Melvin B. Miller
Editor & Publisher

“The silly season” 1

This has been a long, expensive and exhausting presidential campaign. As the end of the primary draws near, there is considerable frustration in the Hillary Clinton camp. Her message of experience simply has not resonated with the voters. Now that everything else has failed, there is great temptation to go negative.

That is a very dangerous strategy. There is an old saying in the black community that critics would do well to remember: When you point your finger at someone, there are always three fingers pointing back at you.

The same point is made more classically in the Gospel of St. Matthew: “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considereth not the beam that is in thine own eye?”

Throughout the campaign, Clinton has been beleaguered by Barack Obama’s extraordinary eloquence. Her message of the superiority of “experience” has paled when confronted with Obama’s call for “hope” and “change.” This left the Clinton campaign without an effective theme.

Nothing illustrates the impact of Obama’s eloquence more than Caroline Kennedy’s endorsement in her op-ed piece, “A President Like My Father,” published in The New York Times on Jan. 27, 2008. She said, in part:

“Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideal and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

“We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that might not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960. …

“I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

“I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.”

The Clinton campaign chose the unwise strategy of trying to belittle Obama’s speeches as “just words.” When Obama parried using language from Gov. Deval Patrick’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign, Clinton advisors gleefully accused Obama of plagiarism. Obama said:

“Don’t tell me words don’t matter. ‘I have a dream’ — just words? ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal’ — just words? ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself’ — just words? Just speeches?”

Patrick, the national co-chairman of Obama’s campaign, had suggested this language to Obama, and since all the quotations are in the public domain, there is no basis for the charge of plagiarism.

On the other hand, Clinton stated in one of her attacks a quotation from Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York: “You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.” There was no attribution. And in her quest to find a salable theme, Clinton herself has borrowed heavily — from Obama’s speeches.

These confrontations are silly. The voters deserve more.

1. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., during the Democratic presidential debate at the University of Texas in Austin, Feb. 21, 2008.

“I don’t care what Hillary says,
I sure like to hear his words.”