Producer Clinton campaign media team
TITLE “Make It Happen”
THE SCRIPT “I’m Hillary Clinton, and I approve this message. I’ve seen what change takes. It doesn’t happen because you want it to or because you hope for it. You have to work for it. I have 35 years’ experience making change. For kids, for troops, for families. This election isn’t about choosing change over experience. Change only comes with experience. And with a war to end and an economy to fix, we’ve never needed change more, or the strength and experience to make it happen.”
ON THE SCREEN Mrs. Clinton speaks directly to the camera, her face in close-up. Phrases occasionally appear on screen to elaborate on her themes: “Health insurance for 6 million kids,” “body armor,” “adoptions made easier for families,” “end the war” and “middle-class tax relief.”
ACCURACY As first lady, Mrs. Clinton was a champion of expanding federal health insurance for children, and she also promoted adoption and worked in the White House and the Senate to make it easier to adopt children. She voted to authorize the war in Iraq in 2002 and defended the invasion early on, but now forcefully opposes the war. In the Senate, she has pressured the Pentagon and become a leading voice to ensure that American troops have body armor. As president, she says, she would raise taxes on wealthy Americans but provide tax relief for middle-income families.
SCORECARD The message is a synthesis of the remarks Mrs. Clinton makes at almost every campaign event, so they reflect her campaign’s belief that voters want change and a strong, experienced leader. Mrs. Clinton is a familiar presence in American politics, and “change” is not the first word that comes to mind about her for many voters, but her team is trying to change that. The Iraq war is deeply unpopular with Democratic voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, and taxes are a bête noire for many voters in New Hampshire, which has no state income tax, so Mrs. Clinton is emphasizing issues that will resonate in those two states. Her staff describes the advertisement as a summary of her current positions. Her “closing argument” commercial, in which she will make her final pitch to voters before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3 and the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 8, is still to come.
PATRICK HEALY