Politics of Fear

31 December 2007 |permalink | email article

Hillary Clinton, as the Iowa caucuses near, is making an all-out pitch that experience trumps change. She warns voters that she would be the best prepared candidate to deal with “the unpredictable.”

Until this past weekend change was the mantra in the Democratic campaign: Clinton, tough and experienced; Obama, optimist and inspiring; Edwards, angry and populist.

On Saturday, Clinton offered a new definition of change. She mocked Obama and Edwards as the candidates of hope and demand, respectively, describing herself as working very hard every day for 35 years to achieve it.

Bill Clinton in New Hampshire used the same script to offer a fourth reason why his wife should become president: she would be the best able to “deal with the unexpected.”

The first three dealt with vision, plans and experience.

“There is a better than 50% chance that in the first year or 18 months of the next presidency something will happen that is not being discussed in the campaign,” he said.

The New York Times recently reported on the depth of her resume credentials as First Lady: no security clearance, non-attendance at National Security Council meetings, no copy of the president’s daily intelligence briefing.

“During one of President Bill Clinton’s major policy tests on terrorism, whether to bomb Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998, Mrs. Clinton was barely speaking to her husband, let alone advising him, as the Lewinsky scandal sizzled.”

Both Clintons clearly allude to the 9/11 attacks and President Bush’s failure to anticipate them.

The theme of her closing mantra is deceivingly simplistic: “Big Problems, Big Solutions – Time to Pick a President.”

But the subliminal translation to voters, in effect, is starkly reminiscent of 2004 Republican fear tactics: “Be afraid and trust Hillary.”

The Washington Post noted that “it is the type of election strategy most often adopted by incumbent candidates.”

The reference recalled Dick Cheney’s bold warning of the consequences of a John Kerry election in protecting national security against terrorism.

 

 

535