Mission(s) Accomplished
I think Hillary Clinton had two missions last night. I cannot say which was the most important. Only she could answer that. But it seems to me that she needed to 1) convince her supporters that the party is united behind Barack Obama and 2) keep herself viable for 2012. Missions accomplished.
I’m not a fan of Hillary Clinton. I have praised speeches by people I’m not fond of before on Rhetorica–including president Bush (who I am really really not fond of). I thought she delivered an effective and powerful address–this from a person I consider a weak public speaker at best. She had great material.
Her Diction 5.0 score demonstrates that she delivered, in terms of tone, a fairly standard campaign speech. She scored very high in “variety” as did Michelle Obama, indicating a belief in a wide range of expressions (and, therefore, ideas) acceptable to the audience.
I think she effectively slam-dunked the disunity master narrative. And for any hold-out supporters, she delivered the best moment of the address:
Those are the reasons I ran for president. Those are the reasons I support Barack Obama. And those are the reasons you should too.
I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?
This moment actually completed her two missions. Everything before and after was good political theater and effective speechifying. But this was the masterstroke.
Tags: journalism, rhetoric, politics
Her other mission, whether it was deliberate or not, was to boost the ratings for the convention, which I’m guessing she accomplished quite nicely.
The whole theme of past-vs-future that we were talking about working quite well for the campaign and the Party generally must leave a bit of a bad taste in Bill Clinton’s mouth. I haven’t watched the speech yet, but I think a part of your second mission is for her to lift herself out of the Clintonian ‘past’ and make herself part of the Obamian ‘future’—difficult under the circumstances.
Thanks,
-V.
V- Yes, but I think she did begin lift herself out of Clintonness–at least to the extent that she can build on it. Leaving Bill in the dust has to happen. Like we leave Carter in the dust, although we’re glad to have him around to breathe fire and spit brimstone every now and then.
Are you going to deliver the same type of analysis on the RNC as well? If so, I look forward to it.
I’m planning to cover the RNC, too. Like what I’m doing here, I’ll be paying more attention to what the press is doing.