Senator Barack Obama is certainly a man of many talents and strengths, but I think the one that we have overlooked to at least some extent as a community is his discipline, both personal and organizational. To the extent that we have noticed it, we should notice it more and, I believe, will notice it greatly in an Obama administration.
It's quite sad when we look at Senators Obama and McCain and see that the discipline of the younger man with no military training is higher than that of the older decorated Navy Captain whom we fairly characterize as a hero and model of human endurance under the most hideous of conditions. Yet when we look at this campaign season, we must recognize that "that one" has consistent shown greater personal discipline, what the ancient Romans would have called "firmitas," in pursuit of his goals. Put another way, our candidate for President is of East African and Irish ancestry, but his discipline is reminiscent of common (mis-?)perceptions of Prussian culture.
From hiring excellent top campaign leaders to his excellent pick of a running mate, from staying on message to staying positive when he had just about every provocation to go "off message", from his personal example at the age of 47 of a man in near-perfect physical shape (no matter what Ahnulld says about it) to the grueling schedule that he has maintained in the campaign season in contrast to his lassitude of his strongest opponent, Obama has made it abundantly clear that discipline is a core value in his personal and professional life.
Now typically, we don't associate "discipline" with "liberal culture." We have associated discipline as an organizational trait with "Red" culture: "church discipline", "military discipline", in another era before Republicans fell to their current sad state, "fiscal discipline." And those of us with depraved senses of humor like me want to attach the word "bondage &..." to the word "discipline" half the time. "Discipline" is not part of "Blue culture." Or is it?
It takes discipline to put your kids on a school bus and then put your own rear end on a cross-town bus to get to work. We Democrats speak to that discipline, honor it, want to give it due process and substantive protections and immunity from arbitrary or capricious choices or events: random catastrophic illness, a firing in bad faith for no good reason but spite or discriminatory animus. It takes discipline to balance family books on low income; if you are wealthy, you get the privilege of intoning about the virtue of discipline that you read about in your classics class at Andover, while spending Dad's money.
It takes discipline to pick a running mate like Senator Biden. Let's be blunt: we love Joe Biden but he has absolutely no pathological shyness or camera-shyness problem, and he probably has a personal locker in the employee locker room of every network that does a Sunday morning talking heads show. The choice to pick him reflected Obama's discipline: he knew what he needed and he got it, even though it's pretty likely that Senator Biden's famed love for the camera and propensity for (ahem) undisciplined comments would cause Obama not only some problems at some point, but some personal embarrassment.
Furthermore, Biden is significantly more versed in foreign policy matters than Obama, and picking Biden exposed Obama to some shots from Team Red about alleged inexperience by comparison. But Obama had the discipline not only to choose to accept those challenges but to stick to his plan when rattled by McCain. As a result of Obama's own discipline, he has enjoyed the opportunity to pummel - softly and a little more loudly - his less disciplined opposing VP nominee who WON'T appear on the talking heads shows and was a mayor of a town about the size of Mayberry on the Andy Griffith show. And by pummeling her gently, Team Blue pummeled bloody the histrionic self-styled "Maverick" (may that word be blotted out) crap-shooter who picked her.
Did Obama lose his cool in three debates? No. Did he respond to a taunt after taunt after taunt with a taunt back? No, that wasn't part of the plan. Obama didn't make it through to the presidency of the Harvard Law Review and to magna cum laude in his academics by sheer genius; he probably is a genius but it's the discipline in competition against other smart people, the achievement of goal-oriented progress again and again, that should make an impression on people.
I don't want to disrespect the Big Dawg Bill Clinton 48 hours before a national election. But in significant areas of his life both organizational (his White House staff infamous for working with more than a bit of lassitude for much of the first year) and personal (well, you remember 1998), Bill Clinton was a model of presidential intellect, passion and political instincts, but perhaps not presidential discipline. He is self-aware enough to admit as much, I strongly suspect. I think that President Obama may wind up doing for the virtue of self-discipline what Bill Clinton did for fast food: make it a corporate culture watchword of his administration.
Anyway, there are "big diaries" and there are "small diaries." I think this is a "small diary" but I wrote it because it's an asset of our great candidate that hasn't gotten enough recognition heretofore, in my view. Thanks.