Confessions of a News Junkie

This past year I've watched the campaign of the century. I've watched one of the harshest, most brutal primary election seasons America has ever seen and became completely enraptured by the internal workings of campaigns -- one in particular. That of a candidate who may not be president, but has emerged from battle stronger then ever and poised to become a superstar in her own right.

She's on the cover of New York Magazine this week, a magazine I loved already but love just a little more this week; the headline "Hillary Clinton, Superstar" may have played some role in that. a clip from the article:

"On the night she pulled off her unlikely twofer, she opened her victory speech with this refrain: "For everyone here in Ohio and across America who's ever been counted out but refused to be knocked out, and for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up, and for everyone who works hard and never gives up, this one is for you."

With that speech, Clinton had finally found a theme: the resilient fighter, the underdog, the victim. And with each successive contest, as the calls for her to fold grew louder even as she continued winning (nine of the final fifteen primaries, for the record) that theme only became sharper. Having abandoned her corporate, Establishment campaign, she seemed more than liberated; she seemed intoxicated. Suddenly, she was giving terrific, well-modulated Election Night speeches--speeches that were every bit as good, in their way, as Obama's more-celebrated orations. Suddenly, she was loving the rope lines, working them feverishly, hungrily, as if...well, as if she were her husband. Suddenly, the hustings were no longer for her a royal pain in the ass but instead a source of sustenance, vitality, and even joy.

What changed? What turned her from someone roundly dismissed as an automaton into a campaigner whose skills were routinely given props by the likes of Pat Buchanan?"

I love the game of politics for a million reasons, but most of all I love how something that is such a complicated and at times ruthless game can parallel life in general. At some point Clinton treaded and eventually crossed that fine line between tough automaton and human being, and became immensely more successful for it. it's something I've been even more fascinated by in the last few days for how common a theme it seems to be in so many people's lives and work and mostly in AIESEC. It made me think back to the near argument I had with a trainee months ago about whether people know when to cross that line and stop being all business and start being human. It definitely has been on my mind a lot in the last couple weeks as I have questioned whether some of the AIESECers closest to me have a very tight grasp (if at all) on where that line between the two stands, and whether falling too far to one side can hurt your relationships-- or hurt the success of the organization. How long can you keep playing the "professionalism" card and when does it go too far?