barack obama: jujitsu master
by Ari Holtz
Published: January 31, 2008
In this space last Friday, I wrote that Sen. Hillary Clinton was the inevitable Democratic nominee for president because of the Clintons’ pugnacious political style. The column described Sen. Barack Obama’s dilemma - he has to choose between floating like a butterfly above the fray and getting pummeled by the Clintons or getting raw and nasty with them while tarnishing his message of a new, unifying politics. The argument was that neither option could produce a victory for Obama, and hence his presidential quest was doomed.
Well, in 2008, reality turns hard and quick.
Saturday’s S.C. primary offered a potential solution to the Catch-22 that the Clintons had thrust upon Obama. The new truth was not to be found in Obama’s 2-to-1 throttling of Hillary, but rather in his victory speech afterward. The speech was typical Obama inspiration, but there was a new flavor sprinkled in. He was coming with a new tone. There was anger in his voice. Defiance. Strength. And it is in this new fusion of temerity and transcendence that his path to victory lies.
What seemed like a two-pronged road - weak, professorial detachment or undignified eye-jabbing - has opened up into a trident of paths. The choice between weak and nasty was a false one. Obama’s best chance of vanquishing his rival is to take a page out of the Clintons’ book - the third way.
Obama can fight without being slimy. He can be aggressive without defaming. He can be tough without descending into the muck. Better yet, he can do all of these while highlighting both his most admired assets and Hillary’s most loathed flaws. Obama needs to be forceful and assertive in responding to the Clintons’ tactics, but there’s no need to fall into their trap and respond in kind. Instead, he needs to do a 2008 remix of the classic 1980 Reagan retort, “There you go again.”
Obama can be the jujitsu master, using Bill and Hillary’s own force against them. Every time they exaggerate, take out of context, mislead, or Swift boat, Obama can be right there, responding quickly and deftly, “There they go again. There go the Clintons being the Clintons. This is exactly why we need to turn the page of American politics. The loose allegiance to the truth and the acceptance of the poisonous tactics of division and manipulation are over. Bill acted this way. So did George W. Bush. And now Hillary is doing it. No more!” Then Obama can slide seamlessly back into the place he is most comfortable, the place of vision and hope for a reinvented, better America.
Too often politicians get caught up in polarized, one-or-the-other options. Blue or red, hawk or dove, respond or ignore, be aggressive or passive. This is only worsened by the media’s persistent desire to impose a storyline of two-headed conflict on every dynamic. So often, however, the best way is the middle way, the bridging way, the third way. This is doubly true for Obama because it is a microcosm of his larger ethos. His essence is in uniting a country divided by ideology, political party, race and religion. Why not apply this same joining spirit to his own strategy? Why remain weak or fight the Clintons’ bruising game when you can be both idealistic and defiant, both aspirational and strong, both clean and aggressive?
If Barack Obama can master this delicate art of political jujitsu, he can be the next president of the United States.
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