The manager or the visionary. Hillary Clinton's own supporters - the candidate herself, in speech after speech - have cast the fight this way. Stirred emotions and soaring rhetoric are all very well, goes the line. If that is what you want, vote for Barack Obama. But if you care about getting something done, choose experience, technical expertise and a safe pair of hands.
Do not be blinded by passion and excitement. Do not gamble on a dream that way. Rise to the challenge of being dull. "I am Hillary Clinton, and I endorsed this message."
It may not be the most alluring pitch, but it has served well enough so far. Such a boastful lack of sex appeal in a political campaign does command a certain respect. And after two terms of President George W. Bush, Americans would give a lot for humdrum competence. The Democratic electorate is split in half and bracing for weeks and maybe months of further campaigning. Mrs Clinton, on some estimates, is still favourite to win the nomination.
Still, this was an audacious theme for her to adopt. Hillary Clinton, manager extraordinaire? It bears repeating that there is a single point of data to test this claim: her supervision of the healthcare task force set up by her husband during his first term. Opinions differ even now about that exercise - about whether Mrs Clinton was responsible for one of the most celebrated domestic-policy train wrecks in recent American history, a scapegoat for her husband's misjudgments, or the hapless victim of organised special interests. What is undisputed is that the whole affair was an epic of hubris and mismanagement.>>>> snip............think about that Hillary fans...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f6d16e42-d843-11dc-98f7-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1