No-drama Obama's Double Rope-a-Dope

[babylonsister]

This guy must be reading H20 Man's journal!

Jerry Weissman
Posted October 17, 2008 | 06:52 PM (EST)
No-drama Obama's Double Rope-a-Dope


On October 30, 1974, Muhammad Ali, the deposed Heavyweight champion, attempted to regain his crown from the then-reigning champion, George Foreman, in a boxing match in Zaire, Africa. Foreman, the bigger, stronger, and younger of the two men, was heavily favored in the fight that became known as The Rumble in The Jungle, but he did not win. Ali employed a strategy called "Rope-a-dope" in which he feigned passivity by repeatedly sagging against the ropes and allowing Foreman to attack him. The strategy worked: Foreman became fatigued in the jungle heat, and Ali was able to prevail in the late rounds.

In each of the three 2008 presidential debates, Barack Obama played Ali to John McCain's Foreman by employing his own version of Rope-a-dope - in fact, double Rope-a-dope. Although McCain is not the bigger or stronger, and certainly not the younger of the two candidates, they went into the first debate virtually tied in the public opinion polls. Yet over the course of three short weeks, Obama, undoubtedly helped by the financial crisis, but also by his behavior in the three debates, vaulted into an ever-widening lead.

John McCain, by reputation and by announcement (he said that he intended to whip Obama's "you-know-what" in the third debate), assumed the role of the attacker in all of them, and did so with a battery of angry verbal charges he delivered with accompanying vocal firepower and visually contentious body language. Many of his outbursts, frowns, sneers, and eye rolls became YouTube videos. Barack Obama countered all of them with both verbal and non-verbal deflections.

His verbal tactic was to use the "yes, but ..." approach. In their first debate, Obama frequently said that he agreed with McCain and then went on to show how he differed from his opponent. This strategy posed a potential risk that the McCain camp pounced upon, editing a string of video clips of Obama saying "I agree with Senator McCain ..." - without the "but" conclusion - and ran them as negative ads.

At first, even Obama's supporters reacted with alarm, concerned that Obama was being too passive. Yet Obama persisted with the same tactic in the second and third debates. Given that Obama is a skilled orator and wordsmith, (he wrote his own autobiography as well as many of his important speeches) from the frequency of his many "I agree with Senator McCain ..." statements, it is highly doubtful that they were slips of his lip. A far more likely conclusion is that he chose this tactic intentionally to demonstrate conciliation. Politicians, including John McCain, call conciliation "reaching across the aisle," referring to cooperation between Republicans and Democrats in the senate chambers; Barack Obama made his reach manifest in the debate chambers. But he also stood his own ground.

Obama's non-verbal deflections were even more effective. In reaction to McCain's angry charges, Obama looked his accuser straight in the eye and often smiled disarmingly or shook his head incredulously. The latter gesture was clearly a non-verbal echo of Ronald Reagan's tactic of shaking his head incredulously at Jimmy Carter in their 1980 presidential debate as he said, "There you go again."

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerry-weissman/no-drama-obamas-double-ro_b_135736.html

[sniffa]

1. Here's a K&R

Good read.

[OhioChick]

2. K&R

:kick:

[StrictlyRockers]

3. Very fun to read. Kicked and rec'd