Monday, January 14, 2008

the other day hillary clinton said she had 'found her voice'. sadly it sounds to me as if she's lost it again.

"We may differ on minor matters," Mrs. Clinton said of Mr. Obama, "but when it comes to what is really important, we are family." (From The New York Times.)

Just like The Olive Garden, right? "When you're here, you're family."

I'll be honest. I have a hard time with the current pop culture overuse of the word 'family'. To me it's untruthful, and unattractive. It implies a level of intimacy that just cannot be there. In advertising we are used to it. But in politics? Family?

How about colleagues? Colleagues who respect each other? That would actually be more than good enough for me.

I wonder if Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama would consider themselves friends. Then again, we all know you can be family without being friends. But was that what she wanted to say?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you on the overuse of the word "family." It makes me uncomfortable. I don't think she really considers herself and Mr. Obama a family - but maybe trying to convey that they are attempting to achieve the same goal. She is also probably trying to sound more personal and perhaps a bit emotional...she gets a hard time for having such a hard surface.

The CEO at my old company used to call us a "family." There were, oh I don't know, 120 of us. It made me so uncomfortable and I always thought to myself "No...my family is who I go home to at night."