Why Hillary Needs the MTV Generation

Why Hillary Needs the MTV Generation

By Judi Panasik
The Weekly Recorder
April 4, 2008

It occurred to me this evening while watching one of my few indulgences, an MTV reality awards show about the “Real World”, that over ten years ago it was former President Bill Clinton who wooed the original MTV generation with his appearance on the cable music channel. In this new decade and millennium, Senator Hillary Clinton is fighting to win over the new MTV generation against Senator Barack Obama. How can she win back a demographic that helped her husband years ago?

Watching the award show for me put a lot of things into perspective. There were 20 seasons of the “Real World,” which helped launch reality television in the United States, that were voted on for the awards show. By the end of the program I realized that although there were some moments in the first years of the show that were nominated and won, most of the clips were from shows that aired over the last few years. But for today’s MTV viewers they were the seasons that they can remember and recognize. It wasn’t the best moments or people the fans voted on, it was the ones they could associate with.

MTV was known for music videos at one time. Now try to find one on the network. They had news anchors and shows. They discussed politics. Now they mainly consist of reality shows. As in everything else in life thing’s change, but marketing doesn’t.

Just as President Clinton was able to work his magic by appealing to the younger generation that grew up with President Reagan and the first President Bush, we wanted “change” too. We had experienced the recession in the 80’s along with interest rates that were in double digits. Bush put us into the first Iraq war. We wanted someone who understood what was going on and gave us hope for the future, someone that we could relate to. That is exactly what Obama is saying to reach this generation. A generation facing a war, a poor job market and the inability to see what we need to have a successful future.

Same circumstances, a different election, a different Clinton. Hillary, like Bill, is not the one in office that got us to this place. She didn’t create the mess our economy is in, but she has the answers to get us out.

Hillary doesn’t give a flowery speech full of hopes and dreams and teddy bears. She gives facts and solutions not generalities.

Hillary is the student in school running for student counsel that makes the good grades, is serious and focused. She sees what really needs changed and is willing to stand up to the principal and school board to get what’s needed to make the students lives better, even if they don’t realize it. Obama is promising them soda in the water fountains and extra recess, and that’s what they want to hear not what they need but what they want.

This younger generation doesn’t remember what times were like when they were born, and when they were kids. They forget that when Clinton was in office gas was around a dollar a gallon. Our country was at peace and the job market was at its height. They don’t remember that the big joke was that Hillary was running the country side by side with Bill. They don’t remember that she had been working on healthcare reform for years.

Hillary is and forever maybe overshadowed by something that essentially had nothing to do with her, Bill’s infidelity. To be honest at the time it was and has been something that has angered me over the years, the thought that she lied to the American people about what happened with Monica Lewinski. The truth is none of us knows if she did lie or was lied to. And if in her position we may have done the same thing. It’s angered many women, and myself, that she’s stayed with him. But that’s none of our business or anyone’s business, it’s there’s. It has nothing to do with our country or how he ran it or she could run it.

The truth of the matter is Hillary has a plan, and she’s not feeding us a line about what is going to happen. She’s telling us what tax incentives she’s going to offer companies to keep work in the United States, but as she stated at her economic conference in Pittsburgh on Wednesday April 2, 2008, it’s a free country and she can’t force companies to keep work here. What she can do is implement programs, tax incentives and educate workers to make companies want to stay.

Her plan is to not only offer tax incentives but to better prepare the workforce to handle the jobs in technology and other areas. During her talk Hillary also stated that over the years too much emphasis has been put on the need for “everyone” to go to college. She talked about the lack of vocational and technical workers that no longer exist in the United States because students have been discouraged for years to stay out of those fields and focus on college. She spoke of discussions she’s had with those in the automotive industry that tell her of $50,000 a year mechanic jobs that go unfulfilled because young people are not training in this field.

During questions one teacher stood up expressing her concern that because of programs like no child left behind classes dealing with home economics and vocational areas were being cut from schools.

Hillary stated that she saw this as a problem also, that students were not being taught the fundamentals of life. She talked about how they are getting out of school and have no idea how to handle credit cards or take care of children, to which the audience gave her a round of applause.

Maybe that’s what the problem is, Hillary isn’t telling this MTV generation what she’s going to do for them, she’s telling all of us what’s wrong and has a plan to fix it, not just flowery speeches talking of change.

Hillary doesn’t just talk about the need for finding new sources in energy and fuels, she has a plan that starts with educating and training people to work in these fields. And not just those who go to college, but for jobs in the technology production fields that go oversees. She talks like someone with an understanding in business not someone who has grand ideas and gives good speeches that get people excited.

During her summit she took notes and pulled different points together from different speakers. She answered questions with answers that had validity and knowledge behind them. Hillary also mentioned a program that Philadelphia has where they take youth in bad areas and set them up in jobs where they learn a trade and are able to get a job out of it that will support them in the future.

Maybe that is Hillary’s biggest problem, her knowledge, her drive, and her passion to be the next President of the United States. She’s not the fun interesting story. She’s not backed by the media or a popular TV personality.

Senator Hillary Clinton is a woman who has spent her life to get to where she is now. Has she exaggerated and lied about things that have nothing to do with running a country, possibly, but tell me a politician that hasn’t including her competition.

Hillary will never be Bill. She doesn’t have his ability to charm an audience. She has the ability to understand issues and clearly express them, but you can’t market that. It doesn’t play well to a generation that has had everything handed to them. They want sung to sleep and to have their hand held while crossing the street. This is a generation that has grown up with cell phones and a society that no longer believes in a spanking.

Obama is this generation’s carefree hope. As a former college student I can remember having ideals and beliefs that as a woman life was going to be just as fair to me as it was men. That hard work pays off. College doesn’t prepare students for what the real world is like. You get out thinking anything is possible, that you can be anyone or do anything, but that’s not life.

Obama keeps telling us we need a change, and that he’s that change. All I’ve heard is rhetoric. What I want to hear is a plan. Change is inevitable, it will happen whether it is offered to us or not. We need a president that has the ability to recognize where specific problems are not what general problems we are facing.

What the new MTV generation needs to do is realize that the last time a Clinton was in office we didn’t need change. College like gas was still affordable. Jobs that allowed the middle class to survive without worry still existed.

Hillary is never going to be the cool hip candidate. She’s coming into the race with strikes against her. A generation that knows her less for what she’s done as a politician and more for what her husband did. Overshadowed by the past and a younger more “idealistic” competitor, will she have to have her own reality show before she can win over a generation that can’t connect with her?