Hillary’s Clinton’s speech last night was intended to unite the Democrats, persuading those who voted for her in the primaries to support Barrack Obama. As a communications analyst I can tell you that the speech did not succeed.
The intent of Clinton’s speech was not to garner support for Obama. Instead, Hillary talked about Hillary. The speech largely recanted her experiences on the campaign trail. It was Hillary’s swan song to Hillary and her almost-successful campaign.
While her style was articulate and strong, it failed to affect behavioral changes because it was too controlled and too clinical. Her gestures of support for Obama were clearly stated, but not deeply felt. Reason without genuine emotion rarely succeeds in changing people’s minds, never mind their actions.
Michelle Obama’s speech on Monday night, on the other hand, was effective. She was articulate, passionate, accessible, and aspirational. Unlike Clinton’s detachedness, Michelle Obama combined reason and genuineness. No wonder there are so many Tweets and posts flying around that say: “Michelle Obama: 2012.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTFsB09KhqI&eurl=http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/michelle[/youtube]
Hard to believe, with examples of authentic connection like this around, that anybody’d still want the alternative.
I think you missed the point of her speech..it was directed at the people that WERE for Hillary that WERE NOT going towards Obama ..and speaking as one of them, I think what she did was right on…I wanted to be reminded of the awesome Hillary and why I liked her in the first place and to see that she still stands strong and to understand that now, even she is clearly making the leap to Obama for all the right reasons… In my opinion Uniting the party is secondary to making those who wholeheartedly supported her, feel just in having done so..she is still helping heal the wounds..no one likes to feel like they are on the losing team… I thought her line about “were you for me or were you for what the party stands for ?” was brilliant and made for pause in thought…it gave everyone a passage out to go to the other side .. it was in some ways almost a relief…Hillary needed to talk about Hillary one more time for those who believed in herto feel OK about what they believed…you can’t walk on the broken leg until it is fully healed …
I’m no fan of the Clintons but I actually thought her speech was much better than Michelle Obama’s. The worst thus far has been Biden’s speech tonight, though. It was terrible.
I thought it was a typical speech for someone who expects to be the party’s “next” nominated candidate for president. Secretly, I think she wants Obama to lose, if you ask me.