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12 Oct 2008 08:43 pm

The Human Valium

Obama's not-so-secret weapon in an international crisis: his calm. McCain's not-so-secret liability in a tense election: his hotheadedness. This race is about policy and the times. But it is also about temperament and character. That's why, in my judgment, it has broken so clearly in Obama's direction. He actually reassures and he manages not to take the bait almost all of the time. More to the point, he gets his opponents to destroy themselves, while he glides forward:

McCain never seemed to learn from the Clintons’ misjudgment of their rival. A key element of Obama’s strategy is classic rope-a-dope. He gets his opponents to splutter with irritation as “that one”, as McCain contemptuously described Obama in last Tuesday’s debate, glides towards them in the polls. He does his thing, raises masses of money, keeps his staff in perfect order and focuses on issues and themes. He can segue from the inspirational agent of change of the spring to the reassuring conventional pol of the autumn without anyone really noticing the seams. That takes political skill. You’ve either got it or you haven’t.

Obama rarely directly attacks. He subtly baits. His most brilliant rope-a-dope of the entire campaign was against Bill Clinton in the spring.

In a newspaper interview, Obama cited Ronald Reagan as the last transformational president. He didn’t mention Clinton. The former president was offended by being implicitly dissed, took the bait and unleashed a series of unwise public scoffs at the young Democrat, culminating in a dismissal of Obama as another Jesse Jackson. Suddenly, black Democrats abandoned Clinton’s wife, and the Clintons’ base collapsed. Obama merely stepped out of the way as the Clintons self-destructed. He didn’t just end their campaign; he helped to bury their reputation.

And that’s exactly how Obama has handled McCain.

The rest here.

(Photo: Emmanuel Duand/AFP/Getty.)

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