Page 128 - Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton

MAKING YOUR WORDS COUNT

Hillary has an impressive capacity for the kind of commu-
nication I’m talking about. Based on what she said and how
she said it, 18 million people were convinced that she was
capable of being the president of the United States, and thou-
sands were inspired to work actively for her campaign. But I
don’t think it was what she said during the campaign as much
as what she said when the campaign was over and she wanted
to inspire others to action to support her former adversary
that really defined her as an awesome communicator.
At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Hillary
had a matter of minutes in which to convince her support-
ers, and the rest of the country, that she genuinely sup-
ported Obama and that they should, too. It must not have
been an easy task when she had put so much hard work and
all of her heart into a race that had ended so closely. Yet
Hillary flexed her resilient leadership and delivered a
speech that was intended to win the hearts and minds of
her audience. She said, “I want you to ask yourselves: Were
you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that
young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that
mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were
you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the mini-
mum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country
who feel invisible?” Then she paused and continued:

We need leaders once again who can tap into that
special blend of American confidence and optimism

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