Presidential Politics: Prose/Poetry?

She's prose, he's poetry. That's the real character issue at stake.

Political differences between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama seem small next to a starker contrast: the way they "use their words."

The Democratic frontrunners for the presidential nomination are both compelling communicators. Close political outcomes -- such as we're likely to see in the Iowa caucuses -- often hang on sheer force of personality. Iowa and New Hampshire will be canaries in the mines, indicating whether the nation is in the mood for prose or poetry.

On the stump and on the page, Hillary Clinton uses lawyerly, precise language with words that carry weight. In one of her finer moments, she warned against immigration "demagogues and the calls for us to begin to try to round up people and turn every American into a suspicious vigilante."

Obama is given to lyrical flights, metaphors and turns of phrases in speeches and books. In a keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, he declared, "Out of this long political darkness a brighter day will come." He bewitched thousands with his passionate way of making words dance to the music. Who knew or heard of "the audacity of hope?" Or "the insistence of small miracles?" The meanings were original to Obama, not yet a senator, deftly weaving words and images on a national stage.

Their autobiographies are telling. Take the titles of Clinton's tome, Living History, versus Obama's Dreams From My Father. Hers reads like a legal brief that she is a game-changer, a historical force in her own right, with or without Bill Clinton.

By contrast, Obama's title is wistful and yearning, with a poetical ring that brings to mind the ancient Homeric epic hero Odysseus and his son, Telemachus, who spent years in search of his father. Obama's self-portrait as the son of a Kenyan father and a Kansan mother shows him on an identity quest in a country he calls a "magical place" on the campaign trail. His life story, spanning Hawaii, Indonesia and Harvard Law School, is indeed "improbable," a word he uses often to salt his speeches.

Clinton methodically presents her privileged journey from secure Park Ridge to Yale Law School to Washington for Watergate committee work as a young lawyer. Then she went down to small-town Little Rock to marry her sweetheart. That was her improbable turning point. She was, after all, the student speaker at her Wellesley College graduation in 1969. As she never lets you forget, she was on the frontlines of a generation of women for whom the gates of academe and opportunity opened wide.

So thorough is Clinton that she even covers her hearty laugh, a hot topic in the media. She relates that it comes from her late father Hugh Rodham: "I inherited his laugh, the same big rolling guffaw that can turn heads in a restaurant and send cats running from the room." That's a vivid voice on the page.

During her husband's impeachment, Clinton was a study in midwestern stoicism, wry and dry: "I was always doing just fine. There was nothing else I could say."

One glimmer of anguish she felt over her husband's breach of faith surfaces when she recalls posing for a Vanity Fair cover: "The Annie Leibowitz photographs were great, giving me the chance to look good when I had been feeling so low."

Compare this to a Poe-like "chamber of my dreams" which Obama describes. He dreams he is visiting his mysterious father who's locked in a cold cell. In the dream, his father says to his son Barack, "I always wanted to tell you how much I love you."

"I awoke still weeping, my first real tears for him -- and for me, his jailor, his judge, his son," Obama writes in a graceful passage which could pass for poetry. There he lays bare his elemental self, grieving for the death of the father he hardly knew.

As a community organizer in Chicago, young Obama found joy in the victories of his work. One day he and a bus full of public housing residents successfully demanded asbestos inspections from the Chicago Housing Authority. That moment was sweet: "As I chewed on the gooey popcorn, looking out at the lake, calm and turquoise now, I tried to recall a more contented moment."

Both are capable of spell-binding oratory. Clinton had her best day at a United Nations women's conference in Beijing where, as first lady, she gave a declaration on human rights: "For too long, the history of women has been a history of silence....Even today, there are those who are trying to silence our words....women's rights are human rights, once and for all."

At the 2004 convention, Obama hit a nice personal note in speaking of "the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believed that Amerca has a place for him, too."

Iowa will speak first, but in neighboring Illinois, the land of Lincoln, the dilemma is between a native daughter and an adopted son of the state. Which will it be, linear language or words that catch the light? Lincoln was more poetic than prosaic. One or the other may be inaugurated president in 2009, the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth.

If that happens, history will rhyme, as poet Seamus Heaney says it does time and again.

When all's said, don't doubt the power of poetry when it comes to politics. Take it from Robert Frost , who composed a poem for John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961. He predicted: "A golden age of poetry and power/Of which this noonday's the beginning hour." The thing is, he never got to read it: the bright snow's glare blinded Frost at the event itself.

Jamie Stiehm is a writer based in Baltimore.

Comments

[kristinamk]

Ms. Stiehm,

Can't seem to find an e-mail address for you and I didn't think to ask when we spoke, but if you're having trouble reaching me with regards to forwarding this post along, please feel free to try [e-mail].

Thank you,
Kristina

[waiguoren]

"On the stump and on the page, Hillary Clinton uses lawyerly, precise language with words that carry weight."

To quoTe the immortal John McInroe:

"YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS !"

[Openeyes]

Awfully arrogant to assume these are the only 2 viable candidates for these races and beyond.

You also place far too much weight on these early primaries anyway. New Hampshire has a population under 1.5 million, of which 97% are white. The Sacramento metropolitan area has a bigger and more diverse population than that. Iowa has a population under 3 million people, 92% white, and 90% of the cities there have fewer than 3,000 people. These states don't have much in common with most other mid-sized states, let alone larger population states like New York, Texas, or California, so the results here shouldn't be taken too seriously as predictors for the rest of the nation.

[slc20]

How about, this time around, we nominate someone who can clearly beat the republicans?

http://www.gallup.com/poll/103366/Whom-Would-Americans-Vote-Next-November.aspx

[NorCalNative]

....that goes against the value of human spirit!

[NorCalNative]

Ms. Stiehm, I enjoyed your analysis of Obama and Hillary. The FACT is that both would make a better President than Bush or any Republican candidate. I could live with either candidate.

However, I believe that this country's Health Care system is broken. The only real fix is to reduce the profits and waste due to PRIVATE INSURANCE. Both OBAMA and HILLARY have no intention of a real fix.

Much like slavery was an economic boon for some, the Health Care industry takes billions of dollars that could go to actual care instead of Administrative overhead. Until a radical change is made to our system that completly reduces or minimizes the effect of the Private Market our system will never improve. Only a very sick country would allow private markets a place at the money trough.

Honest human decency requires that People come before Profit. Our current system is morally bankrupt. The fact that neither Clinton or Obama seem interested in this "radical" change is troubling to me. We need a confrontational President not afraid to take on established business practices that go against the value of human spirt.

[whimsicalpig]

I am sick and tired of being offered these 2 lame candidates as my only choice.

I hope the good people of Iowa and New Hampshire give all of you pundits crow to eat.

How dare you think you can coerce our thinking into falling behind these 2 less than adequate candidates.

thank goodness for the internet, where like-minded people can realize they aren't crazy to object to the talking heads wisdom.

We can see snake oil when it is presented to us.

[GuiltyByStander]

Professional trainers used to say that an audience could maintain a list of only seven things in memory. Longer lists were useless.

A few years ago, I heard the rule of thumb was five.

How come the punditocracy is having trouble with three?

It was satisfying to see some coverage of Edwards today. But once again, it was about whether he was winning or maybe winning, rather than why he should be chosen.

If you are interested in the poetry of this election, why not look at the only candidate I know of who reads and quotes poets -- Joe Biden?

[RetiredCatholic]

In coming in from the cold, this is more than a two or three dog night. Clinton and Obama are not now, nor have they ever been, the only two who stood a chance at the nomination. Your narrative is sorely lacking in depth.

[mamacat]

Why don't all the candidates post blogs weekly on Huffpo discussing why they are the best candidate?
So far, only some of the Democrat contenders have posted. That is very good as far as it goes, but how about all of them, Democrat and Republican alike, getting away from their handlers for awhile and post what they have to say about the issues, as they see them?
Maybe it is too much to expect the Republicans to accept invitations, but why can't all of the Democrats?
I would respect them all more if they would open themselves up for inspection. The more we as voters know, the less likely we are to get stuck with another loser like Bush.

[Tellmethetruth]

December 17, 2007 -- Washington, DC – Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) issued the following statement today after speaking by phone with Pakistan’s President Pervaiz Musharraf:

“This morning I spoke again with President Musharraf of Pakistan. I expressed my support for his recent decisions to retire from the military and to end the State of Emergency which he had imposed on November 3. I told President Musharraf that these steps were necessary but far from sufficient. I urged him to fully return Pakistan to the democratic path, in particular by lifting restrictions on the press, restoring an independent judiciary and ensuring that the January 8 elections are free, fair and transparent.

“Immediately following the imposition of the State of Emergency, the Bush Administration placed all U.S. aid to Pakistan under review. That review apparently came up empty: the Administration has lobbied hard against placing any conditions of aid that has exceeded $10 billion since 9/11. As I told President Musharraf, it is unlikely that Congress will be similarly inactive.

“The fate of democracy in Pakistan and America's future are joined – we have a profound stake in helping Pakistan succeed. Last month I unveiled a comprehensive plan for a new approach to Pakistan that would move from engagement with one man to engagement with a whole nation. The plan would provide considerable new resources, both economic and political. It would lay the foundation for a new era of cooperation, and strengthen the national security of both of our nations. But the first step must be a genuine return to the democratic path.”

Source: Senator Joe Biden

[godlessclif]

We don't want prose or poetry.
We are not in the mood for bulls#!t whether it rhymes or not.

That is the reason for the rise of the Gumps, straight talkers, without guile, without handlers like Huck, Ron Paul and Kucinich.

It is the reason for the failure of Rudy, Hillary, Edwards and Obama.

My advice to any candidate is start telling the truth and fire your ad agency.

[TheKiddy]

For heaven's sake, how can you post an article that suggests that the contest is between these two only? Not only are you wrong (John Edwards is solid in Iowa and gaining) but it make for a pretty boring article. I scanned it, yes, but nothing new here. Not really worth the trouble.

[snruB]

Sometimes reading passages in Obama's books makes me almost cry.

Listening to Hillary speak/cackle does that to me too, but for other reasons....