Hillary has the smarts but then so does an engineer, a doctor and an astronaut. I am talking here about political instincts and political kinetics. There Reshma is way out there. In her autobiography Hillary credits Bill Clinton of seeing "connections that the rest of us don't see." That rest of us is primarily Hillary.
Someone like me can cut through political brand names like Obama, Clinton, Bush, Kennedy, Gandhi and look at the essence of a political operative. I am talking at that level.
I got sharp political instincts. And I got super political kinetics when it comes to the digital realm. Look at my Nepal work during 2006. I put all that to the service of Obama 08. But as of today I have atrophied social muscles. And my political kinetics are rusty in the social realm. I have been good at it before and I can reclaim it, I think, but as of today, I am not there.
Reshma has super political instincts and she has super political kinetics. She is a political athlete who is in top shape. The thing about political instincts, either you have it or you don't. I don't think you can go to school for that.
The Clintons belong to a different era. In his autobiography Bill Clinton has said he has sent a total of two emails in his life. He is a telephone guy. The internet is my telephone. Bill Clinton is garrulous. If I am garrulous, I am garrulous through my blog. One big reason Bill Clinton was not slam dunk effective in the 2008 race was because social media had caught up on him. One Hillary quote has her saying she can not think in front of a computer. Me, I can not think when I am not in front of a computer. Well, not true. But I do seem to do a lot of thinking in front of my computer. When I am consuming news online, I am all too eager to fire away an email or a blog post. I take interactive seriously.
As far as I am concerned digital is all the rage. Digital levels out the playing field for me. Digital makes my world global. And I need the world to feel global. Digital is more egalitarian. Digital is a richer world.
You could argue some things don't get old, like saying hello, like when you work a podium or a room. Some old prejudices die hard. True and not true. If the web social is web 2.0 I have long called face time web 5.0. But even there a 5.0 experience that is constantly feeding on 2.0 will have an edge.
Hillary is Reshma's Carter.
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Image via WikipediaI have a Google Alerts thing set up in Reshma Saujani's name, and these past few days the number of items that show up in my inbox has gone up dramatically. I get a daily email. The email contains links to news articles and blog posts that mention Reshma. I guess this shows the campaign has hit its final stretch.
