Flawed Messengers and Wooden Soldiers: Why Obama Beat Clinton -- and Why He'll Beat McCain, Too

After all the pontificating on TV, in the end it didn't come down to sideshow jive like the Reverend Wright Imbroglio or the Great Sniper Fire Lie. It didn't come down to micro-demographics, or gas prices, or the war in Iraq. Incredibly enough, it didn't even come down to the issues of race and gender. No -- in the end, I believe, it all came down to a hard-to-pinpoint, rarely discussed, but desperately important matter: the personal authenticity of two human beings.

Let me digress for a second, though it's not really digressing. The impetus for this piece actually came this morning, as I tried to keep my eyes open watching John McCain on TV. I do not recommend this as a morning regimen. Try it. You'll feel an overwhelming desire to crawl back under the covers. To the degree that you can force yourself to watch him sleepwalking around the dais and spouting empty syllables, you'll find yourself wondering about peripheral issues. Like: why does a man who seems to be simmering with rage use the phrase "my friends" so compulsively? What's the real skinny on that lacquered blond lobbyist? And how did they finesse the payoff he got from the Keating Five? Somehow, the man himself is just...not there.

He's a Wooden Soldier.

But that's the thing about McCain. It's not just that his so-called "straight talk" is obviously badly-bent nonsense. Stylistically as well as politically, he's everything wrong, everything wooden, everything false. Like Clinton, he seems to be missing a core, and that lack of authenticity makes every word he says immediately forgettable (unless it's so dumb as to lodge sideways in the mind, like the Hundred Years War threat or his Bomb Iran joke.)

Unfortunately for Clinton, she campaigned as a Wooden Soldier, too.

By the seventeenth time she claimed to have found, or re-found, or re-re-found her true "voice" -- first she was the Imperious and Inevitable One, then she was the nice-nice I'm-So-Honored One, followed (a day later!) by the Hateful Vicious Shame-On-You One, and still later the Weirdly Sarcastic The Skies-Will-Open One, and then the Shot-and-a-Beer Working-Class One, so gol-dang down-home that you expected the next photo-op to show her smoking crystal meth in a trailer park -- until finally, with the Gas-Tax-Holiday Fake Populist One, she exhausted all the possibilities -- and exhausted the patience of America, too.

Meanwhile, Obama remained Obama. Quiet when called for, inspiring when given the chance, and once in a while a little obnoxious (remember when he told Hillary "you're likable enough?" I mean, admittedly she kind of asked for it, but it was pretty gratuitous.) In short: a human being. For me, a pivotal moment--unremarked-on by the robo-pundits on TV -- came in Obama's second Reverend Wright speech. I'm paraphrasing here, but he said it was crucial to remember the core meaning of his campaign, "even if the messenger is flawed."

Even if the messenger is flawed.

Here's a game that's zany fun for the whole family: try to imagine Senator Clinton saying such a thing.

That's right: never happen -- unless...

Unless Mark Penn told her that polling showed there was some kind of Flawed-Messenger Demographic out there yet to be milked for votes.

And here's zany family game #2: try to imagine Obama getting in front of the TV cameras on a night that gutted his entire campaign, pasting a transparently phony smile on his face, and crowing "it's on to the White House!" as Michelle and the kids fought off tears on the podium behind him...

Never.

I think people relate deeply to the concept of The Flawed Messenger, because who among us is not one--in our family-life, our work, our spiritual pursuits? Being a Flawed Messenger is innately heroic (the Messenger part) but also deeply humbling (the Flawed part) -- all in all, a perfectly respectable thing to be. And I believe that on some psychic level, people torn between Clinton and Obama felt more comfortable voting for a man who confessed to being a Flawed Messenger -- not just in the speech, but in the way he carried himself.

Clinton's ultimate gift, among many, to Obama was obviously the Gas Tax Holiday. It nailed down her credentials as a Wooden Soldier -- the epitome of the old-fashioned, say-anything, 20th-century politician. She went once too often to the voters-are-dullards well, and it finally pissed them off.

It's a mistake McCain will make, too, because like Clinton he just can't help it. Part of it is generational. Clinton and McCain came of age in a Nixonian universe -- and there has never been a more Wooden Soldier than Nixon. (In my own personal dictionary, when you look up Wooden Soldier, there's a photo of Nixon doing his ghoulish two-handed V-For-Victory salute.) And part of it is a choice, based on an outmoded belief that voters want an Impregnable Persona instead of a genuine human being.

But, in the early part of the 21st Century, that choice is dead wrong. The Democratic runoff proved it -- and (you heard it here, folks!) it will be proved once again, thank God, in November, when Obama defeats John McCain and becomes our next president.

Comments

[KillTheMessenger]

Yes YOU can. Thank you for a very dead on characterization.

[JXB]

While the root cause of McCain's "microphone-holding technique" may not be confirmable from any source other than McCain himself, his wartime injuries certainly come to mind first as the possible explanation. It's a good lesson learned. As a quick refresher of McCain's Vietnam experience should remind everyone (see, for example, the Wikipedia excerpt below), criticism of or humor directed at McCain's personal appearance or physical attributes, even in connection with a valid point, is a potent brew, potentially offensive, recalling of his war injuries, and best stayed away from.
_______

John McCain's capture and imprisonment began on October 26, 1967. He was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam, when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi.[36][37][38][39] McCain fractured both arms and a leg,[40] and then nearly drowned when he parachuted into Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi.[36] After he regained consciousness, a mob attacked him,[41] crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt, and bayoneted him; he was then transported to Hanoi's main Hoa Loa Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton".[41][42]

Although McCain was badly wounded, his captors refused to treat his injuries, instead beating and interrogating him to get information.[41]

[JohnEskow]

This is an important subject, and worthy of a separate discussion, but it is also a two-way street. Let's take a moment to remember the innocent women and children who died as a result of those "23 bombing raids" you refer to--and I say this as the loving nephew of a World War II bomber-pilot still haunted by the deaths he caused in a cause far nobler than Viet Nam.

John Eskow

[peaceplez]

I was just thinking about the horrid consequences of those "23 bombing raids" and thinking maybe that's too taboo of a subject to bring up. John, I'm relieved you did. Thank you and also thank you for the article!

[JXB]

Of course, without knowing specifically which bombing runs he was on, we can't know that innocent women and children were killed on his (certainly many were on many of the war's bombing runs, and these victims, and the misguided U.S. policy that produced them, should never be forgotten), but you make a fair point nonetheless. Maybe we will reach a time in our politics where such issues, on both sides, can be discussed more openly and honestly by the candidates, and this seems in part to be what the Obama philosophy is about. But given the generally puerile level on which our political discourse exists today, I'm guessing that one of the last things the Obama camp wants to get into in the general campaign against McCain is an argument about whether he should be criticized or hailed for his military service in Vietnam. Again, a very potent brew, and one which I agree is worthy of a separate discussion.

[bigfated]

Very nicely said. Thank you.

[JohnEskow]

A couple of people have written in to say that McCain's microphone technique is the result of arm-damage from torture. But he occasionaly seems to revert to normal mike-holding, and I haven't noticed he's got any equivalent problem doing things like shaking hands. Of course, if someone can point me to any documentation, I will withdraw the sentence in question and apologize for it.

John Eskow

[KillTheMessenger]

Don't underestimate basic age. Even under the best of circumstances 71 year old people do suffer from some physiological limitations. I don't even want to know if I will be even able to hold anything at that age...

[Turtleluv6]

If he was already injured before being captured then it was because of non treatment and the torture that followed not just the torture.

[bobsmith]

I see you removed the offending comment, but your logic here is flawed and needs to be addressed. When you say, "he occasionally seems to revert to normal mike-holding", you are making the false presumption that the weird mic-holding stance is a matter of choice. But here's where you're wrong: in chronic pain, a little relief can often be obtained via an adjustment of positioning. If he's switching back and forth, that would actually tend to undermine the point you're trying to make here.

I happen to believe that physical infirmity and chronic pain would contribute to an overall picture of one who simply isn't up to the rigors of the job of POTUS. It's important and needs to be aired - but not like this.

[BlackBottom]

Agreed. His infirmity may make him unfit for the job. Can a 71 year old learn the complexities of the economy by reading a book? Has the war hero (and I mean that) released his medical records?


A younger McCain, Obama would have no chance.

Obama will be the next POTUS.

[liberalghost]

Regarding Obama and Clinton, no, the public wants **change** more than "experience". Obama is (to me) as inauthentic as Clinton, he just chose the right political "message."

But you wanna know what demonstrates a nasty bias" How's this: "...what's with that weird elbows-out microphone-holding technique? ...."

Gee, I dunno, maybe the fact his arms were badly damaged during his 5 years in the Hanoi Hilton???? Be an adult, find a reason rooted in political philosophy to rip McCain, not a elementary school taunt.

[tcagle]

I think we went for Obama because we want brains, not bullshit.

[denimtruth]

Brilliant article.....you nailed it!

[bridgietherease]

Right on. Authenticity was a huge part of Mike Huckabee's (underestimated) appeal, too - the newsmedia doesn't seem to understand it at all, but I guess it's probably tough to quantify in exit polls.

[KillTheMessenger]

You can't understand what you don't have. How many authentic people work for the news media?

[lanrameau]

McCain's arms were damaged during torture in Vietnam. Might want to check these things before you go shooting your mouth off tough guy.

[ShawnMichel]

No, McCan't is an inauthentic as a human being can be. Just because he lets his guard down in from of John Stewart doesn't qualify him anywhere close to authentic. He was 'loose' and 'himself' because that's the demographic of Stewart's audience. Sheesh.

Clintoris is the same--wooden, false, phony. So are her sheepy lickers and lappers.

What is sad in this country is that the American sheeple are so sound asleep, so inured to dishonesty, so completely commodified and corporatized, that getting them to understand authenticity requires an act of God. Which is why I hold out hope for Obama. He came at a point when the sheeple need to wake the hell up.

[ebanks84]

Exactly!

[Sabella1]

"Clinton's ultimate gift, among many, to Obama was obviously the Gas Tax Holiday. It nailed down her credentials as a Wooden Soldier -- the epitome of the old-fashioned, say-anything, 20th-century politician. She went once too often to the voters-are-dullards well, and it finally pissed them off. "

the gift that keeps on giving: Hillary is uing the Gas Tax Holiday spiel in WV surely to her detriment

Obama '08

[zaneblue]

No, you're wrong about McCain. He's authentic. I watched him on the Daily Show, yesterday's show, and he couldn't help being himself. He's a lousy public speaker, but he is authentic.

On the other hand, somehow behind that authenticity his actual values have disappeared. He's hired Karl Rove! His platform is different from his voting history, and you can smell the lobbyist money.

But the alarming thing is how hot-tempered he is. He makes Howard Dean look like Al Gore. Totally ungoaded he went off on a crazy-sounding Hammas vendetta during that Daily Show interview. I don't want that guy anywhere near a button for nukes!

[BonzaiBoy]

I watched him on The Daily Show too. but I don't know that I would agree with you that he exemplified authenticity in his appearance.

He is very comfortable on that show because (1) he has been a guest on several occasions and (2) Jon Stewart respects him, so he knew he could relax. Did you see the look of horror--followed by immeasureable relief--on McCain's face when it looked like Stewart was going to ask about Hagee or Parsley? He came across "authentic" because he didn't have to actually present himself to the public on The Daily Show...he just got to present a caricature. If he were pressed with any real questions, I think we would have seen an evasive, less-confident man.

[zaneblue]

Oh, I think he worries about difficult questions and as I said, he seems to have done a complete 180 on many of his positions--Torture of all things! He's lost his direction. I wonder about blackmail, if someone in the Republican party is forcing him into changing his positions so drastically.

But I don't think his public persona is an act. He's terrible in front of an audience, he can't help being himself, so in that sense he is authentic. It wasn't because of the Daily Show, I've seen him give equally inept speeches. But one person's "inept" is another person's "folksy."

If he makes a misstep, and I'm pretty sure he will, it's not going to be him being phony. It's going to be him flying off the handle or saying something that sounds deranged. If given enough rope, he will hang himself. Not that the media will pull on the noose, but word will get out, particularly if the political ads hammer his own words home.

[hwebb54]

Obama is a bumper sticker compared to McCain. I'm a Hillary guy myself but if it doesn't work out for her......McCain will be seeing donations flowing from me to keep Obama and his cult members out of the white house.

[margoharris]

So you are willing to put your country thru more years of hell with McCain.
Your are willing to keep sending our soldiers to that wretched hell hole
You want no healthcare
No solutions for global warming
Possible be too late to save the planet
Keep the status quo?
Because your candidate didn't win.

How totally selfish and stupid.

[margoharris]

HOPE CULT YEAH!!!!!!!

[Turtleluv6]

No a racist he isn't. Be true to yourself!

[Nobuks]

You talk of cult! To anyone posting here, go to Clinton's blog and read the postings! How many Obama posters have openly refer to the Obama family as "Vessels" for their souls, have mass candle lighting ceremonies during election nigh to pray for Gods intervention in the election Results! Cult! My ass. I could spend a whole day putting up deity comparisons posting by contributors to her site! This I have noticed though. Clinton, her campaign, and many of her posters possess a definitive problem of reverse reality. They constantly post complaining about Barack has done when in FACT it was their candidate that did those actions. Yet, these same people are constantly bombarded after they post by Clinton operatives asking that they contribute more and more and more. They are also talking about mass email campaigns to put pressure on the Supers to overturn the popular vote, overturn the pledged delegate lead or they will sue the DNC! Scientology has got nothing on the Clinton Cult!

[ebanks84]

So you like Hillary's personality, her character, her below the belt way of playing the game, her meanness, her lying, all those wonderful qualities that every president should have?

Wow. Then I'll join Obama's cult any day instead of the crap Hillary puts out.