clinton: the college graduate
by Edward Savoy
Published: March 28, 2008
It’s almost the time of year where soon-to-be college graduates prepare to descend upon the workforce like tribes of locusts searching for a spare patch of ground on which to feed in hopes of snagging a job that isn’t at McDonalds. It is because of this migration into the workforce and what goes along with getting a job that college students should end their infatuation with Senator Obama in favor of someone who shares more of a common cause with them - Senator Clinton. Despite Obama’s inspirational oratory, youthful qualities and freshness as a leader, Senator Clinton shares a commonality that is much more compelling to every recent college graduate: the art of resume padding.
Anyone searching for their first job out of college knows that the sacred, largely unknown secret to writing a resume is to stretch the truth to the point where it is about to burst, but not beyond. So, a position as a dishwasher becomes “ensuring food cleanliness,” doing desk duty at the library becomes “monitoring the safety and security of a public institution” and writing for the school newspaper means that you were “a vital contributor to the editorial content of an official school publication.” Resume padding is the dirty little secret of applying for a job. It’s also apparently the dirty little secret of running for president.
Suffice it to say then that I find nothing shockingly appalling about Senator Clinton’s bending of the truth in saying that she dodged sniper bullets that were falling like raindrops in Bosnia or that she was the power behind the throne in the presidency of her husband. In fact, none of us should be shocked or appalled. Isn’t this what we’ve come to expect in nearly every area of American life, that we will shade and evade and invade the truth until it resembles what we want it to look like or need it to look like for a job, for a relationship or for gain? And we expect politicians to be better?
We can berate Senator Clinton all we want for trying to make herself look better than she is; she may even deserve it. But, if you were ever a college graduate writing a resume and you thought that saying you were a dishwasher wasn’t snazzy enough, then maybe we can understand her just a little bit better.
—
(email this article or post to social network)
—
