For months, Democrats have drawn battle lines between two camps, which come down to two answers to the question, “What do we need most in Washington: change or experience?” Obama has pinned the hopes of his candidacy on messages of a fresh beginning; Clinton on the steely resilience of weathering many political storms.
The real answer, which Democratic voters are speaking loud and clear, is that we need both. A spirit of change PLUS deep experience equals something more than either alone. Change + Experience = Wisdom.
Wisdom is what will be required to address the quagmire in Iraq. Wisdom will be required to address an economy in a tailspin. And it is wisdom that can bridge partisan divides to solve health care and myriad social problems. Wisdom alone can turn the next four years into an opportunity for America to regain health and vibrancy and true our course as a country.
Experience, by itself, cannot break the gridlock of Washington and rekindle the dreams of the American people. Change, by itself, cannot navigate economic meltdown, environmental crisis, and overseas disasters. They need each other as complements and collaborators. The challenges on our nation’s agenda are simply too large for one principle to exclude the other. The world cannot afford for us to move too slowly nor to move unskillfully.
That is why the overarching message of recent Democatic primaries is that Obama and Clinton need to combine as a single ticket. Not only are they the recognized and beloved leaders of key Democratic constituencies, they carry complementary virtues and skills which will be absolutely essential in the next White House. Obama needs the vast experience of Clinton at his side daily if he is to step in as the wise leader we need now. And Clinton needs to acknowledge that she cannot lead the change the nation hungers for in the same way that Obama can.
My concern with Obama at the moment is that he appears to no longer be listening to the voters, voters who are sending him a clear message that they want Hillary as well. “Yes,” they are saying, “You are the presumed nominee. But we are still voting for Clinton because she represents what we need to see in our leader.” A 40-point victory over the presumed nominee in West Virginia is a clear message from the voters that simply must be listened to.
Instead, his campaign has focused its messages on the math of delegates and the pending competition with McCain, assuming these voters will fall in line once the nomination is secured.
This voter-deafness is a shadow side of the impulse towards change, which can become so absorbed in the battle to win that it forgets its core principles. In this case, Obama has vowed to bring the country together and yet he is not attempting to truly bring together the Democratic party together by committing to a combined ticket with Clinton if he is the nominee. He is hedging on the question and his campaign appears to lean towards lesser-known and potentially easier combinations. To me, this undermines my trust in his wisdom. With a leader of change at the helm as final decision-maker, you then absolutely need the most experienced people available to shape the process of change intelligently. Clinton has the White House experience that Obama needs at his side.
On the other side, Clinton, in her zeal to win, has moved down the slippery slope of changing the rules of engagement; where she once fully agreed that Florida and Michigan elections were invalid, she now attempts to change the rules to suit her own candidacy. This is an example of the political impulse towards power-at-all-costs that has undermined the trust of our country– it’s the shadow side of experience, which becomes fixated on only preserving power.
Both Obama and Clinton are being forced to grow in this race, as well as become more humbled by the task ahead. Clinton must acknowledge that Obama carries the mantle of leadership more powerfully than she does now – a relative unknown has beaten her formidable political establishment Obama needs to understand the limits to how effective a movement for change can be without experience at its side. He thus needs to acknowledge Clinton’s more extensive resume by putting aside any personal differences and naming her as his VP, which would demonstrate his real qualification to actually be the President.
If they were both to now commit to a combined ticket, whatever the outcome of the remaining months, the Democratic Party would not only come together sooner rather than later, it would also demonstrate the wisdom and ability to bridge divides that we truly will need in Washington for the next four years. That is the message that both candidates need to hear.
www.stephendinan.com
Stephen Dinan is the author of Radical Spirit and the founder of the Radical Spirit community, as well as the Director of Membership and Marketing for the Institute of Noetic Sciences. He graduated from Stanford University with a degree in human biology and holds a master's in East-West psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Stephen directed and helped to create the Esalen Institute's Center for Theory & Research, a think tank for leading scholars, researchers, and teachers to explore human potential frontiers. Stephen has several books in process, including a companion volume to Radical Spirit entitled Radical Spirit in Action, a memoir set in India called In Kali's Garden, and a collection of poetry called Angelfire.
You have some excellent points but seem to be unaware of a movement underfoot that will deny the presidency to the Democrats if Obama leads the ticket.
The margin of loss in West Virginia should be a wakeup call that even before Karl Rove and the Republicans begin to dissect him, Obama's arrogance has alienated 38% of the voters who cast their ballots for Hillary. At this date, she has gather 17 million voters around her. Even if one third of them turn their backs on the Democrats, it would be enough, especially in the swing states that she has won, to throw the presidency to the Republicans.
These groups are gathering under one big tent with only one aim: to make sure that Obama is defeated in November. The people in this movement will not settle for a vice presidency for Hillary and will settle for nothing less than for her to bring the magic of the Clinton name to the White House just as Bill did when he ran for president.
This is not a third party but rather a grassroots coalition of anti-Obama Democrats who have been organizing in the anticipation the Democratic National Committee will ignore their repeated messages that they will turn their backs on the Democrats because of their distrust of Obama.
This has nothing to do with race. It has to do with the names with whom he is associated and that he represents the deep division between the more highly educated Americans and those who earn their income by their labor.
If the Republicans, with their 1000-page dossier on Obama, expose the last and politically fatal information that could connect him to the Chicago corruption or any of the other rumors that have been floating around the Internet, which will become available if he becomes the nominee, this election will be for the Democrats to lose when it might have been such a tremendous win for them.
The exit polls in West Virginia are an indicatiion of the storm clouds gathering over Obama. Time is running out for the Democrats to create a Clinton/Obama ticket that would bring all the voters who selected either of them in creating one of the largest landslide victories in American history.
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TheSeeker (6 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 28 comments)
on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 9:01:49 AM
A combined ticket of Clinton, Clinton, and Obama! I can hear the campaign now, "I have selected as my running mate, the person who I spent full time during the last year describing as pond scum. But, now I need to win so I admit, I was just lying."
Neither one of these candidates can spell American economy. America's problems are far deeper than the abilities of Clinton, Obama and McCain combined.
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Mike Folkerth (101 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 495 comments)
on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 1:24:55 PM
There are more capable and appealing (and less divisive) VP candidates than Hillary for Obama to choose from. Besides that, why compound the anxiety factor by having both a minority and a woman on the ticket?
Regarding some of the comments here and elsewhere, much as I detest Hillary I would vote for her against McCain. The shrill, divisive, and desperate bullying by Hillary and her followers is pathetic. Like candidate like followers, it seems.
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Jim Arnold (12 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 77 comments)
on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 1:47:27 PM
The change many desire is away from the Clinton experience:
recall the repeal of Glass-Steagall and the subprime disaster, the NAFTA treason, Monsanto and Frankenfood, the Telecommunication Act, organic food with sludge, to name a few. And what can we expect from the next Clinton experience? Wisdom?
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Samuel Bryan (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 102 comments)
on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 6:21:59 PM
