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Prewriting Notes

Possible Topics:

What does Hillary Clinton mean when she claims to be the most experienced? Is she sending subliminal signals to white voters regarding her race? Is she attempting to emasculate Obama, in the tradition of "boy"?

Is the rejection of McCain by conservative figureheads actually an attept to make him more palatable to the center, thus making him more electable or are they actually just being honest and, therefore, are either very very far right, disingenuous about their own politics, or confused about McCain's record?

Why did the US incarceration rate begin its precipitous increase directly following the Warren court, despite that courts general expanstion of the rights of the accused? (seems like it would take way more than 1000 words).

Is the structure of law school designed to ease one into a misrable future?

The criminal trial/criminal justice system as a means for controling radicals.

-- AdamCarlis - 07 Feb 2008

Clinton Is White

1. Her experience is weak experience. While she is older (14 years), the only real political experience she has had is her time in the Senate (4 more years than Obama) and her time as first lady of Arkansas (comparable to his time is state legislature) and of the United States (where her major policy initiative failed). Could one reasonably argue that 4 extra years in the senate somehow makes someone a better president?

• Even during her time as first lady, she didn't hold security clearance, didn't receive Bill's daily intelligence briefings, and wasn't a major player (or even really a player) in any foreign affairs issue.
• When she speaks of 35 years of experience, half of that was spent as a lawyer for the major establishment law firm in Arkansas where she defendent folks like WalMart? and Tyson Foods - hardly the experience she is trying to tout on the campaign trail.

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)

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).

Hole in argument #3: Hillary and Marc Penn didn't sit around and decide an underhanded way to attack Obama on race (well they might have/probably did, but assuming they didn't). Can we really blame Hillary for our own perceptions of her words or is she only responsible for their plain meening. At face value, she is just making an inconsistent argument, not a racist one.

Hole in argument #4: Hillary is just playing the game of politics, exploiting voters and opponents, and trying to win.

• Fine. That is true. The analysis here is not that she is breaking any rules. In fact, she is playing by the same racially divisive rules we have had since this nation was founded. It isn't a question of whether what she is doing is right or fair or even within the bounds of modern politics. Rather, it is a question of how she is winning. It is like pulling the curtain off the wizard, but not condemning him for his actions.
• Do you know to what extent she framed the terms of this election, and to what extent Obama did? If from the beginning of the election cycle Clinton cast herself as the candidate with experience, all your critiques are dead-on. But what if she used it as a rebuttal to Obama's message of change (since her Clinton-ness means she couldn't possibly beat him at the change game)? Does that alter your analysis at all, if she didn't pick experience, but rather realized that she couldn't be the candidate of change and so tried to embrace the role Obama had put her in by trying to convince the electorate that experience was better than change? I actually don't think it hurts your argument at all, because then your analysis becomes more about how she is using "experience" to beat "change" (and it's racial undertones, etc). I also don't know how you would prove who framed the terms of the debate, but it's interesting to think about. -- Amanda

Hole in argument #5: Hillary means "remember Bill" when she says "experience"

• She doesn't need to code "Bill" . . . she refers to him and to his presidency with regularity.
• It is possible for a coded word to have more than one purpose. For example, "urban" means both "black" and "dangerous".

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.
• If I, as a white guy, sense it then either (1) I am over sensitive to race issues (2) am deeply racist or (3) she is doing it on purpose
• Historically racists have infantalized black men . . . "experience" is a perfect modern codeword
• Gandhi quote

Related Idea: Hillary's platform is a creed - internally contradictory to get as many folks in the tent as possible.

• Change and experience in Washington seem to be contradictory
• Change appeals to those seeking progression ... experience appeals to those seeking the status quo. The status quo is white-dominated.

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The Meaning Behind Clinton's Creed

-- By AdamCarlis - 09 Feb 2008

Introduction

Hillary Clinton makes both an “experience” argument (“Ready on Day One”) and a “change” argument (“Working for Change; Working for You”) to broaden her appeal and bring different groups into her camp. “Change” highlights her future status as the first female president and reminds us the ensuing departure from the politics of George Bush, thus exciting liberals, women and the democratic machine. Hillary’s “Experience” is a major issue for the over 65 crowd and working class white male voters (the conservative wing of the Democratic Party).

Unlike the “change” argument, her “experience” argument, when taken at face value, is a myth that fails to live up to the rhetoric. When she says “experience,” she is speaking in code, attempting to reassure conservative Democrats that traditions are safe. It is a conservative argument designed to prey upon hidden prejudices. In this essay I will attempt to show how that argument works

Hillary’s Experience is Weak

Much of it Outside of Politics

Private Sector Experience is as a Corporate Attorney

Hillary’s experience fails to live up to her hype. Her “35 years of change” includes 15 years working as a corporate lawyer in Arkansas defending companies like WalMart? and Tyson’s Chicken. Moral judgments aside, no reasonable person would classify her legal career as change-oriented.

Similar in Kind and Quality to Obama

Clinton the First Lady v. Obama state Senator

Her public service career is equally suspect. Twenty years as first lady (in Arkansas and in the White House) gives one insight into what an executive does on a daily basis, how to successfully govern, and what the motions of governing look like. However, claiming such knowledge makes one a skilled executive is tantamount to claiming that a sports reporter becomes a better hitter after covering the Red Sox or a historian, armed with a complete record of the Kennedy White House would be skilled at negotiating an end to a nuclear missile crisis. Observing and doing are two very different things and, during her years as first lady, Hillary did not do much. Her most important attempt at acting like an executive failed, resulting in our current health care crisis.

Clinton the Legislator v. Obama the Legislator

After leaving her husband’s shadow, her time in the Senate has been similarly uneventful. There are no major legislative accomplishments to speak of and many of the stances she has taken (for example, supporting the War against Iraq and its continued funding) have proven unpopular. Absent leadership on any major congressional issues, it is hard to see why spending for more years in the Senate than has Mr. Obama amounts to greater preparation for the presidency. When Hillary speaks of “experience,” she is not inviting an analysis of her record. Instead of referring to a proud history of leadership and legislative accomplishments, she is directing us to the prejudices that buttress her “experience” argument.

Given the Weakness of Her Experience, there Must be More to the Message

Raising the Age Issue (with racial undertones)

Mrs. Clinton is nearly 20 years older than Mr. Obama. The generation gap between the two candidates is mirrored in their supporters. Perhaps what she hopes to highlight, in order to sure up her senior base, is Mr. Obama’s relative youth. By asserting her “experience” she is actually asserting to those voters over 55 that she is one of them and Mr. Obama is a precocious child not quite ready for a seat at the adult table.

This is a dangerous tactic; one that backfired when used against John Kennedy Jr. and Bill Clinton (who, like Obama, was 47 when he ran for president). Given the Democratic Party’s pride in JFK and Bill Clinton, not to mention her own reliance on Mr. Clinton’s success as president, it would be both foolish and disingenuous for Mrs. Clinton to raise the age issue directly. Doing so in a coded fashion; however, offers all the benefits without any of the risk.

However, if the age argument couldn’t defeat the great Democrats of the past, why would Hillary use it today? The difference is Mr. Obama’s race. Historically, white supremacy has used words like “son” and “boy” in order to emasculate and infantilize black men in an attempt to neutralize their growing power. While Ms. Clinton can’t directly campaign by positioning Mr. Obama as a child (Mr. Clinton has referred to him as a “kid”), she is able to conjure that image up in the minds – or at least the subconscious – of those who hear her “experience” argument. It is a subliminal cue to voters to be wary; likely one most of us don’t even recognize until it has invaded our subconscious.

Raising the Race Issue

If Mrs. Clinton’s “experience” argument is attempting to tap into an undercurrent of racism in America, it is not the only weapon in her arsenal. As Mark Penn spoke about Obama’s past drug use, other surrogates referred to him as “the black candidate” in what looked like a coordinated effort to caricature Mr. Obama as the stereotypical urban, black, drug abuser. After a victory in the South Carolina primary, Mr. Clinton publicly compared Obama’s campaign to that of Jesse Jackson, an analogy that misses on every issue except race. During the recent debate, Hillary argued that immigrants were displacing American workers. She then offered confirmation of her pollster’s false claim that Latino voters have “not shown a lot of willingness . . . to support black candidates.” These subtle hints are coming together to form the background music of the Clinton campaign and make it easier for voters (at least subconsciously) to make the leap from “experience” to “white.”

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