6/6 Seeing Hillary Clinton

July 21, 2007
Takako Iwatani, American General Bureau of the Asahi Shimbun, Washington, D.C.

On July 6th, the Democratic party sponsored an event called "Senate Democrats Manufacturing Summit 2007." CEOs from the major automobile companies, GM, Chrysler and Ford, were invited and talked about issues including the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards (CAFE) which have been established by the federal government.

The correspondent who covers economic issues and I attended the meeting because they also discussed trade issues between the U.S. and several Asian countries.

It was around lunch time, so Democrats were taking lunch in a rather relaxed atmosphere before the discussion started. The meeting was supposed to start at 12:30, but it actually didn't start till 12:50. "Republicans are always on time, Democrats are not," the correspondent who was sitting next to me said.

A woman with an assistant and a cameraman entered the room. I was looking at her, but I didn't pay attention. Suddenly, many camera people surrounded her and started to take pictures. At the point, I finally started to think, "Hmm, she looks familiar to me."

When she turned around, I finally realized, "Oh, it's Hillary Clinton." She looked much younger, shorter and fresher than pictures portray the U.S. senator from New York. She talked to some people and started to eat.

She was eating chicken. It was so weird to see someone who is always in the news actually breathing, eating and moving in the real world. My image of her was of an aggressive, powerful politician who is seeking to be the first female president in this country. However, she looked beautiful, intelligent and more feminine in my eyes.

In the following days, I read a news article that said she visited Detroit, Michigan to announce her policies related to the automobile industry. Senator Clinton's policy was welcomed by industry officials.

What I saw a few days ago connected to the news I had been reading. For me, a lot of news seems to pop from the blue. However, all news should have a reason and a process behind it. Sometimes, it's hard to connect all the dots about a person or event when you just read one article. I believe journalists have a rare chance to see a bigger part of the picture and the process that helps bring it into focus. That's what I am excited about.

Now, the presidential election race is heating up. Hillary has been doing great in the race, I think. But the recent report from the Federal Election Committee shows senator Barack Obama has succeeded in raising more funds than Hillary. The number of people who donated to Obama is huge. Nobody knows who will be the next president. However, I would be curious to see what the first female president would be like in the United States. That's because my country, Japan, has never had a female president in its history, either.

My names is Takako Iwatani. I am from Japan and I am a junior news-editorial major in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I am interning at the American general bureau of the Asahi Shimbun in Washington, D.C. The Asahi Shimbun is one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan with a circulation of about 8.3 million. At this bureau, Japanese reporters and American reporters help each other as they cover major news stories in the U.S. for Japanese readers. I am so excited to see and learn how they work together. Email Me , View All Takako's Entries