In humble attempt at casting this in the tradition of Socrates, a (slightly altered) quote:

"The unexamined vote is not worth casting."

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Hillary's Clearest Voice--But Why?

I can only imagine the speech Hillary shared tonight coming from a deep reflection on the reality before our country--honestly. I didn't hear her speak with that degree of clarity throughout the primary season, though perhaps I missed some of the occasions where she did. Nevertheless, she seemed much more at ease and at the same time full of conviction as she spoke tonight; I almost just went to sleep instead of listening because I was quite frankly bothered by some of the ways she handled the primary season, and expecting a pat speech that I'd rather sleep through. So either she's an unreal actor or she was deeply moved by considering the depth of importance behind this race--I think it was the latter.

I'll look to paste the video in here when it becomes available, so take a listen if you didn't hear it yet--not to just hear some difference in her speech though, but because of the education and the encouragement she actually provides on the absolutely critical issues before us: lack of affordable health care, devastating conditions for the poor (and increasingly, the middle-class), unhealthy foreign policy, and so on.

As a last reflection on the speech though, I suppose it's most moving because it, as I noted above, does seem to have been Hillary's clearest moment this election cycle; maybe that indicates how important everything is...that is, if she was able to actually change the nastiness that at times characterized her campaign, perhaps it was because she realized how we may be reaching a tipping point where the damage to our country and our people, the rest of the world and so forth, is becoming irreversible--perhaps she's more clearly realizing the actual consequences that are behind the already cliche-sounding phrases about McCain continuing Bush's policies. That's my view after hearing the speech at least, that she may simply have taken the time to reflect on the treacherous waters that she would be culpable for helping propel us into if she did not fight hard in the opposite direction. Hopefully the damage that she did do (in my honest opinion) can begin to be outweighed by speeches such as this, though unfortunately actions have consequences, and we will see.

Above photo credit: Wall Street Journal.

Update: Here's the link to a video of Hillary's speech.

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