Dear Editor,
Let us not underestimate Hillary Clinton’s tenacity; let us not dismiss her as having ‘called time’ on her bid for the presidency of the United States. She is a natural survivor and I cannot see her as Barack Obama’s vice-president. Neither of them would be comfortable with this and, both being strong personalities, will never be able to work as a harmonious team. The working environment will be tense and stressful for all those around.
Mrs Clinton has chosen her words very carefully in urging her supporters to “throw their energy and passion” behind Mr Obama, and states, “…as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate him…” She may therefore be viewed as a ‘potential’ Comeback Kid.
Interesting how Barack Obama is always described as African-American, with a playwright calling one of his oratorical gems a “powerful black speech.” I have often wondered how his maternal relatives feel about this emphasis on his ‘blackness.’ In a light mood, if one drop of black blood in a white person’s veins can cause that person to be classified as black, why can’t the obverse be true, with a black person having a drop of white blood in his veins being classified as white?
Mr Obama is a gifted public speaker and can keep an audience enthralled throughout. Let us hope he does not make too many unrealistic promises. If he ever gets the top job and fails to deliver on at least half of them, he could be in real trouble – with both sides.
Back in the 1950s we had our own Public Speaker No 1 – LFS Burnham. In the lead-up to the 1953 general election and running on the PPP ticket, night after night he entranced the crowds with his silken voice and marvellous style (and I am telling it – dispassionately – the way it was). People looked forward to his speeches and, once he had said his piece, the crowd started to drift away. Even-tually, at public meetings, he was assigned the last speaker’s spot.
One dramatic demonstration I well remember concerned Peter d’Aguiar’s proposed price increase on a bottle of soft drink. There was widespread objection to a price increase but Mr d’Aguiar slyly went ahead with it anyway. It was seen as an election issue and the public’s attention had to be drawn to the price increase. At the next PPP public meeting, Mr Burnham mounted the platform and asked the crowd to “bear with me.”
Nearby, on a small table, there was a pail of water, together with two empty soft drink bottles, an old (larger) one and a new (smaller) one. He filled the new bottle with water and slowly decanted it into the larger bottle, demonstrating that the same price was being paid for much less drink! The gasp from the crowd was impressive. I daresay Mr d’Aguiar was not amused.
In the long run, Mr Burnham seemed not to have made the best use of his superb gifts. We all hope Mr Obama does rather better.
Yours faithfully,
Geralda Dennison
