Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Orange is for Hillary

Not quite red, and trying for yellow



I wonder if Hillary's costume crew checked out the meaning of colors before they assigned the orange to her pantsuit for last night's speech at the DNC. Here is what a google for "meaning of color orange" produced:
Orange is vibrant. It's a combination of red and yellow so it shares some common attributes with those colors. It denotes energy, warmth, and the sun. But orange has a bit less intensity or aggression than red, calmed by the cheerfulness of yellow.
Is that was how Hillary Clinton wanted to appear at her much-anticipated speech at the Democratic National Convention? Yes she was less intense, but she didn't appear very calm, nor particularly cheerful. As usual with Hillary, she will try to use props to plod her way through her projects - Bill, the right-wing conspiracy, mysogyny, Chelsea, tears, and now an orange pantsuit.

I was actually surprised at how much time she spent on herself, including that really badly planned and edited video of her presented by Chelsea. At some point, I though she was just going to go for it and announce that her party had chosen the wrong candidate, and it should just be her. Of course, she never did this, given that her whole life has been one bet-hedging after another.

Roll back some 30 years to the Republical National Convention in 1976. Ronald Reagan, went all the way to the RNC in 1976, with Ford having a slight lead (much like what Clinton and Obama have faced), and lost by a very small margin at the ballots. He did not waver between primaries, no "party unity" reconciliation, no discouragement from bullying party members. Reagan decided he wasn't going to quit. In fact, Reagan's strength was such that Ford changed some of his slogans to resemble Reagan's positions.

But the final clinch occurred when the marginally winning Ford made an impromptu request that Reagan come to the podium at the convention night. Reagan reluctantly obliged, but spoke from his heart - meaning he said what he meant.

Many political analysts say that Reagan's convention speech lost Ford the presidency. After four years of Carter, Reagan was able to return in full force, and stay through some of the most historical moments of American history.

Is this what Hillary is trying to do? Her whole presidential run, especially after the loss at Iowa, was an attempt for her to gauge the "mood" of the nation, play it politically correctly, and antagonize the party through her "it was misogyny" rhetoric. Her DNC speech was more of the same. She appears to be planning for 2012.

If Hillary is fashioning her Machiavellian political moves after Reagan's (which were not Machiavellian, but emanating from true leadership) well, she has a surprise coming. Just like her Iowa Shocker, she will be dealt with other blows that will jolt her rigid maneuvers. Politics may start out as a game, but at the end of the day, it really is sincerity that wins.

Her ambiguous orange pantsuit was definitely the right color for this candidate. I will predict again: Hillary Clinton lost her bid to the President's office when she declined to take-on full Obama's atrocities: the Rev. Wright association, the Trinity United Church membership, and as is now coming out, the Bill Ayers colleagueship.