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Hillarysworld -> All things Hillary -> Hillary shows why she’s a 24/7 politician (SMH 11/08/10)
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TOPIC: Hillary shows why she’s a 24/7 politician (SMH 11/08/10)
Jen the Michigander


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Hillary shows why she’s a 24/7 politician (SMH 11/08/10)
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http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/hillary-shows-why-shes-a-247-politician-20101107-17iy4.html

COULD Abraham Lincoln have been elected president in the 21st century, Hillary Rodham Clinton wondered aloud?

”You know,” she said. ”He was awkward and gawky looking. He was so tall. He had what were called in those days ’bouts of melancholia’, which we might call depression.

”Could he have withstood not just the 24/7 news coverage, but everybody being their own reporter with a cellphone? You know, I don’t know.”

Mrs Clinton the 24/7 politician was a constantly moving figure in a tangerine pantsuit surrounded by squadrons of men in dark suits as she tackled what Prime Minister Julia Gillard had promised would be a ”fun” day in Melbourne yesterday.

Mrs Clinton was, of course, neither awkward nor gawky looking. Not tall, either. But certainly, she was a politician of the new century, where fun boiled down to a short walk along the Yarra beside Federation Square – the crowds kept at bay by those men in black – and lunch with Ms Gillard at Taxi Dining Room.

She swept from a breakfast among power women to an ABC-hosted forum at Melbourne University and on to Pixel House, billed as the world’s first carbon-neutral office building, where she conceded that America still had big challenges with climate change since the Republican rout had left President Barack Obama without a policy. Soon she was off to the Port of Melbourne where she extolled shipments of American tractors, giant mining tip-trucks and Harley-Davidson motorcycles as symbols of trade ties, and on again to the Shrine of Remembrance to place a wreath.

It took Abe Lincoln just 267 words to deliver the Gettysburg Address – his greatest speech, and the most famous in US history.

It took Mrs Clinton 418 words to answer the simple question posed by a member of the audience at the forum: ”Do you think politics has moved beyond a contest of ideas to a straight popularity contest?”

She made clear that 21st century leaders needed to combine the attributes of silver-tongued visionary and hard-charging chief executive.

”We have a very famous saying from one of our well-known political leaders in America, former governor of New York Mario Cuomo, who says that you campaign in poetry and you govern in prose,” Mrs Clinton said.

”So, you get out there and you don’t know what you’re doing, but you’ve got a great way to get people to vote for you and then you wake up the day after and you say, ‘Oh my goodness, now what?’ It’s like the dog catching the car. You have to get to work and actually implement a policy. So we need in today’s very media-centric world people who can do both.”

Poetry and prose. Listen to someone like Hillary Clinton for awhile and you are set to wondering why Australian politicians lack both.

Mrs Clinton speaks in whole sentences, her many ever-evolving ideas clear as a bell, and conveys an easy folksiness. She spoke of Australia and the US being created by immigrants and dreamers, but noted a difference: ”I’ve never understood why you would ruin a perfectly good slice of bread with Vegemite.”

She cut right to the chase when Natalie Hutchins – married to NSW Senator Steve Hutchins and running for the Victorian state seat of Keilor – asked for ”a little bit of advice about how to balance a successful political career and a happy marriage”.

”Well, you’re both going to be serving at the same time, is that right if you’re elected?” Ms Clinton inquired. ”Yes,” said Ms Hutchins.

”Well,” said Mrs Clinton, possibly recalling her own arrangements with former president Bill Clinton, ”that’s going to be interesting at home.”

Foreign Minister and former PM Kevin Rudd, whose own early attempts at folksiness eventually fell flat, appeared enraptured as Mrs Clinton wove her spell over the crowd at the university.

Perhaps it was because on Saturday, the Secretary of State had called him ”Mr Prime Minister”. He didn’t correct her.



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Sanders


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Spot on!

She is not the lofty speaker... but a clear and thoughtful one who can actually relate easily in her dialog-like responses.

Poetry and prose. Listen to someone like Hillary Clinton for awhile and you are set to wondering why Australian politicians lack both.

Mrs Clinton speaks in whole sentences, her many ever-evolving ideas clear as a bell, and conveys an easy folksiness.

So very true.  And, thank goodness for that. We really need that at the healm of the nation, right here in the good old U.S. of A.

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What we could have had...and chances now are we never will.....


<Banging head on the desk......AUGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. disbelief

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