Tough Times for Obama and Clinton
Article after article seem to be going out in the media today about the candidates other then their political issues. That's right, their personal lives and their mistakes. Two that have been coming up recently would be the ‘misspoken’ near death experience from Hillary, and of course, Obama’s ministers feelings about race. I feel that out of the two, Obama has done a better job controlling the situation then Hillary has. In fact, I feel that Hillary has tried to more dodge the ‘misspoken comment’ then she has actually confronting it. Most of her recent talks have been about Obama’s choice in a minister, and not on what she had said about the sniper fire.
Yes, we all know that Obama’s minister has said some racist stuff, but just because someone you associate with says racist things doesn’t mean that you are in fact racist. You may, and in Obama’s case this is true, down right reject what they are talking about because you feel so strongly that what they say if wrong. With all this bad press from Reverend Wright, you would think that Obama would be struggling. It should be noticed that Obama uses this to his advantage to point out to all American citizens that race is still an issue in this country and that the only way we will be able to conqueror it will be to bring it up and talk about it. Discussing it will only make the problems come out and solutions can be found, that is a lot easier then just ignoring it and brushing it under the rug.
Now for those of you who don’t know what exactly is going on with Hillary and her sniper fire, she said to a few different people that in 1996 when they were arriving in
For both candidates I feel they have a lot to over come in the near future with the last of the primaries coming up. For Obama it is going to be a challenge to prove to the voters that he is not a racist person, and that Reverend Wright is not going to infringe his beliefs on the campaign or the white house if Obama gets elected. As for Hillary, her misspoken words may have an affect on her supporters trust in her future words.
posted by emmaanne | 2:20 PM
5 Comments:
I completely agree with Emma. When Hillary commented on her Bosnia statement she said something to the effect of "I misspoke and it proves that I'm only human which I know may shock a lot of people". To me this statement came off a little brusk. It's almost as if she was saying "Hey give me a break" instead of "I was wrong, I'm sorry". How a person responds to a mistake no matter how big tells a lot about a person's character. We all make mistakes but if we can turn those into opportunities it gives you the chance to bounce back and win some approval. For a politician, especially one who is running for president, this is important. When Obama turned the racist comments made by the minister into a speech about race in America he ended up talking about a major issue in the country which should be addressed anyway. I think if Clinton could turn her statement into something more positive she could win some support back.
I think the way Caitlin described Hillary's tone as "hey give me a break" instead of an "Im sorry" is a great way to describe how Im sure many people could have perceived what she was saying. And on that note, I do think even with her "apology," if thats what one would call it, about misspeaking should have been more carefully defended. On the topic of Obama, I think Emma brought up a good point about the idea that just because someone we know is racist, does not make us racist. I think that goes along with what we mentioned in class about having a family member who may be just horrible in certain ways, but we still love them because they are family. I think that Rev. Wright is a similar association to Obama in that sense and the way he handled this situation only helps his cause.
I think all people can relate to the idea of the tendency to exaggerate. Everyone knows that a few ad-libs here and there make for better "storytelling." But if you're going to "story-tell" in a highly competitive race for the democratic nomination, you better have the sense to "story-tell" about something the press doesn't have footage of. Hillary could've chosen her words better and still could have used her story as a good example of her strengths in foreign relations, but yea---she pretty much blew it!
I agree with Emma. Hillary Clinton's response did come off as she was asking for sympathy instead of apologizing for the false statement. Yes, everyone exaggerates every now and then, but Clinton should have known that there are speculators every where listening to her every word and that she must choose her words wisely. I think her response will cause her supporters to question the validity of words.
As for Obama, I agree with Emma and Lynda that we can still love someone and not support them. Just because Obama's minister made a racist comment, does not mean that Obama is racist. We can not control what comes out of other people's mouths.
Here we are, almost a month after the comments from/about Obama's Rev and the man was holding a press conference when I turned on the TV this morning!! AHH! In the almost 5 minutes (yes, I watched for that long, can you believe it) I tuned in for he discussed the "black" church in America and even made a joke. More importantly than what he said, I was totally dumbfounded that this man was still getting air time. I guess his 15 minutes of fame is lasting a little longer than we expected and I can only imagine the effect of this man being in the public eye is having on Obama.
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