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FirstPaper 3 - 08 Feb 2008 - Main.AdamCarlis
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="AdamCarlis" |
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Possible Topics: | | | Hole in argument #1: she really means "older" and using it to connect with the over 65 vote and the more conservative folks in the party
- A fair point, but youth hasn't been a detriment to democratic presidential candidates (JFK, Bill - who was the same age as Obama is now when he became president)
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> | Hole in argument #2: Adam, I think it's worth thinking about whether it's plausible that Hillary Clinton, running against a JFK-type (i.e., a white male with JFK-like credentials) would have been able to tout her experience as a positive. You hint at this in your "Hole in argument #1," but I'm not sure that the fact that youth hasn't been a detriment to presidential candidacies necessarily means that people actually believe it is not a detriment, at lease at the beginning and middle stages of a candidacy. Perhaps Hillary wants to prevent the electorate from making the leap that it was able to make for Kennedy and Bill? Do you think Hillary is creating an issue, or emphasizing (and perhaps distorting) an issue that's already there? -- MichaelBerkovits - 08 Feb 2008
- So, the question seems to be whether experience would work as an argument if Obama was white.
1. If Obama was white, she could run on change (woman) and so wouldn't have to worry about an argument (experience) that is so flawed.
2. If Obama was white, "experience" could only mean either "experience" or "old" and since old isn't a good thing in an election about change and, if reinforcing the "experience" argument wasn't so detrimental (it wouldn't be to a white Obama unburdened with the race issue), then white Obama would be able to go right at Clinton on her past failures (black Obama is doing this somewhat timidly with his "right on day one" argument). | | | Support for Argument:
- She has been more than willing to be underhanded about race in other ways (debate comments about immigrant voters, Bill's campaigning in South Carolina, questionable statements by her surrogates)
- Race is a deaply powerful subconscious motivator and a lot of traction comes from small hinting.
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