People drown when swimming in the ocean just yards from the shore. Often, the reason is that they do not understand the rhythm of the ocean or how to work with it. The ocean pulses in waves. Therefore, it’s most important to swim hard when the pulse is going your way, rather than against it. And therein lies the problem; people most often swim when they feel that they are being taken away, then relax when the pressure is off and they wind up way offshore and in real trouble.
It is with this metaphor in mind that I suggest that anyone worried about Sara Palin take a breath and slow down a bit. And that means me as well.
We’re still less than a week out from the Republican convention. Ms. Palin has been thrust into the limelight from nowhere and the press (and the country at large) are hungry for more information about her. So it makes no sense at all that we’d see Barack hitting back hard at the moment. The ocean is currently pulling against him.
Today on some of the political threads that I follow I saw two important things: First off is the thought that Obama must get back to campaigning against McCain, not Palin. And the way to do that is to force a question about McCain’s positions and how they coincide with Bush’s – and have him agree – preferably in real time – that they’re on the same page. This will not be too terribly difficult given that McCain’s positions ARE either identical or very parallel to Bush’s. The second was the biggie for me: [an Obama aide quotes] “we’ll be saving our biggest counterpunches for after 9/11. “
Where John McCain has run a slipshod and temperamental campaign that’s been supernaturally blessed by fortune since the beginning, Obama has run perhaps the most tight and disciplined campaigns we’ve seen in recent memory. And if we pause to reflect, we’ll remember that Obama has been hit with plenty of his own “show stoppers” that he’s not only overcome, but in some cases, used quite skillfully to his advantage.
Obama knows how to swim in the ocean. He is waiting for the slight lull that signals the time to move, and attack. Attacking during the convention would be a silly waste of money. Attacking now, during Palin’s coming out party, is a waste as well because the press is completely enthralled with her. Then there’s the 7th anniversary of 9/11 – perhaps the worst possible time for a “Grand Uniter” type candidate to use a horrible memory for political gain.
He is biding his time.
There’s not a huge amount to bide, but there’s enough left yet for him to play smart rather than hard. I am actually rather exhilarated imagining what advertisements and tactics will be deployed because I think we underestimate Obama’s capability to get muddy if the situation calls for it. And since the mean spirited, lying reprobates that call themselves “Republicans” have thrown down the gauntlet (admission that they will start employing Swift Boat like tactics) then it’s time for us to hit back with both barrels. The only way they win is if America is not exposed to what their words really mean and what they really stand for. Well, those things that aren’t lies anyway.
And here’s another thing; if little old Sara the Barracuda is enough to throw Obama off his game so severely then perhaps he doesn’t deserve to be president (not saying this IN ANY WAY qualifies McCain or Palin) – much like McCain’s cowardice about answering Campbell Brown and the McCain team sequestering Palin until they can inject her with the right sound bites, if Obama recedes in the face of a little tussel with the likes of the Miss Congeniality then he needs to rethink negotiations with the rest of the world’s bad guys.
I don’t think we have to worry about it. I think Obama knows exactly that this is what the presidential job is all about, and in fact, I appreciate (in a peculiar sort of way) John McCain and Sara Palin helping to make Barack Obama a better president via this trial by fire.
I’m not saying that I think this is a slam dunk or that we have nothing to worry about – far from it. But I think we must also remember what kind of campaigner Obama has been so far – and what kind of rookie to the national stage Palin is – and what kind of temperamental, compulsive and irrational old-schooler John McCain is.
And in all of those words lie my sudden rush of faith for the day. Remembering how I was in the ocean as a boy learning the rhythm of the surf, I understand the lull in Obama’s strategy. I hope this helps you out as well. Despair not. If Obama is everything that we’d imagine him to be, this is but another hurdle in a long line that he will need to tackle on his way to the biggest load of shit (the current U.S. situation) that any human on this planet will ever have to face.
If you’re like me, then you’re for Obama because you believe he is equal to the task.
very good point. Of course you neglect 1 fact. I have enough energy to swim during both phases
Though really, i tend not to swim in the ocean much. Too much whale urine for my liking.
Hmmm… I actually thought it was because your beer-enhanced buoyancy make you an unlikely drowner LOL
lol bastard!
ironically that “beer enhancement” seems to work against my uber swim skillz.
Though, back in the day, lifeguard, swim team, a beach still gave me the willies. It’s the damn sharks and monsters. My parents apparently screwed me up by telling me there was a giant red shark in the bathtub, that ate little boys if they played in the water when the parent wasnt around (or something like that). I can get past the irrational fear of course, but christ its stressful.
That’s unfortunate. I adore the ocean, scuba diving, surfing, you name it.
And you realize, of course, that the only reason I can comment on beer-based-buoyancy is that I have plenty of my own
it’s a 100% irrational fear. I can jump off a damn cliff with a thin little rope, drive live bat outta hell, and ride a bike on phoenix streets, but the ocean could kill me.