The Genius Of Hillary’s Voting Rights Speech Was What She Didn’t Say

Former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential frontstomper Hillary Clinton may have sewn up the 2016 election Thursday, as she continued to chart a course that will turn out the coalition of voters who propelled President Obama to victory in 2012. In a speech at historically black Texas Southern University, Clinton blasted the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, took aim at Republican governors like Rick Perry (R-TX) and Scott Walker (R-WI), and suggested a raft of ambitious voting rights reforms.

But the smartest thing Hillary Clinton did was to decide not to do a media availability before or after the speech. It didn’t look that way on Wednesday, as the political press went into full apoplectic mockery mode when Texas Southern University advised reporters, in no uncertain terms, that Hillary would not be taking questions:

Hillary Clinton, who has aggravated reporters with her limited press avails, will not take questions after her speech at Texas Southern University on Thursday, the school informed reporters Wednesday.

The University’s guidance: “There will be NO opportunities to interview Hillary Clinton; her speech will be her interview.”

Even though that preemptive mic-drop came from the college, not the Clinton campaign, the media was all over it like Chris Christie’s baseball uniform, adding it to their preexisting narrative about Hillary’s campaign and setting it on fire. Given the media’s existing bitterness, that slight threatened to become the story, rather than the speech.

A funny thing happened, though, when Hillary Clinton delivered her speech Thursday: her speech delivered.  For Obama supporters, particularly those still smarting from the ugliness of the 2008 presidential campaign, Hillary again addressed that issue directly, and more importantly, made the Voting Rights Act the centerpiece of her speech. It’s an issue that has broad support across the political spectrum, but deep significance to black voters.

Conversely, Clinton did not emphasize voter identification and alleged voter fraud, mentioning each only once. For a variety of reasons, voter ID laws actually poll rather well, so this framing was crucial, as was Hillary’s secret weapon:

“(T)oday I am calling for universal, automatic voter registration. Everyone, every young man or young woman, in every state in the union should be automatically registered to vote when they turn eighteen – unless they actively choose to opt-out.

…We can do better. We can make sure that registration rolls are secure, up-to-date, and complete. When you move, your registration should move with you. If you are an eligible voter, and want to be registered, you should be a registered voter – period.”

Mic, dropped. Clinton’s embrace of the Voting Rights Act was probably the most politically significant aspect of this speech, but calling for universal registration did something strategically important: it made the speech news. No one is talking about Hillary not taking questions today, they’re talking about,,,READ MORE

By: Tommy Christopher

Tommy Christopher is The Daily Banter's White House Correspondent and Political Analyst. He's been a political reporter and liberal commentator since 2007, and has covered the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration, first for PoliticsDaily, and then for Mediaite. Christopher is a frequent guest on a variety of television, radio, and online programs, and was the villain in the documentaries The Audacity of Democracy and Hating Breitbart. He's also That Guy Who Live-Tweeted His Own Heart Attack, and the only person to have ever received public apologies from both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.