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Obama Will Handily Win the "Experience" Chess Match
Obama has been letting Hillary control the primary chess board for the last several weeks while he simply played defense. She threw the "kitchen sink" at him, even working the refs to join in. Now, after Texas and Ohio, Obama promises to strike back on her foreign policy experience claim as well as along other lines.
While he has apparently been trying to remain above the fray up until this point, it should be especially easy for him to come after her on her general experience claim. Looking at it like a chess match, with moves mapped out several in advance, Hillary has painted herself into a corner on this one. It will be easy for Obama to make sure she stays boxed in and comes off either looking foolish or deceptive with her experience claim.
He can effortlessly hit her experience on peripheral technical points such as why she claims the time she was finishing law school as the beginning of her 35 years of experience. Why wouldn't his time in law school count as well?
But, as soon as he starts to really push on what her 35 years of experience actually means -- for instance, what exactly was her vaunted "experience" when Bill was President, which appears to be the crux of her experience argument -- she will be forced to choose one of two options. Either she must own up to the good, and bad, of that administration, owning the full "experience" she claims from the 90s, possibly even forcing her (er, Bill) to reveal Presidential records that document her involvment; OR she'll have to distance herself from Bill's record and thereby lessen her claim to near-Presidential experience.
She'll try to ignore Obama's new challenge and hem and haw, of course. She'll try to have it both ways as she already has up until now. She'll try to claim the experience in a vague way whereby she is not accountable for anything from that period that doesn't poll well today. She'll work the press to keep on giving her a pass on this and to continue to take her claim for granted. But now, if Obama pushes on this thoroughly and relentlessly, she'll have to make a new move. She'll have to choose as Obama turns up the heat and the chess clock ticks on.
Hillary will either end up having to carry the negative baggage of the Clinton I administration -- the poor choices made during, the partisan cacophony, etc -- and thereby look foolish for claiming all of that as her own; OR she'll have to admit she's not quite as experienced as she has been pretending to be.
It's a win for Obama no matter how Hillary chooses to respond to his latest move challenging her experience.
Comments (8)
As a side note, I had really wanted to extend the chess analogy to include speaking of a specific chess piece, namely the queen. I didn't for two reasons. One, while the reference would have been strictly chess-related and not any sort of reference to Hillary's gender, I didn't want to accidentally push anyone's sexist button. Two, I simply couldn't work it in without messing up the cadence (I like to think) of the post.
Namely, I wanted to use the extend the analogy to a discussion of the queen in order to discuss the importance of "experience" in Hillary's entire strategy. I can't think of any more important part of her game plan. Sure, there are other pieces like pawns and knights and so forth, but really it seems to me that her so-called experience is her one (seemingly) all powerful piece in the game. If things play out like I outlined above, and Obama can stay on her "queen" doggedly, forcing her to make uncomfortable moves in a futile attempt to protect it, it will go down and be brought off the board. Yes, it's not absolutely impossible to win a chess match without a queen, but it is significantly harder when you have a skilled opponent in the game. She's already lost her pawns (a weaker analogy to the near impossibility of her winning a majority of pledged delegates) and without a queen, I think she's be toast, in reality and in the public mind.
March 5, 2008 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank goodness you didn't extend that flawed, mixed metaphor further, was bad enough as is!
As for Hillary's experience, hear it from her own mouth during a CNN debate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QxqAvMZEaU
March 5, 2008 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
flawed? mixed? how so, other than you disagreeing with the premise that her "experience" is really more a case of resume padding as it is not that extraordinarily different from Obama's history with the notable exception of having been married to a President?
March 5, 2008 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Master Chess Player's assessment for the perceived attack on Clinton. Perhaps this is most intellectual strategy revealed. (why give away your strategy?) hummmm.....
Remember, there are always defined "rules to a good game" (maybe considered 'silly' rules) or someone could be disqualified. A queen has an earned ability and right to move many directions and a king has only one (without gender references, ofcourse) when all the other peices are gone.
March 5, 2008 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hillary ran the ad about Obama not holding any hearings for the Subcommittee on European Affairs -- the ad that made Obama the scary black man.
The Committee on Foreign Affairs that Hillary serves on held hearings this year. Hillary did not attend.
Where are the Obama people on this stuff?
She has had no experience for which we can hold her accountable: no management, very little government experience where she was actually paid and accountable. Less impressive legislative record than Obama's. She went to cocktail parties. That's her claim to being experienced enough to answer the red phone
But the exit polls show her experience ratings at 90%. So she wins. By making black, white.
Another 4 years of a delusional president. Oh, God.
March 5, 2008 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Why wouldn't his time in law school count as well?"
Especially since he still did community organizing during his summer internships in Chicago. Michelle Obama has recounted her experience of going to one with him as they were beginning to date.
March 5, 2008 6:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, playing up Obama's community organizing (whatever that actually means) is really going to make people think he's qualified to run the country...
March 5, 2008 6:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
...and Hillary's time in law school was relevant how exactly? Do the math -- that's part of her much balley-hooed 35 years of experience.
So, is Hillary full of it counting her own law school or is there a there there? Keep in mind what you just said about Obama when you answer.
March 5, 2008 6:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
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