Obama Steals Clinton’s Platform

Following her defeat, Hillary Clinton has ushered in comparisons to Bill Clinton’s “comeback kid” performance, and acknowledged that she cannot beat Barack Obama on the “change” platform.  She is between a rock and a hard place.Obama on the other hand has proclaimed that a victory in New Hampshire will propel him to Presidency.  This has in effect stated that he is ready to take control on “day one”, as Hillary would say.  In addition to being ready on “day one” he will also have more than a year to get ready for it.  He is now positioned as the only viable candidate, and not Hillary.  Obama has displayed his readiness since “second one” of his arrival in New Hampshire.

A Defeat Seven Years in the Making

In 2000 Hillary Clinton did not have to opt for New York as her place of residency when she decided to run for the Senate.  She could have instead decided to represent the state of her birth.  That state is Illinois.  That is the same state that Barack Obama now represents.  By being the junior Senator from Illinois she could have coincidently prevented Barack Obama from becoming a Senator.  If he was not a Senator I doubt that he would be in contention for the Presidency.After a loss it is easy to dwell on many minute decisions that could have played a role in the negative result.  This innocuous  decision seems to have played a major role.

A Clinton Comparison

Following her disappointing lose in Iowa many pundits have already started comparing her defeat to Bill Clinton’s in 1992.  This comparison is the beginning to the end of her campaign.  She has campaigned on a platform of strength and experience, and after the first major bump in the road she is already being compared to Bill.  This may have been predicted, but that only compounds the negative impact. For her to have any chance of winning, she needs to be seen as an independent entity.  This might not have seemed as imperative before Thursday, but now it is.  She needs to win New Hampshire on her own, but most likely that will not happen.  Most likely she will enlist the aid of her husband to prevent her from appearing less than her husband and hopefully pull out a victory in New Hampshire.  This might seem like a strength, but it isn’t.If Bill Clinton plays a prominent role helping her win New Hampshire, she will get pushed to the periphery.  She would have saved her campaign to the detriment of herself.  Simply she cannot enlist the aid of Bill to prevent her from appearing less than him.  That is counter productivity and backwards thinking at its core. 

A New Way Begins

In a previous post I mentioned that I supported Barack Obama, but despite my strong conviction in his strengths it would have been farfetched to predict a victory as emphatic as yesterday’s.  He brought out more independent voters and even gained support among women, and that led to an eight point victory over Edwards in second.  This bodes extremely well for New Hampshire where Hillary previously had a strong lead.  I would predict a result very similar to that of Iowa.

 

However the most interesting aspect of this result for me is that it resembles the hierarchy amongst Obama, Edwards, and Clinton that I laid out in “A Better Way”.  As a three way team for the Presidency I proposed Obama would take the presidential nomination, Edwards the vice presidential, and Clinton secretary of state.  This concept seemed far fetched at the time, but judging by the Iowa voters it seems more in line with the sentiment of the people. This campaign season has finally started to get fun or matter.