If you’re told about a 60-year-old lady rocker the first thing that might come to mind is someone in a rocking chair knitting sweaters. But that’s the kind of stereotype the Hillary Clinton campaign seems to be trying to dispel with their viral video, “Hillary and the Band.” The minute-long clip was posted on youtube.com on January 30 and to date has had over 400,000 views.
The political ad starts out with energetic rock music in the background, and members of a fictitious band talking about how successful they had become in a very short period of time. The first few seconds the viewer is left wondering what it’s all about because the initial vignette of black and white photos are of the three cool band members. It’s not until after six seconds of watching that you get a brief glimpse of the fourth band member; Sen. Hillary Clinton.
The band members talk about how when Clinton took to the stage she “Changed everything,” implying that the success of the band rested on her shoulders.
However, the music turns melancholic as the other band members talk about their disbelief and despair when Clinton announced she would leave the band to run for president. Immediately, the energetic rock music comes back and makes you feel that all is well, because if Clinton can be that successful as a rocker, surely she can bring that kind of success to the presidency.
In the end the ad admits what the viewer already knew, that Clinton doesn’t play in a band but it also goes on to say that she will make college affordable, fight global warming and end the (Iraq) war.
The ad seems to target youth voters. In it Clinton is in essence surrounding herself with young people whether they are her fellow band mates or her audience, and she looks to be extremely popular with them at least as a guitarist. The effect she seems to be going for is to make herself seem more hip and in tune with youth voters by allowing herself to be made fun of.
The youth vote has become increasingly important over the past few presidential elections. According to the Center for Information and Research and Civic Learning and Education or CIRCLE, since the Watergate era fewer and fewer Americans have been voting in presidential elections. However, in the last two elections that pattern has been broken and more people, regardless of age, have been going to the polls. CIRCLE also reports that the percentage of 18 to 24 year-old voters who voted between the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections saw by far the largest jump.
Taking all this into consideration, in the last two elections the youth vote has become increasingly important especially for the Democratic Party as there has been a shift in political alignment from the days of the Regan youth. Today a slight majority of eligible voters below the age of 30 consider themselves Democrats. However, it should also be noted that when comparing the percentage of votes from people 30 and older versus those younger than 30, that hasn’t changed since 1996, and youth voters account for only about 6 percent of all voters according to CIRCLE.
Nonetheless, the Clinton ad seems to cater to the below 30 crowd. Interestingly, the video was posted on youtube.com exactly a week before the great political extravaganza known as Super Tuesday when almost half the states hold primaries or caucuses. Was it a coincidence? Probably not.
According to Gallup polls, Sen. Barack Obama has been consistently leading Clinton in the youth vote. In the Pennsylvania primary, Clinton again showed that she led the women, white, Catholic, lower income, less educated, and older voters.
Betty Wilson, the chair of the Hillary Clinton campaign in Boone County and an elected delegate to the national convention, says that the poll numbers about youth support for Obama over Clinton aren’t accurate and that those numbers change day-to-day and week-to-week depending on what poll you look at. “I think the media has framed it both with a bias for youth for Obama and males,” she said. “I think the media has treated Hillary with much more severity and bias than the male candidates.” However, would the Clinton campaign really go to the trouble of creating an ad targeting youth voters if they really didn’t need to? Probably not. But then again, Obama has lots of videos targeting youth as well.
According to a Rock the Vote study conducted only a few days after Super Tuesday, the top four concerns for young Democrats in order were the economy, Iraq, healthcare and the cost of college. It seems like the Clinton campaign nailed at least two of the four issues at the end of their ad.
The one issue that was in the ad but sixth in youth voter importance was the environment. “(Hillary’s) been very strong on green issues,” said Wilson. “As senator she’s supported conservation and alternative fuels.”
However, according to the Pew Forum, Clinton and Obama seem to have identical environmental plans. Both of them want to implement a cap-and-trade plan to cap industry carbon emissions and let big polluters buy carbon credits so they can keep polluting. They also supported a bill in the US Senate last year that would require American car manufacturers to make their cars more energy efficient by setting a maximum 35 miles per gallon limit. The problem is manufacturers wouldn’t have to adhere to those standards until 2020. Considering that Europe already has those standards, it makes the US look like Europe’s mentally challenged brother.
The big issues in the ad really are the Iraq war and education. On her website www.hillaryclinton.com Clinton mentions that she wants to help people pay for college by creating more tax credits, providing more funding, and increasing scholarships. However, according to Gallup the only advantage Clinton has over Obama when it comes to education is with people who have a high school degree or less, which means her message hasn’t done enough to sway those already in college having to pay for it.
Clinton has been repeatedly criticized for voting for the invasion of Iraq. However, her supporters claim that she was mislead by the Bush administration. “I would not have agreed with her initial vote but I don’t expect a president to agree with me on every issue,” said Wilson. “I’m glad she’s evolved.”
Though the ad never really lies about Clinton’s rocker status, the question comes down to whether it lies about what the senator wants to do with her presidency. As the old cliché goes, politicians make a lot of promises during elections, but once their in bed with the electorate they often change their mind. There is no incentive for presidential candidates to keep promises once they’ve been elected, except to recreate themselves and their promises every four years. In short they have a very utilitarian relationship with their voters.
Overall Betty Wilson enjoyed the ad and says it was very much like Clinton, because she attests to her great sense of humor when you get to know her. As for the promises at the end of the ad, “These are goals,” said Wilson. “Candidates are not superhuman; they make mistakes like you and me. I think we should hold them to these goals and (have them) keep in touch with us, that’s the best we can do.”
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