Thoughts on Hillary Clinton's Campaign Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N708P-A45D0Ted Cruz is in. Marco Rubio is in. Rand Paul is in. And now, finally, the first Democrat is in: Hillary Clinton.Her announcement came as no surprise to anyone. In fact, the message even stayed relatively the same as her previous campaign announcements – but the format and visuals of this one was different, much different.Her nearly two-minute video released just after 3pm on Sunday, April 12th came in the form of a youtube video. It opens with everyday people getting ready for spring. A mother and her daughter are getting ready to move so the young girl can start kindergarten in a better district, a Latino man and his brother are getting ready to open their first business, a middle-aged woman is getting ready to plant her tomato garden, a stay-at-home mother is getting ready to return to the workforce, and so on.It is not until much later in the video that Hillary Clinton makes her appearance. She says, “I’m getting ready to do something too. I’m running for president.”“Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times, but the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top,” she goes on to say. That is why, Clinton says, she wants to be a “champion” for Americans.If you haven’t kept up with the recent campaign videos, most notably Ted Cruz’, then you cannot fully appreciate what a breath of fresh air Hillary Clinton’s really is. That says nothing of her policies or whether I think she would make a good president (that is for another article). But it does show she is off to a good start.The American people are tired of the Clinton and Bush dynasties. They are particularly wary of Hillary, in part because of her extensive time in the spotlight, which inevitably opens one up to more criticism. But the recent video shed a new light on Hillary.To me, the video showed a humbled Hillary and a humbled America. There were no grandiose pictures of the American flag or icons, it shied away from “American exceptionalism”, and did not mention the inherent freedoms or liberties that are so often found in these political campaigns. Instead, it showed middle class families and single parents, workingmen and women, and students gearing up for the next chapter in their lives.As Vox.com said about it, “The video attempts not to minimize Clinton's placement in her campaign, but to portray it as a natural outgrowth of a mass, populist movement. The story of Clinton's campaign as expressed by this ad isn't one of an inevitable, indomitable candidate.”We all know this is not Clinton’s first time at the rodeo. But perhaps that is what we need – someone who has seen the inside, knows the inner-workings, made mistakes, and is proving they can improve and rebuild.