Obama v. Clinton: The First State Version.
Before I left on my mini-Fourth of July vacation down the shore, wherein I got sunburnt but thankfully missed the CC/PDD dust-up of which I know little and care about even less; I posted a story about Carney’s first TV ad buy the Salisbury media market, touting his leadership in the Bluewater Wind deal.
Markell is set to respond with a radio and TV ads that describe Markell as the “change we need,” in contrast to John Carney’s slogan “The experience we need. A leader we trust.” I have commented before how I always viewed Markell and Carney as proxies for Obama and Clinton, respectively. And now their campaigns are unfolding exactly in that mold. Carney will campaign on his accomplishments (should that be plural?) and experience as evidence that he is the man to bring about change. And Markell will simply run on change.
Carney notes in his Wind ad that “Change is hard. You can’t just talk about it.” And doesn’t that just sound exactly like Clinton’s “35 years of experience bringing about change” and “It takes a President to bring change.” I think we have learned from this past primary, and from other prior elections, that you cannot mix the memes of “change” and “experience.” For voters, they are mutually exclusive. When they are pissed off at the government, or an Administration, they are not going to listen to a member of that government or administration say he has the experience to bring the change they seek.
Clinton learned that lesson. The elder Bush learned that lesson in 1992. And McCain, also seeking to campaign on the mutuant “Experience to Bring Change” message, will soon learn as well.
As an aside, who do you think Matt Denn wants to run with? Officially, he is neutral, but while most of the official Democratic establishment avoided the opening of Markell’s Wilmington Riverfront campaign office last week, Matt Denn stopped by. Perhaps he thinks, in a change election, it will be easier to run with the real change candidate than one pretending to be a change candidate.
I have made a similar point to a friend associated with the Carney campaign. Their point is that Markell as the outsider/change agent is a totally bogus claim. Just because he says that he isn’t insidery doesn’t mean he isn’t.
I think that of all of the things that Markell has done, the smartest is grabbing the change meme and running with it.
Agreed. People may not be sure what they want, but they do know that they don’t want the same.
IMO, this was Hillary’s biggest mistake. The Change meme was hers for the taking. The Carney campaign should pay attention.
I often think of the Carney/Markell more like the last election for Philly mayor. Nutter was running without the support of pretty much every aspect of the entrenched Dem machine and won decisively. In Nutter’s case it wasn’t so much that he was an outsider, but he was breaking the rules and looking to break through the political muck controlled by Dems to change the way the City does business. Smart, I thought, for a city that is growing and is often talked about as the 6th Borough….
Change You Can Experience?
(cue Stratocaster with Fuzz Face)
Have you ever been experienced? I have! Let me prove it to you!
I wish Nutter was Wilmington’s mayor 🙁
It didn’t hurt any that John Street had that crazy, skinny crack dealer look about him. That hair was just plain awful. Nutter came across as much more dignified and professional.
Wow. First, I think you mean it did hurt that John Street had crazy hair akin to a “skinny crack dealer.”
Second, your assumption is that skinny crack dealers are also always African American, just like Street.
Third, even if Street was bald like Nutter, or even if Street were white like Rendell, he still would have been a horrible Mayor, not because he was black, and not because he has crazy hair “like a skinny crack dealer,” but because he was corrupt.
4th, Street wasn’t running…
The subtle (or actually not so subtle racism in the “skinny crack dealer description
Hey I gotta give Dominque a pass on this one… it’s not her fault there is a stereotype and it’s not her fault Street looks like that stereotype. Pointing it out is what bloggers do. If Dom shrank from mentioning it she wouldn’t deserve a spot at DWA.
I am a white guy who lived in Harlem when crack first hit the streets, so I know of what I speak. In the 1980s I knew four or five guys who looked like Mayor Street and I probably could have bought crack from any one of them.
I grew up in white suburbia even before that, so I know about letting your freak flag fly. By not cleaning up his appearance, Street was definitely making a statement about keeping it real.
On the other hand – I assume this means Dominque has no problem with Imus’s “nappy headed ho’s” comment.
In that case, would it be fair to say that prosthetic and plastic surgery is more prevalent amongst the chestal regions of Republican women? Hair implants on Republican men? (Biden being an exception; he makes ’em work)
heh, DE DEM, welcome to our world
where all too many of DOM’s comments are a devolving, distracting element of irrelevance (paraphrased e.g. She loved Paul Clark because she saw something in his eyes….ad nauseum).
There is plenty about Street that is comment-worthy. Just ask the FBI. Ahhhhh Philly.
Delaware has as much corruption but we do it together in so very much more refined and gentile ways.
Like Tony Soprano, we have our dirty monopolies but we keep ’em clean. No drugs and prostitution, just liquor, trash, construction and legis-in-the-pocket.
“…your assumption is that skinny crack dealers are also always African American, just like Street.”
Well, yes…skinny white kids deal crystal meth.