This video takeapart of Hillary Clinton is pretty convincing to me. Lessig, who I admire and respect, hits it right on the head: everything that Clinton uses as a purported advantage over Obama is trumped by McCain: experience, "toughness," getting things done, etc.
Essentially, Clinton's strengths pale next to McCain, whereas Obama reframes the argument vs. McCain. Clinton has experience, McCain has more, Obama lacks experience but has vision. Clinton is tough, McCain is a former POW, Obama is about dialogue, not "toughness." In what Lessig refers to as "moral courage," it's easy to see McCain as stronger than Clinton, and I would argue that Obama can use this to his advantage, too. Although McCain has long espoused the "straight talk express," his 25 years in Congress leave a long track record for him to have some flip-flopping and unflattering votes exposed. It doesn't seem completely fair, but it's politics -- you live and die by your record. In this case, Obama's short record might be an advantage over someone like McCain who has flip-flopped on stuff like keeping vs. firing Rumsfeld, campaign finance reform vs. running a real campaign, etc.
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