Clinton had to raise the stakes by raising the bar: It’s Tuesday or bust.
And along with victimhood, Clinton has finally found a powerful theme, the same theme that George W. Bush used at his convention and in his reelection campaign in 2004: Vote for me or die.
With her “3 a.m. phone call†ad, she is saying exactly what Bush said: I will protect you and your children, and the other guy will not.
Yes, there is irony in a Democrat trying to getting the nomination by adopting a Republican tactic, but, hey, you know what? It worked back then, and Clinton is betting it will work now.
Definitely am considering it
I have been considering it. Next time it comes up (I may have another job crisis within the next year if my boss has to move), I may be more willing to switch. Last time I felt I was being pressured into it by circumstances despite being in a prime lab doing great work. I resented my situation, so switching was far less palatable. Now I have continued in research and still find switching to be an option I am considering, but not just because I am being pressured.
I love research. I got into it because I want to know everything and at some point no one knows the answer...so I got myself a job where I can look for the answers. By now, with a family and kids and political involvement, I don't really want my own lab. I spent too much time exploring post-doc positions (including one in Kyoto, Japan) before I started cranking out good papers (my best paper since then has been cited more than 100 times!), so I wound up behind in the race to get one's own lab. But I think that was partly intentional because I like the research, not the grant-writing and politics that a PI has to spend 90% of their time doing. So I have always liked being the person who was senior in the lab and knew how to do things and the PI could rely on to review papers, write papers and guide research but without having to deal with the BS. My last job really was perfect for me, until NIH budget cuts hit.
I am reluctant to lose that sense that I am at the cutting edge in a very real way. But...I also like teaching.
One time when I was a TA for a grad student macromolecular structure class, I went through a topic for students that I felt the teacher had made needlessly complicated. It was a topic that was easy to me but the students were having a hard time of it. So I took them through it in a way that seemed clear to me. At the end their faces still looked a bit uncertain, so I asked, "Is that clear?" All nodded but one student said loudly, "Well, NOW it is!" That made me feel great. That isn't the first or last time I was able to clearly explain something to someone who had trouble with it before, but it was the time when the student most clearly said that I had untangled it for him.
So...I am considering it.
And by the way, welcome to Culture Kitchen. Even if you ARE a libertarian : -) This diary really is kick ass, as Liza observes.