Hillary Clinton's Endorsement

In a recent and significant push for the Obama campaign, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York--formerly Senator Obama's bitter rival in the Democratic primaries--wrote a stunning endorsement letter in today's New York Daily News. You can see it at: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/11/02/2008-11-02_the_man_for_the_moment_hillary_clinton_m-3.html?page=0
Bear with me as I analyze the logic of her letter: The piece first emphasizes the importance of voting, then gives a scathing review of the Bush administration and its tax cuts for the rich, tax breaks for the oil companies, and inaction in the face of economic, health care, and energy crises. She characterizes President Bush's policies in this way so that the Republicans can be held generally responsible for their failure, which then reflects on McCain. This is a common argument put forth by the Democrats lately, although both parties are willing to use this tactic of generalization.
Similarly, in the next section, Senator Clinton references the positive aspects of her husband's presidency, such as job creation and balanced budgets. This attributes success to the Democrats, which reflects well on Obama. Clinton briefly mentions her policy initiatives and ideals but quickly moves on to emphatically restate the ideals of the Obama campaign and its policy agenda for an Obama administration, including his economic and health care plans. The letter ends with a reference to "closing the book on eight years of failed policies," but I think a more poignant statement she makes is that it is not "who are you for" but "who is for YOU."
This personal letter to the voters is a powerful endorsement and a well-coordinated political punch in the last days of the campaign. Undermining the opponent by using guilt by association, then extolling the virtue of your own side. It's an argument we are familiar with: do we believe it?