As someone who reads quite a bit of US media (ie. Time magazine, Fortune and more) I suspect I’ll be completely sick of the US presidential elections months before they actually happen.
Earlier today Hillary Clinton announced that she was running for president. That’s not a surprise – as some pundits have put it it was probably the worst kept secret in politics.
I was expecting a video featuring Clinton front and centre. But what she put out was quite different.
Here it is:
I know that there’s going to be a hell of a lot of analysis done on this video over the next 24 – 72 hours – and beyond.
What I found interesting, however, is that the candidate takes up less screen time than any of the other people in the video. The other personas are the ones that tell the story – not the candidate.
And if I hadn’t known that the video was from the Hillary Clinton campaign it could just as easily have been from any big company trying to sell me something.
And yes the video does “check all the boxes”. It’s got every obvious group in there:
- college student / youth
- married couple
- African American
- Hispanic
- A gay couple (or two?)
- Older voters
The video’s title, however, is indicative of what this is. It’s the first part of Clinton’s campaign. She’ll be well funded and probably doesn’t have many competitors for the Democrat ticket.
Conversely the Republicans this time round will have several strong candidates to choose from.
Of course I’m Irish and obviously can’t vote in a US election. So I along with millions of others will get to watch this all play out from the sidelines.
My American friends, however, will all get wrapped up in this.
And I’ve got friends from both of the main US political parties, so it’ll be interesting, entertaining and at times quite frustrating to follow their commentary across various social networks (and in person).
