In the latest Maureen Dowd column in the Times, I found a Maureen Dowd paragraph and an Aaron Sorkin dream conversation between Obama and fictional president Bartlet ala the West Wing.
I love Sorkin, I always have. I thought the column wasn't bad. It wasn't great... it wasn't bad. The piece instructs Obama to essentially find his balls he seems to have lost since many of the post-primary consultants came on and started moving him to the center. Ball Loss Syndrome (BLS) is a difficult problem in politics, that typically comes after a new hire has convinced the candidate to be something else for fear he/she might lose. BLS affects more each year.
Symptoms of BLS include: Pandering, commercials talking in front of a flag or church, pictures with dogs, buying dogs, decreased online outreach, increased tv media buys... It is on both sides of the isle: McCain lost his balls sometime around the 2004 election when he traded in Maverick for Panderer. Obama only recently lost his balls when he seems to have decided he didn't want to upset anyone.
I spent the week in DC, which I try to avoid during elections, for obvious reasons, and I had a great breakfast with two good friends and hill workers. The topic that drew me into a bit of an elevated tone was with regard to Joe Biden and his debate with Sarah Palin. The conclusion - he can't win.
You see... if he loses, he loses... if he wins.. he's a sexist machinist ass hole... and he loses. He could bow down, suck her toes, and rub her shoulders during the debate and he'd still be labeled an ass hole. He can't win.
I remembered a line from the West Wing - season 4, in the debate episode Game On. There is a lot of genius policy quotes, and its fast paced even more so than regular Sorkin - but the gem the best gem for any true political operative comes at the very end in a conversation between Will and Sam where Will says:
"I thought he'd fall all over himself trying to be genial"
Sam Says
"You'd think so. We got this polling back saying that a majority of the people thought he'd be arrogant no matter what we did. Then I get this phone call at three in the morning, its Toby Ziegler and he says, "Don't you get it, its a gift! They think he's going to be arrogant so now he CAN be." Might as well knock some bodies down while doing it...."
The same is true for another west wing episode The War at Home in season 2 where Joey Lucas is talking to Josh about dial groups and Bartlet's 3rd State of the Union and where people are about specific issues that Bartlet talked about. Joey finally says to josh that he should dial up the rhetoric not dial it down. Joey says "There are people you haven't persuaded yet.... I say dial it up..."
Now, its stupid to craft one's campaign around a fictional show whose network couldn't manage to keep Sorkin happy enough to continue writing for it, but the reality is that these are not complex ideas. Obama wants to be the change candidate, he has to continue running as the change guy.
Talk about how we don't want to criminalize abortion because we don't want women in jail, talk about science standards in classrooms and that a 6,000 year old earth is unacceptable, talk about the socialism of Wall Street, and, finally, dear God, I say give Biden an open door to talking about real sexism.
I think he should go right into that debate with Palin and say,
"You know what, before I answer that, I'm just going to assume that it doesn't matter what comes out of my mouth, I'm going to be called sexist. I could sit here quietly, in fact, and that would somehow also be sexist. I could have brought you flowers, or not brought you flowers, or taken you to dinner and opened the door or not opened the door, it doesn't matter what I do or don't do you're spin machines are going to say its sexist.
So before the debate gets started, let me just say that I love women. I love them so much I think they should make as much as I do, they should make their own decisions about their health, I think they should be able to rule their own lives, and I think they should be entitled to whatever they want.... you and I, however, disagree on those things...."
and let the games begin.
Obama should be smart, he should stand tall, he should be youthful and full of vigor, and he should show as much contrast as humanly possible.
I think Sorkin is right - I think Obama should Game On it with McCain and own up to being angry - in fact I think Obama should use his power of empowerment and make us all angry.
"We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know ... I’m a little angry."
I think he should work the country up into so much anger and rage and down right insanity that we come out on election day swinging like we are damn near fighting for our lives with our vote. That way, if there is anything even close to disenfranchisement there will be an uprising in this country the likes of which have never been seen. We will finally stand up and say no.
Sorkin wrote it before - "America isn't easy... America is advanced citizenship - you've got to want it bad... cause its gonna put up a fight..."
Its not, break's over.. its game on, and come out swingin'.