Yakking for Argyll

Yesterday’s Independent published a ‘Podium’ article by Hillary Clinton headed: ‘If you supported me, then support Barack Obama’.

In it she says:
‘We need leaders once again who can help us show ourselves and the world that with our ingenuity, creativity and innovative spirit, there are no limits to what is possible in America.

‘Now this will not be easy. Progress never is. But it will be impossible if we don;t put a Democrat in the White House.

‘We need to elect Barack Obama, because we need a president who understands that Aerica can;t compete in the global economy by paddling the pockets of energy speculators while ignoring the workers whose jobs have been shipped overseas. We need a president who understands that the genius of America has always depended on the strength and vitality of the middle class.

‘Barack Obama began his career fighting for workers displaced by the global economy. He built his campaign on a fundamental belief that that change in this country must start from the ground up, not the top down. And he knnows that government must be about ‘we the people’ not ‘we the favoured few’. And when Barack Obama is in the White House, he’ll revitalise our economy, defend the working people of America and meet the global challenges of our times’.

Now - did she say anything like this in her ’supportive’ speech at the Democratic Congress? No chance. Her objective there was to protect her own interests for a future run, not to garner votes for a man she hopes loses to make way for her to have another shot for 2012. She said almost nothing then about the man and nothing with the heart of the remarks she wrote for The Independent.

Had Hilary Clinton said those things in America - where it actually counts - they could have been vote magnets. She says them here because she wants credibiilty without cost.

Why on earth did The Independent publish this? If she can;t say it at home she shouldn’t get space to say it here. This is lazy, thoughtless journalism from a paper that has taught to expect much more. Roger Alton left The Observer because he couldn’t see the digital future that is already changing news provision. This looks as if he can’t see far enough in traditional journalism either - io isn’t trying hard enough in his new post as Editor at The Independent. His card’s been marked.