The story of this campaign season has been one of contrast between the foresight, effective enunciation of a core message and comprehensive strategic planning of the Obama campaign versus the short-sightedness, self-defeating tactics and day-to-day spendthrift, double-down gamesmanship of Senator Clinton's campaign.
I can think of no better example of this than Senator Clinton once again dropping the most memorable take away line of a debate but having that line, ultimately, be a statement that actually hurts her campaign.
In California it was Clinton's "It takes a Clinton to clean up after a Bush" which was her non-answer to a legitimate question posed by a citizen about whether it's good for the country when a 39 year old had never faced a Presidential Ticket without a Bush or a Clinton on it.
In Texas, Senator Clinton decided to attack not simply the character and substance of her opponent, but to mock the desires of Democratic voters themselves with the phrase:
Change you can Xerox.
Let's take a look at that...
Isolated from the rest of the debate, including Barack Obama's preceding and worthy response to the bogus "plagiarism" attack from the Clinton campaign, that video makes something eminently clear: Senator Clinton's campaign repeatedly sabotages itself over the long run for perceived short-term benefits that fail to materialize.
It's like Senator Clinton, once saved by a last minute flurry of attacks and sympathy in New Hampshire has been struggling to find that moment and mix again on the campaign trail. It doesn't happen.
Change you can Xerox, that awkwardly delivered, obviously pre-planned bon mot from the Texas debate is a perfect stand in for the Clinton campaign as a whole.
It may have sounded good sitting around a conference room table, but it was a stink bomb in the debate hall. It hurts her campaign. Not just today, but going forward.
Look at the title of this diary. I may be dumb sometimes, but I'm not an idiot. Why would I use Clinton's own "ace debate line" as a title here at Dailykos? Because that ace debate line tells you everything you need to know about the Clinton campaign. It's damaging to her not to Barack Obama. (Watch it with the sound turned down, you'll see what I mean, even the non-verbals involved with delivering the line are horrible here.)
The electorate, time and again, in exit poll after exit poll, has stated that it overwhelmingly wants change this election season. In state after state, people have been voting for Senator Barack Obama and for what he stands for: change, hope and, most importantly, national unity facing the tough problems that affect us all.
The more people get to know Senator Barack Obama, the more likely they are to vote for him.
It is campaign suicide to attack the electorate, especially their core desire this year: fundamental change in Washington D.C. It is sheer idiocy to attack a popular candidate who has marshalled an enormous outpouring of word-of-mouth messaging to introduce himself to voters across the USA.
And yet, the Clinton campaign has done so repeatedly. Why?
Change you can Xerox may be Senator Clinton's attempt to hit Barack Obama with a Mondale-esque "where's the beef." But Clinton erred in thinking that the place to deliver that line was at a debate and the person to deliver it was her. In fact, over the course of this campaign Senator Clinton has only grown more out of touch with the electorate as the weeks wear on...and it shows.
She's made that mistake before...taking up arguments best left to surrogates about Michigan and Florida, about small states and important states and what she will do if she wins or loses this or that contest. And speaking of surrogates, Senator Clinton still has no real answer for the fact that since Bill Clinton put his foot in his mouth in South Carolina, we simply have not seen the two of them together. That's a problem not a solution. People have reservations about Bill, people still don't have an answer to the question why it's good for the country to have our Presidential history page read Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton. The answer to that question is not to hide from the issue with cheap rhetoric but to take it on.
Once again, Senator Clinton's message has hurt rather than helped her campaign.
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Barack Obama's team has run his campaign effectively with attention to long term messaging and steady but solid gains among the electorate. Where they have faltered they have immediately and confidently corrected course.
I had an interesting insight the other day about Clinton's attacks on Obama. At this point, people who come up to me and mimic Clinton's lines of attack on Obama tend to be currently unpersuadable. It doesn't matter what I say in response to them, they've made up their minds...for now. It's the folks who don't think Change you can Xerox is particularly funny or insightful who are willing to, say, take a look at Senator Obama's record and substantive stands on issue after issue.
Those are the people I spend time with, with whom I expand upon Obama's substance and policy depth. And the problem for Senator Clinton is that those folks are currently the majority of Americans. People are giving Barack Obama a chance and when they take a look, they are voting for him.
Negativity has only hurt Clinton's campaign. You can photocopy that.
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But there's another factor to a political campaign directly related to this piece, and not related to policy and substance: how a campaign makes you feel. That's important, even if some make fun of it. Did I mention that people continue to write excellent music around the Obama campaign?
They do, and that's a very good sign.
Check this out:
And this reggaeton too:
And don't miss this Andreas Useche video edited by blogger Eric Byler:
What would you rather join, a campaign that mocks your hopes and desires or a campaign that inspires you with songs...that moves you and makes you want to dance?
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Senator Clinton, as admirable a woman and Senator, as true an agent of change and advocate for women and children as she has been...misjudged this electorate and our times. She has been poorly served by her campaign staff. However, I am convinced that campaigns ultimately are reflections of the candidate.
The only things a candidate cannot change are the electorate and the tenor of the times. In 2008 people want change, we want unity in the face of our challenges, we want hope.
We have a chance to make a difference in Texas and Ohio. We have a chance to persuade folks who still have open minds and, after this primary season is over, to heal our party and to bring this country together for this upcoming general election in November.
What message do you want to take to the general? Change you can Xerox or Yes, we can?
The choice is clear.
Hope is winning.
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