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Few people in America doubt that Hillary Clinton is tough. And most of them are not even Democratic voters. So you would think that her campaign would focus on showing that she can take a punch rather than that she can pack a punch.
The recent stumbles by the Clinton campaign has led many wondering if the Clinton machine is overhyped. Ranging from a series of conflicting positions on drivers license, playing the gender card, planting of questions and Bill Clinton's recent statement on the Iraq war, which contradicts Hillary Clinton’s vote to authorize the war and President Clinton's own words in 2003.
The latest stumble, which has spread like wildfire is the Clinton campaign use of opposition research against Barack Obama who has been gaining on Hillary Clinton in national and states polls on the Democratic nomination for President.“In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want to Become President.'”, wrote Clinton campaign in a press release dated 12/2/2007.
If you had not heard the story, by now you’ll either be furious and thinking about everything that’s bad in politics, or you’re laughing out loud and scrolling down to find a disclaimer that says this is a spoof.
Although the attack itself is as childish as the ambitions of a kindergartener, it has an interesting facet.
First of all, it hurts Hillary Clinton’s campaign in ways you cannot imagine. It reinforces existing perception that the Clintons are dirty politicians. Even though her campaign tried to back away from the attack today, following severe criticism, probably worsening things, the damage has already been done. If you’re a diehard Clinton supporter, you’re saying “damn, they should’ve have done that.” If you’re an undecided voter or one of those Clinton-leaning supporters who are likely to change their minds several times before the election, you’re looking at Obama on one side saying “I don’t want to refight the battles of the 90s. I don’t want to pit red America against blue America” and “We don’t need someone who knows how to play the game better, we need someone who can put an end to the game-playing” and Clinton on the other side saying “The 90s were good” and “Let’s turn up the heat on the Republicans”, and you’re saying to yourself, I’m tired of all this.
Secondly, the attack reinforces a key strength about Obama, who graduated top of his class at Harvard and who wrote two best-selling books – that he’s very gifted and incredibly intelligent. Furthermore, a kindergartener dreaming of becoming president speaks positively about the content of his heart than about his political ambitions. Here’s why-
Some years ago, my family visited a close friend whose daughter (named Chelsea) had gotten ill. My daughter, who was 4 years at the time, told me she wanted to be a doctor. When I asked why, she said “so that I can heal Chelsea whenever she gets sick”. I wish she wrote an essay of it, because she has flip-flopped on her dreams several times since then. As a teacher and a father of four, who stayed home through our 3rd and 4th children so that my wife would pursue her career, my observation is that what children say they want to become is usually influenced by a role-model or circumstances surrounding an issue they would like to do something about.
Obama was a little over 2 years old when President Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963.
A certain white woman named Ann Dunham, who had a black son called Barack Obama, might have told her son about John F. Kennedy – a president who supported Civil Rights movement, who promised to end racial segregation and helped secure the release of Martin Luther King Jr. from jail. Ms. Dunham might have told his son about President Lyndon B. Johnson, who succeeded JFK, and how he enacted a new civil rights bill, which Kennedy had been urging at the time of his death. These stories may have inspired the young Obama to write his first essay in Kindergarten about wanting to become a president – so that he would end discrimination and division in America. That desire to make a difference in people’s lives, even if it means putting one’s own life at risk, as did Martin Luther King, may have contributed to Obama becoming a Civil Rights Lawyer. But you’ll have to ask Senator Obama himself. Ted Sorenson, President Kennedy’s adviser who has endorsed Obama for President, says he sees many similarities between his former boss and Obama, who was born the same year Kennedy became president of the United States.
When I look at all the multiple ways the Clinton campaign is self-destructing, I can’t help but think – I know I would be assailed for saying this – that Someone up there surely wants Obama to become the next President of the United States. If that happens, Obama will not only be the first black president, he would probably be the first president who wrote an essay in Kindergarten titled ‘I want to become President’.
