? How is he going to do all of this? Don't believe me, check my comment history -- and you'll find that up until a few months ago I was very skeptical. I'm an economist and a policy wonk -- it's my nature. A fellow Kossack asked me whether I had ever read his policy positions at the website. Truth is, I hadn't. When I did, I found them just as detailed and as well-reasoned as Hillary's. His policy advisors are truly outstanding. But Presidents aren't just policy-makers -- they're leaders. We don't elect a Micromanager-in-Chief.
It's true -- Barack doesn't emphasize policy details in his speeches. Why not? Maybe it's because he knows that a laundry list for change is not enough:
Because hope is not blind optimism. I know how hard it will be to make these changes. I know this because I fought on the streets of Chicago as a community organizer to bring jobs to the jobless in the shadow of a shuttered steel plant. I've fought in the courts as a civil rights lawyer to make sure people weren't denied their rights because of what they looked like or where they came from. I've fought in the legislature to take power away from lobbyists. I've won some of those fights, but I've lost some of them too. I've seen good legislation die because good intentions weren't backed by a mandate for change. Barack Obama, 2/12/2007
WE are the community that Barack Obama has chosen to organize. That's where his experience has come shining through in the past year. Barack is already leading us. That's where Barack has the lifelong experience that, frankly, Hillary lacks.
We need a new direction in this country. Everywhere I go, I meet Americans who can't wait another day for change. They're not just showing up to hear a speech - they need to know that politics can make a difference in their lives, that it's not too late to reclaim the American Dream. Barack Obama, 2/12/2007
I believe that we can reclaim America for ourselves. The solutions will come, but only if WE are those solutions.
Permalink | 59 comments