It must be hard to give a good speech when you know that even before you finish, people will be dissecting your every word and movement.
A “body language expert” gave his impressions of what Hillary really meant.
“When she spoke about Obama, she really did not emote very much,” [”Face Time” author Dan] Hill said. “The only thing she showed was a very weak smile, the cheeks didn’t tend to lift very much, it was really almost what I would call a ‘crocodile smile’ where even the slight corners of the lips sometimes raise into a little bit of a smirk.”
You’d have to have some mixed emotions in a situation like that, so her body language really didn’t bother me. But for some reason, her opening kind of did.
I am so honored to be here tonight.
(applause)
You know, I’m — I’m here tonight as a proud mother, as a proud Democrat…
(applause)
… as a proud senator from New York…
(applause)
… a proud American…
(applause)
… and a proud supporter of Barack Obama.
(applause)
My friends, it is time to take back the country we love…
Maybe it’s because the camera kept panning to Bill’s face in the audience but I thought it was strange that Hillary went as far into her personal life as being a proud mother but not a proud wife. He looked like a proud husband. She’s been a proud wife before. How to explain it?
I can’t help but think the omission was deliberate. Although Jon disagrees that any major part of Hillary’s success is because she’s the WOB (wife of Bill), I think quite a lot of it is. And I think she must at least be sensitive to such musings and wanted to be at the Democratic convention as someone who got there on her own two feet — only. All during the campaign she claimed this or that insight, experience, or qualification because of her position, not as freshman senator from New York (after all, she has less history of holding elective office than Obama), but as First Lady.
But the occasion was meant to honor her accomplishment at “glass ceiling breaking” so there wasn’t room in the spotlight for husbands. During the campaign, Hillary had to act a certain way because she is a woman. She was held to a different standard because she is a woman. She had to embrace her femaleness and deny it at the same time. Men, you’ll just have to take my word on it.
It’s a shame that on the most challenging night of her professional life thus far, she felt she still had to deny that any part of her accomplishments came because of whose wife she is. Obama — and any man — is free to credit others generously, and would not have finished the speech of a lifetime (so far) without acknowledging his wife. Too bad Clinton, and most other women, don’t have the same leeway to recognize husbands without feeling it lessens them.
Hillary was saving the “Bill” moment for later. If she had mentioned him in the opening, there would have been a pause for the obligatory standing ovation but typically you save the recognition of dignitaries until the end as you build toward the big finish. She referred to Bill a little after the midpoint:
I would also say that being in the U.S. Senate for eight years trumps Obama’s six years in the Illinois Senate and three years in Washington. Plus Hillary had actual opponents when she ran in New York in 2000, first Rudy Giuliani and then Rick Lazaro. Obama ran against Alan Keyes, who didn’t even live in Illinois. Hillary was also an activist First Lady for eight years, as hands-on as anyone since Eleanor Roosevelt. Republicans seethed over her activism and retaliated by investigating her up the wazoo.
Obama has done nothing of historical importance in his life so far, except for beating the Clintons in June. Still, I hope he wins and I think he’ll be at least as good a president as she would have been.
She introduced herself as a mother, Democrat, Senator and American because those are roles all directly relevant to her role as a supporter of Obama. Those are all groups that she belongs to that will be directly and positively impacted by electing Obama US president.
She is also, yes, a wife, daughter, Methodist, blonde, and more … but that wasn’t the point. If she was married to a woman perhaps the wife label would be relevant in context of the same-sex marriage civil rights issue. Otherwise, as far as we know she’s Bill’s only wife and not mentioning it in an introduction of Obama is not exactly like being in denial of that rather singular fact.
But I do agree that women are held to a much stricter and less forgiving standard and level of scrutiny when they are competing with men for any kind of desirable or aspirational role or position.
*Yawn* ZZzzzzzzzz…….