Clinton vs. Obama: The Fighter

I tuned in to the most recent debate with a nervous eye. The last-standing Democratic candidates seem all too eager to destroy each other -- and themselves -- with bickering thrusts, feints and parries, followed by equally unimpressive retreats. I was grateful that at the end of this last of 20 debates, both candidates left the field relatively unbloodied.

While we're still in mid-military metaphor, though, there can't be too many voters left -- Democratic voters in particular -- who still need convincing that Senator Hillary Clinton is one tough woman. She's a fighter, as she said repeatedly last night. Knock her off her feet, she'll be right back up, fighting still. With any and all weapons at her disposal.

Okay, I believe her. It's the pugilism itself that does not sit well with me. We have barely survived seven years -- and nearly one more to go! -- with a pugilist president, a guy who evidently prides himself on being the scrappy in-fighter, the aggressive responder to everything even remotely perceived as a threat. And we know where his "leadership" took us.

I'm thinking that the time for the kind of fighting we humans have been practicing for centuries is past. Time and again, it has provided us with pyrrhic -- or at best short-lived -- victories. It could be argued, I suppose, that this tactic still worked when it was a purely territorial affair, nation against nation. But it's not that any more. The weaponry and the communications of the twenty-first century world have irrevocably outmoded this kind of fighting. Today, the effects of armed conflict are instantaneously global. It's not just the field of battle that's at stake, it's the whole damn planet.

I'm not naive. Well, not entirely. I'm not even a pacifist, in it's purest sense. After last night's debate, I watched a powerful Frontline report on the resurgence of the Taliban in Pakistan. These are people who still embrace that old notion of the fight, and they must be answered, at least in part, in kind. There are times when such misguided power-hungry people run amok, leaving others to be defended from their aggression. An American leader, to deal with them, does need to be tough.

What I see in Obama, however, is a more Eastern, martial arts kind of fighter, one who uses force as the very last resort and, when he does, is skilled in turning his opponent's attack against him. He follows the way of the peaceful warrior, walking softly, always prepared, but never aggressive or deliberately provocative. As was the case last night, he deals with attacks calmly, responding with thoughtfully proportionate effort, and seeking common ground rather than opposition.

I believe that this is the kind of fighter we need, not the scrappy one, preemptively aggressive, fearful of losing or of seeming weak. There are those who mistake Obama's calm exterior for passivity or timidity. I think they're wrong. I think the man carries his strength with quiet self-assurance and modesty. I don't see fear. I see an understanding of what, in these new tumultuous times, might work a whole lot better than the disastrously unsuccessful tactics of the past.

I do believe we have to leave the old world behind, if we are to survive these present crises, and that the change that's required is not to hone the old skills and strategies, but to develop new ones, appropriate to a radically changed world. Here's our chance. Better seize it, or it could prove our last.

Meantime, I find it hard to believe that the oldest of all old warriors, John McCain, is showing up ahead of both Clinton and Obama in the national polls. Here's a man who wants to protract indefinitely the Bush agenda of war and tax cuts despite the all-too-evident failure of these policies on both geopolitical and economic fronts -- and the American electorate actually favors him! I'm speechless. Well, actually, wordless. For now, at least...

Comments

[alexcharner]

I agree with everything you've said, except I haven't seen the polls where McCain is ahead of Obama.

[Jeffomil]

What are you trying to do? Scare us?? Obama beats McCain in 5 national polls tracked by Real Clear Politics by between 4 and 12 percentage points! RCP has Obama behind in only three, by between a measly 1 and 2 percentage points. This you call McCain showing up ahead??

On average, according the the RCP polls McCain beats Clinton by only 0.8 points. A dead heat. But LOSES to Obama, on average, by nearly 5 points. Get your facts straight. Follow the top 8 polls on the (right leaning, ugh) Real Clear Politics site:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/national.html

[Incredulous]

"Meantime, I find it hard to believe that the oldest of all old warriors, John McCain, is showing up ahead of both Clinton and Obama in the national polls."

Never underestimate the stupidity of the American people. Your own popular culture seems to have rendered the electorate brain dead.

[Countess]

Nobody in their right mind wants to go from Bush to Clinton. She has proven to be too much like him in so many ways. Memorizing detailed programs is hardly the stuff of a great leader and is more in keeping with a mindless bureaucrat. She has no positive vision for America and her campaign must be depressing even to her supporters.

[ebbtide]

I agree with your comment, I believe she relishes all the abues of Bush and will claim them for her own if she is elected. I believe this because she has been in the Senate throughout Bush's abuses and has never challenged him or stood for anything that would have hampered his auses. I also believe that is she is elected, and for some strange reason Bush is finally brought to account for his abuses and prosecuted, she will pardon him. Just take a look at the cozy and chummy relationship between Bill and Poppy. They are all in thesame club.

Congress refuse to challenge Bush, He got away with damn everything he wanted thatwas detrementa to this country and dragged us all, we the little people, into the mud and we paid for it!

One need only to review his evil administration and the multitude of abuses he has forced upon this county and few bucked him. He ran roughshod over this country and i't's constitution, a got away with virtually everything. I think Hillary and Bill are his students. They both will be happy to do the same in order to consolidate their power. Hillary and Bill will leave everything he has done, becfause he got away with it, in their administration, should they be elected. Don't think for a minute they won't. Already in her slimy campaign, because Bush was never called on his abuses, she s pursuing the same. Rules? They are not for m and gives the finger, like Bush, to the American people.

I will be so happy to see her and Bill be trounced to the point where they are kicked out on their asses for their imitation of Rovian politics and for their adoption of Bush methods

She has done it herself. Bill is her stepford husband, except he cannot shut up and wants the stage for himself.

You go Texas and Ohio. Kick their asses out of our politics for good!