Brother, can you spare some change?

By Jeff Hage (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Friday, January 11, 2008

I thought candidates were running for a party nomination for president when they turned out in Iowa last week and New Hampshire earlier this week.

But it looks like I was mistaken.

Republican Mitt Romney appears to be seeking medals, noting, that he won “two silvers” after second-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire. In lesser-known news, Romney won a gold by taking first place Saturday in the Wyoming caucuses.

The other candidates? They seem to be running for something even more impressive than silver, gold, or bronze.

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, and John McCain all appear to be running for the right to be an “Agent of Change.” Romney even sets his medals aside in favor of “change” from time to time.

Agent of Change.

It sounds so sexy, so James Bond-like, so something that many of us might want to be.

But with all this change, I think I better grab a piggy bank!

This whole “agent of change” business is actually former President Bill Clinton’s fault.

At an Iowa campaign stop on Dec. 20 the former president described his wife as a “change agent.” By the end of the day Clinton’s description of Hillary had morphed slightly into “agent of positive change” and then later into just “agent of change.”

John Edwards made an astute observation after coming in second in the Iowa caucuses.

“The one thing that's clear from the results in Iowa is that the status quo lost and change won,” he said last week

Change did, in fact, win and it’s been rearing its head ever since.

FOX News reports that during the GOP debates this past weekend Romney used the word ‘change’ seven times in one 60-second period. In the Democratic debate The New York Times counted “change” being used by Clinton 23 times, Edwards 14, and Obama 12.

During the New Hampshire debate last week, Clinton stood before voters and proclaimed that she deserves the mantle of change, not this newcomer Obama.

Hillary appears to be the original Agent of Change now that she’s campaigning on her history of “thirty-five years of change"

She also seems to be an expert on change, because last week in the New Hampshire debates when fellow candidates championed their claims to being agents of change she often quipped, “That's not change.”

That got Obama and fellow candidate Edwards all riled up.

"Both of us are powerful voices for change," Edwards said of himself and Obama.

Agents of change aren’t reserved for just Democrats, either. Arizona Senator John McCain revived his campaign in New Hampshire by also proclaiming to be an agent of change.

Rudy Giuliani has scoffed at the notion that change should dominate the political debate. Giuliani may have had it right when he said ''Change is a slogan, and the examination has to be is it change for good or change for bad?''

The real agent of change might be Mitt Romney. Candidate Mike Huckabee stated this week that Romney’s positions have changed on abortion, gun rights, and same sex unions.

Could the true meaning of “agent of change” be found in a candidate’s ability to flip-flop?

I’m not going to be the judge, but I just might put in my favorite Jimmy Buffett CD and ponder the idea while listening to his hit “Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes.”

It sounds like the perfect campain trail mantra!

Jeff Hage is the managing editor of The Daily Journal. Reach him by e-mail at jeff.hage@fergusfallsjournal.com. With apologies to “PC,” this column was written on a Mac.