Brad at Sadly, No! didn't like all my talk of rope-a-dope. Indeed, he did a "shorter" piece on me, in which he claimed that I wanted to lose the election. Now, Brad has written extensively this fall that what liberals and leftists needed to do in order to win was pump up that rage. Not just sarcasm; not just satire; but real, honest-to-goodness anger-infused mockery of everything Republicans hold dear. From top to bottom, the entire edifice had to be held up to ridicule. Only then could Democrats have a shot at winning. One commenter on this particular thread actually nailed Brad's position, saying that Brad had more wisdom and insight in to winning an election than did Obama's campaign staff. Essentially, Brad was criticizing anyone who didn't think his way.
As it turns out, the rope-a-dope thing was a bit misguided. In the end, Obama ran his own campaign. He was negative, certainly - how could any campaign avoid it? - but for the most part he avoided the kind of scurrilous stuff Brad wanted done. There were sarcastic barbs in speeches, which made it on to YouTube; his national ads, however, were far more positive than anything from the McCain campaign. Indeed, even as Obama slid in the polls in the aftermath of the Palin nomination and the Republican Convention, Obama stayed as calm and cool as he did later during the collapse of the investment banking industry. That coolness under pressure, that refusal to buckle to the desire to do whatever it takes to win, is not only impressive; it is Presidential material.
So, Obama ran the campaign his way. He didn't mock McCain or Republicans. He didn't belittle them, or make light of their concerns. Two days out, I believe both his strategy and tactics are vindicated. While I do not necessarily believe the rope-a-dope analogy captures the whole of his approach, I would hope that Brad, who has a very large forum from which to make fun of people with whom he disagrees, would be man enough to step up on Wednesday and admit that he was wrong, I was right, and that by running his campaign his way, Obama managed to get ahead, stay ahead, and win quite nicely.
I'm not holding my breath. . .
Virtual Tin Cup
