A funny thing happened in Melbourne yesterday morning. A very senior politician answered a whole lot of questions in complete sentences, with barely an acronym, and without the repetition of a handful of sound bites.
This politician - to the surprise of some of the people in the room - even expressed an opinion on some issues. An actual opinion.
This aberration on the political scene didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow among the people who had seen her up close before. For the rest of us, however, it was quite shocking.
Hillary Clinton lives in a world most of us can never imagine. A world where red traffic lights present no hindrance and where “fun” is a 200 metre stroll along the Yarra with 100 staff, security and press pretending it’s all terribly ordinary.
It’s likely been a long time since the United States Secretary of State had to pop down the shops for milk.
Indeed she devotes quite a bit of discussion in her 2003 book Living History to the challenges of maintaining any sense of “normal” in the world inhabited by her and former President Bill Clinton.
Shortly after moving into the White House she made a pilgrimage to the Fifth Avenue apartment of former First Lady Jackie Kennedy for tips on how to raise a child in the First Family without totally ruining her.
The irony of this anecdote is that only a historical icon of the stature of Jackie O could relate to Clinton’s challenges in raising her daughter.
But somehow through all those years as First Lady, serving in the US Senate and now as one of the most powerful diplomats on the planet, she’s retained a skill that’s sadly lacking in our politicians – the ability to talk to like a normal person.
On whether she ever suffers self-doubt: “Everyone does, if you don’t I would worry about you.”
On politics as a popularity contest: “Could Abraham Lincoln have been elected President in the 21st Century … Could he have withstood the 24-hour news coverage but also everyone being a reporter with their own cell phone.” [Clinton also made the honest point it’s hard to get elected without the communication skills to get elected, and it’s hard for someone without ideas to govern.]
On modern parenting: “It is the case that we are perhaps limiting our childrens’ opportunities to explore and make mistakes,” and that kids now are “more worldly wise but with less personal experience.”
On Muslim attire for women: “There’s a difference between a head scarf and a burqa.”
On how to make marriage work in politics: “Have ground rules going into it on what you’re going to discuss.”
There was a hairy moment a bit later in the day when at a press conference about a joint initiative on renewable energy the Secretary of State used the word “specificity”, prompting a sharp intake of breath from those in the room still recovering from the reign of Mr Programatic Specificity himself Kevin Rudd.
But otherwise through a day when the Victorian Police chopper was never far out of sight or hearing, when the motorcade included 18 vehicles with more than two wheels and half a dozen outriders, and when two different suits were required, Clinton didn’t sound like a “politician” as we’ve come to know them.
I don’t know if it’s practice, confidence, or just a natural personality trait – but listening to Clinton range across topics as diverse as managing stress, gay marriage, burqas and the great foreign relations challenges of our time, with such ease yesterday highlighted the barren desert that serves as political discourse in this country.
During the election campaign the closest we got to the “real” Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott was at the Rooty Hill town hall meeting – and having watched yesterday’s Melbourne Uni version with the Secretary of State – Rooty Hill was a pale imitation of a conversation.
And I think it’s our own fault.
In his recent book former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote about the paradox of modern politics, where leaders wrapped up in a voter-free bubble, travelling everywhere in private planes and only interacting with carefully vetted people, are still expected to fulfil some sort of everyman ideal.
They don’t have time to do the grocery shopping, but we expect them to know the price of a loaf of bread.
Blair wrote of excruciating visits to the pub to be photographed drinking a pint and having cash thrust into his hand by staff before shopping expeditions in approved retailers.
We make them pretend our lives are just like ours when they can’t possibly be. It’s how we ended up with the split personality of Kevin Rudd – he had to pretend he wasn’t an ambitious policy wonk and it didn’t work.
And it’s how we ended up with the “real Julia” – or more to the point, her predecessor “focus group Julia”.
Add to this the confined strictures of caucus and party rooms, our politicians are so worried about saying the wrong thing, they spend an awful lot of time talking without saying anything at all.
Maybe it’s because she’s been in the political sphere for so long – but there’s a strong sense from Clinton that she says what she thinks, not what she thinks you want to hear.
It could be just an excellent trick that she pulls, or more likely it’s that she doesn’t pretend her life is anything other than what it is.
Clinton doesn’t apologise for being smart, or well-connected or powerful. She acknowledges her life is not like most people’s lives – and then she’s free to be herself.
We should let our political leaders off the hook too, and then maybe they’ll speak to us in more than sound bites.
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