Turning “wooden” into a plus
by Tom Sullivan
Hillary Clinton’s critics from the beginning of her campaign have panned her for being wonky and wooden in public. People who know and have worked with her insist she’s warm and engaging in small groups. Public speaking is not one of her strong suits, Clinton admits. Plus, Barack Obama and husband Bill are two hard acts to follow.
A Republican Travis County, Texas County Commission candidate has found a way to turn wonky and wooden into selling points.
It doesn’t hurt that this ads runs in progressive Austin, Texas. Ashley Lopez of NPR station KUT writes:
There’s a lot to like here. For one, throughout the ad Daugherty is nerding-out pretty hard about local transportation issues and the county jail — and he can’t seem to notice that no one else cares that much about what he’s talking about, which is pretty endearing.
But the real star is Daugherty’s wife, Charlyn Daugherty. Her dead-pan “get me out of here” looks into the camera are a thing of beauty. She’s the Jim Halpert of political ads, and it doesn’t get any better than that.
Hillary Clinton could use a self-effacing ad like this to break the ice with enough Hillary haters to turn a win over Donald Trump into a rout. At this point in a long, nasty campaign, we could all use the relief. But Clinton would need a spouse less wonky than she is to pull it off. And deadpanning as the long-suffering husband would be as much a stretch for Bill Clinton to pull off as it would be for audiences to believe it.
Clinton did not give an Obama-level speech last night at the Al Smith dinner. But with her polling lead over Donald Trump widening and prospects of Democrats winning the Senate climbing too, she was looser than ever and even in a mood to laugh at a few of Donald Trump’s jokes, however woodenly delivered through a chorus of boos.
(h/t SBS)