Hillary is a good and sincere person. That's not her fatal error.

[Bonobo]

That's not her main problem in my eyes. No, no.

The problem is that she chooses to "act", to "pretend", to "fake it" when she communicates with the public.

She rarely shows her true side, her sincere feelings. Either she cannot or she will not be emotionally honest.

Why?

I believe it is because she does not credit the average voter with having enough emotional intelligence to tell the difference between truth and bullshit. She shovels bullshit when there is plenty of truth around that she could give with equal effect. Case in point, Bosnia-gate, Hospital-gate, Bookbag-gate. She is TONE DEAF wrt emotional tone.

She is tone deaf with regards to emotional tone, but I still do not doubt that at her core she is a much more decent person than her public image suggests. So why? Why the insincerity? Why the fakeness? I do not understand -unless it is, as I said before, that she somehow thinks that the fake acting will serve her ends better. Did she take bad advice or is it just her "instincts" to think that telling a "big fish story" will help her more?

Anyway, I think it speaks mostly to how she underestimates the American people's "Bullshit detector". The truth is, it doesn't matter if you live in a mansion or a trailer park, emotional intelligence is something ANYONE can have in spades. Or not.

Obama has made a daring bet. That the American people are more prepared to deal in complexities and speak honestly about issues instead of just making the assumption that Americans can only "get" sound-byte arguments (Case in point, Obama's race speech asking for understanding about complexities, rather than throwing his Reverend under the bus for political expediency).

If Obama's bet turns out to be true, it will pay out in huge dividends. The "Media Bubble will be burst. ("Media Bubble" is my own term for the growing gap between how stupid and naive the Media-ocracy thinks the American people are, and how "emotionally intelligent/media-savvy" they really are).

[Doctor_J]

1. She has all of hubby's weak spots (triangulation, double-speak, waffling)

without his world-class personal charm. I love her dearly and would have campaigned tirelessly for her in the GE had not she crippled the party with her primary campaign.

Well, not ALL of Bill's weak spots ;-)

[book_worm]

19. good point all his weaknesses without his charm

well one weakness she doesn't have that he does is a weakness of the flesh.

[Doctor_J]

31. Yes. I like her politics better than Bill's

but the VRWC succeeded in making her toxic enough that a Hil presidency would be a disaster.

[tekisui]

32. You hit it perfectly.

What this campaign has done is pulled back the curtain and let us know how Bill did it, by Hillary's inability to "do it". She tries to be like Bill, instead of being herself and it doesn't work. At all.

[maddiejoan]

2. The camera is a funny thing

It doesn't really capture reality.

It's a filter of reality, and not everyone can be captured easily by it's limited range.

The same can be said of our increasingly short attention span theatre that we refer to as the"Media".

Obama is very luckily a photogenic and easily captured presence.

Hillary is not.

[Bonobo]

3. 100% agreed.

Obama seems also to have a better feel for the current, "YouTube Political World". His campaign seems somehow better able to contend with the fact that a 10 million dollar ad campaign can now be undone by an unguarded moment and a viral amateur video.

It is a new media world in many ways since Bill Clinton's time. He was a master of it then (remember the heady days of Arsenio Hall! Woo! Woo! Woo!) but it has run away from them.

[maddiejoan]

5. It's very comparable

to JFK being the right candidate for the emerging "television" generation.

Hillary is about as charismatic as Adlai.

[LisaM]

50. But who wants a YouTube president? I don't

Everything is instant, of the moment. That may be great for a primary campaign, but it's not great for a long-term strategy of governing.


Anyway, after I just heard "Here Comes McCain Again", it's my firm belief that YouTube has gone too far and needs to be shut down!

[Skidmore]

10. Honesty and integrity are hard to fake.

You can't do it even with the filter of a camera. Hillary has much in common with Bush.

[maddiejoan]

36. pfffft

go away, child.

[Skidmore]

40. Beano?

[maddiejoan]

42. Dude

You're the one named "Skidmore".

[Bonobo]

43. LOOOOOOL~~~!

[maddiejoan]

44. Knew I could count on you!

;) :hi:

[Bonobo]

46. Good news.

You're a new auntie.

Theo is in the house!

[maddiejoan]

49. I know!!!!

:bounce:

[closeupready]

4. Great post. She DOES seem like a nice, pleasant woman.

But yes, her lies and insincerity are just another day at the office in typical DC fashion, and people are sick of that crap. I think ultimately, her politics would have worked in the 90's, but the world has changed since then. So the failure of her campaign is less of a testament about her and more of a testament about other things.

[Whisp]

17. nice, pleasant women don't vote for wars and outsourcing. nt

[truedelphi]

26. There's a salient point to remember! n/t

[closeupready]

28. I suppose not.

Good point.

[Cha]

34. First post on this thread I totally agree with.

I don't see one redeeming quality in hilary..too many have died..one was too many.

[underpants]

6. I told everyone I knew that they were going to be impressed by Hillary

not that they would vote for her (because I know they won't) but that she is not the person that they have been told she is. She is sharp as a tack as they say and that it would show once she got to the national s....(sound of screeching brakes) the problem was that I was saying this in the realm where she was going to win the nomination ....and then Obama happened. I didn't see it coming and god knows team Hillary didn't. They had plans for a national campaign the only problem was that they were never able to get there and they got nitpicked (dare I say "snipered" ? ) by a street by street block by block campaign that Obama was running. They had grand plans (sound familiar?) but never could get past the tiny details and they got bogged down.

[JohnnyLib2]

7. I think Pres. Hillary would be better received than candidate Hillary.

As the OP notes, our b.s. detectors are pretty good and certainly on high alert thanks to Bush. People want to believe in the sitting president's abilities, especially at first.

2009 will be fascinating, in any event.

[Nederland]

8. Your post makes no sense

You start by saying that Hillary is a good and sincere person, then you continue on to explain that her problem is that she "fakes it".

You do realize that the qualities of sincerity and "faking it" are opposites, right?

[Bonobo]

9. One can be sincere inside and then decide to "fake it" anyway. You have not thought it out.

[TahitiNut]

11. "Damaged" people often submerge such expressions to 'protect' themselves.

It's the single most common coping trait for the at-risk and abused. The most effective support groups and theraputic approaches emphasize "safe" contexts in which to bring out that scared inner person and take it for a walk. (Been there - done that - helped facilitate.)

[Bonobo]

12. That is very interesting.

Food for thought.

[TahitiNut]

13. There's an old maxim: "Scratch a cynic and find someone who was emotionally abused."

The "loss of innocence" comes far too early in the maturational process for many. It's what "trauma" is all about.

Most of us can relate to the emotional brutality of playmates in our early years. We 'learn' how to present a costumed, artificial persona very early n life, submerging that part of our psyche which is directly wired into our hearts. We adopt habits and styles that are akin to a suit of armor - much unconsciously - things that "work" (because the pain went away). These aren't mature, rational choices - they're the act of immature humans scrambling to find something - anything - that relieves the pain and anxiety. We adopt such habits as facial expression and body language that sends a subliminal 'message' to others - one that inhibits interactions and shapes our "reality." The least well-thought-out and more extreme of these habits result from some really overtly traumatic episodes - sexual abuse, emotional brutality - and the more common come from tribal/family practices devoid of sensual and spiritual nurturing. Show me a family that HUGS and LISTENS and avoids the "mini-murders" of dissnig and demeaning each other, and I'll show you a healthy emotional development. Sadly, such families are rare.

[Bonobo]

14. Comedians too.

[TahitiNut]

15. Uh-huh ... humor is an essential tool.

Robin Williams is a good case study of an emotionally isolated teen and adolescent with the native intelllect that led him to humor. There's a "butterfly effect" in those years ... the distance between the developmental context of Robin Williams and Mitt Romney isn't much.

[Bonobo]

16. That's a very interesting statement. I wish you would elaborate.

I understand well the relationship between pain, cynicism and humor. I'm Jewish.

But the Mitt Romney thing has me baffled. He appears to be...humorless. Hillary is also somewhat tone-deaf wrt humor, symapthetic harmony, etc. Can you explain this "butterfly effect". I have no idea what you meant by that term. Are you referring to the "butterfly/weather effect metaphor"?

[TahitiNut]

22. The "butterfly effect" is a metaphor for a very small difference/action early ...

... in the development (of weather or people or whatever) that has an amplified effect on later development. I compare Robin Williams and Mitt Romney because they were both brought up in Bloomfield Hills (an affluent suburb here northwest of Detroit) and both went to an affluent private prep school (Cranbrook and Detroit Country Day) and both had 'executive' (emotionally distant) fathers and 'hostess' moms. I'm not well enough informed much more deeply than that .., and just think about how much differently they turned out from having (at least superficially, ignoring religion) similar "cookie cutter" beginnings.

[maddiejoan]

48. Leave your sister outta this.

[KittyWampus]

41. Tahiti Nut, if you read this... I'd LOVE to see you expand your thoughts in this thread.

It's actually quite profound. Not just in the context of the Primary but personally.

[Nederland]

39. Sincere Inside?

Interesting concept. So, it's sorta like Charles Manson saying he's a really really good person, on the inside...

[grassfed]

18. you read my mind

[Bonobo]

20. Yeah, I did. The comment in your profile is quite a nice choice too, may I say.

Talk about pithy.

"Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all." - John Maynard Keynes

[crankychatter]

21. I don't agree at all but...

I think you are a nice person and I wish I was more like you.

[Liquorice]

23. Different personality types are received by the public

in different ways. Al Gore was considered a liar, stiff, wooden and arrogant by the masses. People in the media accused him of talking down to others. According to your post, you see Hillary Clinton's public persona as emotionally dishonest, arrogant, fake and tone deaf.

Hillary and Al are both introverts, which is an obstacle for anyone wanting to be in public life. Introverts have a harder time exposing their deepest selves to large groups of people and can appear "phony" when speaking to large groups. But introverts are completely comfortable being themselves in more intimate gatherings. That is why you will often hear people saying they met Hillary and she was this incredibly warm, wonderful person. She just has trouble conveying that to large crowds. It's a problem for almost all introverts, but it doesn't mean they are fake or emotionally dishonest.

Introverts are especially misunderstood in American culture because our society in particular judges introverts very harshly.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-melcher/hillary-clinton-misunder_b_76282.html

http://www.csbsju.edu/uspp/Gore/Gore_MSNBC-opinion.html

[Orsino]

24. I made the mistake of assuming I knew a candidate's "true" feelings once...

...and that the other candidates must be phonies. I hope I won't do that again.

I think Clinton is simply less adept at appearing sincere--which is not necessarily a bad thing, though it works against her. Obama talks a much better game, but I'm gonna try to lean on whichever nominee, because either one of them will need a lot of pressure, if we want anything remotely progressive accomplished. We'll be starting with * deficits, and a brand-new corporatist president. Winning the White House is only the start of the real work that needs doing.

[truedelphi]

25. Here's a "Spiritual take" on all three candidates.

www.sethreturns.com

[eridani]

27. Like Gore in 2000, she gets "handled" way too much

She does much better as just herself.

[Bonobo]

29. But THAT is a highly significant and revealing choice on her part.

That's sort of my point (that I clearly did not make well).

[eridani]

33. Both Gore and Edwards had to lose in order to permanently reject "handling"

I like their new versions way better. I'd like to see a similar transformation of Clinton, and maybe losing will make it happen.

[Bonobo]

35. I think that's exactly right. Strange that they hadn't learned that lesson in the course of life...

Don't you think?

[quantass]

30. I really like this Post!

[easy_b94]

37. May I add that she is running a 1992 campaign and Obama is running a 2008.

[TexasObserver]

38. Sorry, but she is neither.

Not good and not sincere.

She's hopelessly self serving.

[KittyWampus]

45. Politics is theater. Success depends on a moving Narrative, a solid Persona & a convincing Actor.

The Narrative must be compelling and able to draw various groups in. And it must be consistent. Or, should any changes occur, they must appear organic.

The Persona presented to the crowd need be one that the public can embrace or rally behind. One that gets people emotionally invested.

The Actor must be able to embody the Image a campaign is trying to project.

By choosing "Inevitable/Experienced" as a Narrative, Hillary was mortally wounded when the weakness of the campaign became apparent.

And since Hillary never developed a popular Persona to stick with, coupled with the fact she isn't a good Actor, she never managed to convince the public that any particular Image was true.

[Bonobo]

47. That's an excellent analysis.

You could really flesh that one out. I think there is so much truth in there.