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The "I's" Have It
So, I did it. I made myself watch Hillary's post-victory speech. (Alas, Julia beat me to the punch with the post-speech review.) Unfortunately for her, she spoke after Barack Obama. He was his eloquent, soaring self, making references to those who blazed a path for him and sweeping everyone up and carrying them along. Clinton's speech, while not "unbearable"—a description bandied about after her second-place finish in Iowa—sounded like a mundane stump speech in comparison.
Aside from their different oratory styles, there was one important stylistic difference that becomes painfully apparent in the his and hers transcripts: Obama uttered the word I three times—including when he said "I want to congratulate" Hillary. Mrs. Clinton? More than 20 times. Obama is the "we" candidate; Hillary is the "me" candidate. Even when she says something mildly stirring—"This campaign is about people. It's about making a difference in your lives. It's about making sure that everyone in this country has the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential," for example—it all comes back to her: "That has been the work of my life."
Clinton critics like to describe her as power-hungry, but I don't know if that's the source of all the self-referencing. She's long given me the impression that she believes she knows what's best for me, for all of us, and we'll like it whether we like it or not. And no amount of humanizing or not-quite-weeping over coffee with the girls can get me past that.
About Rachael Larimore
- Rachael Larimore is Slate's copy chief.
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