Making change is not about what you believe, it's not about a speech you make, it's about working hard. There are 7000 kids in New Hampshire who have health care because I helped to create the children's health insurance program. There are 2700 national guard and reserve members who have access to health care because on a bipartisan basis I pushed legislation through over the objections of the Pentagon over the threat of a veto from President Bush. I want to make change but I've already made change, I will continue to make change. I'm not just running on a promise of change, I'm running on 35 years of change. I'm running on having taken on the drug companies, and the insurance companies, taking on the oil companies. And so I think it is clear that what we need is somebody who can deliver change. We don't need to be raising the false hopes of our country about what can be delivered. The best way to know what change I will produce is to look at the changes I've already made.
In the clip, Clinton is definitely angry. She is angry that her record of change is being compared unfavorably to two people who have gotten very little done. She is angry that her hard work is going unrewarded, and she is angry that Obama and Edwards are in her eyes lying to the country about what is possible.
Clinton has always been about hard work. That is really her theory of morality, that hard work is how you do well, it's how you create change, and it is what matters. Her frustration with George Bush has never been about his judgment, it has always been about how he is too lazy to execute his policies effectively. And laziness, not bad decisions, is the cardinal sin for Clinton. It's the attitude of women her age, who had to work twice as hard as men to get to the same place, and were attacked with subtle slurs the entire time. The only way to thrive, or even survive, was to put down your head and barrel through by outworking your competition.
I respect this attitude and this theory, and I respect where Clinton comes from. But the limits are clear. Clinton does not believe in reaching very far, alluding to the 'false hopes' of Obama, and she does not see anything wrong with voting for the war in Iraq or to delegate Bush more authority in Iran. Her theory of bail out more water faster, instead of fixing the hole in the boat, just doesn't work today.
Clinton then led the crowd through a series of chants about what is "not change." When you support legislation that bans lawmakers from accepting meals from lobbyists when they are sitting down, but permits meals when they are standing up, Clinton said, "That's not change." When you say you're against oil companies and then you vote for "Dick Cheney's energy bill….that's not change."
Clinton could subtly move into the role of 'fighter', which is a frame that could beat Obama's vague change message.
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