I just read an excellent article on Politico about Hillary Clinton and how she handles the town hall format. None of the information will be a surprise to any of us, but the author provides many examples of Hillary's give and take with audience members which provides the reader with a glimpse into how she relates to people on a personal level.
Author: "Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, a Boston Globe columnist, was a senior correspondent covering foreign policy for Bloomberg News from 2008–2015, traveling with Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. She has covered domestic politics and international relations for 25 years and reported from more than 80 countries."
The conventional wisdom about town hall debates is that they’re all about empathy; in the past, the winners were deemed to be candidates who better connected with the problems of ordinary folks posing questions. [. . .]
All told, Clinton held 60 town halls around the world in her four years as secretary of state, an average of more than one a month, and got a lot of practice answering tough questions, especially about women’s issues . . . [. . .]
She also may not be the greatest public speaker or political talent of her time, especially compared with Barack Obama and her husband, Bill Clinton. But if you thought she was well prepared for the first debate with Trump, that’s nothing compared to the hundreds of hours she’s spent in town halls. [. . .] (my bold above)
We need to keep in mind that Clinton won’t necessarily have it easy Sunday night. [. . .]
One of Clinton’s weaknesses is that she can come off as defensive, lawyerly or even impatient and bristly if challenged about sensitive issues that she feels she’s already put to rest: her ill-considered use of private email, her vote to support the Iraq War, her critics’ assertions of errors in Benghazi or improprieties in accepting donations to the Clintons’ charitable foundation.
(Last two are not my bolds)
I wish I could quote more from Indira's piece, so I hope you'll read the whole thing. I especially loved the example she describes about Hillary's town hall in Pakistan 5 years ago. It starts about halfway down the page beginning with "Consider Pakistan."
My hope is that I'm not setting the bar too high for her, and I'm definitely hoping she will connect with viewers by showing a personal side that not everyone knows is there. I know that will resonate with viewers and the undecided.
OK - I'm going to cheat and just add a bit more (I’ve noticed that at times teacherken does it, so I'm in good company, right?) ;o)
“I have had to come to grips with how much more difficult it is for me to talk about myself than to talk about what I want to do for other people,” she said.
That in a nutshell is Clinton’s challenge for Sunday night: listening sympathetically and talking about what she wants to do for other people, while also revealing something about herself.
Just a side note. The image above is from this page, which led to this page re-counting the following exchange at the same NH town hall on 7/28/15:
At a recent campaign event in New Hampshire, a charmingly precocious little boy really put the former Secretary of State on the spot, asking, "What do you think is the most important part of life, like out of all the things in life? Such as, health care, um, education, and all that stuff—what do you think is the most important?"
Bravo, young man! Clinton herself was impressed. "What a great question," she said, shaking the budding journalist's hand. "I think we have either a future philosopher or a theologian..."
But this kid meant business, and Clinton couldn't escape his (adorable) line of questioning! "Actually," she told, "I think the most important thing in life is love. It also may be the hardest thing in life."
Good answer—and probably one that will hold up in the debates!
