It might have been a good sound bite, but Senator Clinton's opening remark in her victory speech - that the campaign in New Hampshire helped her "find her voice" - was the unintentional opening of a window into the slippery and opportunistic truth of her campaign.
How could it be that a woman who is proudly running on her "life's work" of thirty-five years, who claims her advantage is that she is tested and ready to go to work on Day One, who has been running for president for months and months, still didn't have a "voice" until yesterday?
How inauthentic can you get? Say what you will about Huckabee or McCain or Giuliani or Edwards, they know who they are, and how to communicate it. So do Ron Paul and Bill Richardson. (And needless to say, so does Senator Obama). Why is it that all the other candidates were and are fully connected with their voice - which I define as the ability to fully and richly communicate who you are, what you stand for, and why you should be entrusted with the presidency? What fundamental, essential human element is Senator Clinton lacking?
What the sound bite was trying to accomplish is obvious: she sought to depict last night as the victory of a newly liberated candidate who can tear up, who is connecting deeply with voters, who has broken free of her advisors (who, of course, she hired and pays) to finally speak freely from the heart.
Of course, this "re-invention" of her campaign is just another engineered part of the soul-less, shameless essence of Clintonian politics. As is Bill Clinton's attack on the media's coverage of Senator Obama. It wasn't that long ago when he and Hillary Clinton were wailing about the vast right wing conspiracy. Now, there's a left-wing conspiracy: the media is letting Obama off the hook, they're in love with him, painting his campaign as a "fairy tale." Challenge the Clintons and you become the object of their vilification.
By the way, have you noticed that while Senator Clinton has unleashed a kennel of attack dogs, starting with the King Hound himself and including Paul Begala and James Carville, Senator Obama isn't flooding the media with his Praetorian Guard of Spin?
And did you notice that last night, while the first thing Senator Obama did was congratulate Senator Clinton on her victory, the closest she crawled to graciousness was at the very end of her speech, when she mouthed some platitude about the other Democratic candidates, and then attempted to diminish Senator Obama by lumping him in with all the others, including the departed Senators Dodd and Biden, and even Dennis Kucinich.
So if it you're really interested in the notion of "voice," the dignity that characterized Senator Obama's handling of Senator Clinton shows his. And the strategic minimization of Senator Obama shows that Mrs. Clinton hasn't found a new voice in New Hampshire, but is channeling her ever-present one.