Opinion: ‘Change’ is the new same.
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How catching is Barack Obama’s theme of ‘change’? It’s practically an epidemic. Every candidate is all about change now — and always has been, they’ll have you know.
It started with the jaw-dropping results in Iowa last week, when Obama and Mike Huckabee swept their respective primaries. On both sides, the second-place finishers — John Edwards and Mitt Romney — saw fit to comment.
John Edwards worked change into his main strategy — bring Hillary Clinton down first, worry about Barack later. From his post-primary speech:
The one thing that’s clear from the results in Iowa tonight is that the status quo lost, and change won.
Clinton rolled with the punches in her speech:
Together we have presented the case for change, and have made it absolutely clear that America needs a new beginning.
But in this weekend’s ABC-Facebook debate, she countered Edwards’ ‘status-quo’ label the way she has of late — by giving ‘change’ an ‘experience’ angle:
I’m not just running on a promise of change, I’m running on 35 years of change.
The Republicans, oddly enough, found themselves in a situation symmetrical to the Democrats...
Runner-up Romney also invoked the C-word:
Iowa said that tonight ... you’re gonna see change in Washington, because America recognizes that we’re not gonna change the nation and have a bright future if we just send the same old people back to Washington...
In a strategy similar to Edwards’, he targeted not the Iowa champion, but his perceived long-term rival, John McCain. In a FOX News interview, Romney said McCain had ‘been there 27 years and hasn’t been able to get the job done.’
It’ll be interesting to see whether that claim actually sticks to the Maverick — especially in the Granite State, whose primary he won in 2000.
McCain, for his part, shot back in the debate:
We disagree on a lot of issues, but I agree, you are the candidate of change.
Ouch. Pretty snarky way to raise charges that Romney switches positions too often. Romney certainly didn’t look amused. Then again, days earlier, McCain had proclaimed, ‘Change is coming.’ Subconscious support for his rival?
Huckabee, riding high, certainly didn’t dissuade voters from the notion that he was the Republican Obama:
I’m lookin’ for folks who wanna help change this country. I’m lookin’ for people who want to be part of a cause, not just a campaign.
Democrat Bill Richardson struck the sweet, lone note for experience in this weekend’s debate:
Look, what we need is change. There’s no question. But, you know, whatever happened to experience? Is experience kind of a leper?
... he asked, to scattered applause.