No, this is not a confessional that will soon appear on the Drudge Report, but it is a sideways plug for Billy Bragg and also what this long time supporter of Hillary Clinton has to say 11 days before the Iowa caucuses. I just saw a great clip of Obama on C-Span's Road to the White House telling how he got the "fired up" "ready to go" chant. It started out as a story about keeping a commitment to a state legislator who promised her endorsement if the Senator visited her district, "about a hundred miles from anywhere." He had gotten to his hotel late the night before after many long days of being on the road, "dreaming of my pillow" when he was told to be in the car at 6:30 to keep the commitment.
Of course, it was a rainy day and he said twenty people were there but I'd bet that included staff. And then a strong voice chimed in from the back of the room....
I stared speechwriting in my head, as one does, and came up with this, with nod to William Safire who used to do these little ambles into political leaders' inner thoughts all the time.
Inside Hillary's Head
I wanted to talk to you today not as a political candidate, but as a political consumer like yourself. If you're coming to see me on the campaign trail or watching me on C-Span , like me you're the kind of person who reads the political news before the style section and loves, deeply loves, the nuts and bolts of politics. I had my political heroes growing up and whether it was John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy or Franklin Delano Roosevelt, I suspect so have you.
Whatever happens in this election, history will be made. I'll be proud when I'm the first woman to be elected president, and millions of women, the daughters and mothers and grandmothers I meet on the campaign trail, will be jut as proud.
But I want you to know I'd be proud too if I were a supporter of Barack Obama, who is making history and inspiring millions. Senator Obama and I may disagree about issues but we see the same way about the value of speaking out about politics to bring about real change. I will say it myself. I love watching Senator Obama give a good speech too. I just love the story of how he got that "fired up" "ready to go" chant.
And like that fine woman Sen. Obama met in the going-to-church hat the folks I meet in Iowa, New Hampshire and around the country and I are moving up together not just because I want to be first--but because I want to be best. These are all good people, and all the campaigns on both sides of this contest, are full of them. So to everyone who, like me and like you, pays close attention to politics, I ask you to pay close attention now.
My record, my strength and experience, and the way I listen and talk to voters--this is what I'm most proud of and passionate about. If you want to see who's "fired up and ready to go" over the next ten days, watch me.
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