OK, another reaction to talk of how Obama should handle mccain slurs. Marty Kaplan's post at HuffingtonPost, Will Someone Please Make Obama Watch the McCain Version of the Katrina DVD? is, as usual, an excellent bit of well-reasoned writing.
Too many people posting comments don't understand that, although people don't process information in exactly the same way, many still have an instinctive analysis that occurs when "judging" people. That judging is done when considering mates, schools, sports, heroes, and, of course, political candidates. We do this at all ages, throughout our lives.
Obviously, the latter - political candidates - is the pertinent item in this discussion. Marty may already know this, but he doesn't note the matter overtly and I think it needs to be highlighted more specifically.
The thing that people who don't know how to win elections fail to realize is that there is another issue beyond gas prices, oil independence, inflation, job loss, health care, education, mortgage market corruption, etc.
The issue is, 'how does a candidate handle abuse.'
It's not a strategy - it's a bona fide ISSUE. People want to know what a candidate will do when bullied, slandered, kicked in the crotch, and sucker-punched. It's evaluated in real time. It's also evaluated over a period of time and there is a cumulative effect to it. The metaphor of a boxing match has been often used when on this topic.... it's a damn good metaphor, too.
It's a subconscious analog to the garden-variety voter for how you will respond to foreign aggressors once elected. Ignoring an aggressor is tantamount to admitting that you'll let them rough up the country. Standing up to aggressive predators like oil companies and lending groups is easy now because it's all posturing. But standing up for yourself, your integrity, and the integrity of your supporters isn't posturing. It's real and in real-time.
Responding crisply, with venom at a level that is congruent with the attack that precipitated the response, is a vital issue. It's one of the few true "on-the-trail" demonstrations of presidential mettle that you can get. Debates are a microcosm of it, but debates are only part of the bigger issue picture.... they are "one round of the boxing match," to use the metaphor.
People may not like it, but that's the way it is. If you won't stand up for yourself, why should anyone expect you to stand up for your country?
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