Rope-A-Dope

Obama wants healthcare reform. I believe him. He says that, if he doesn’t get it this year, he will not get it during his first term. I believe that.

Such a situation will inevitably lead to accepting anything that can be portrayed as reform. Put that together with his insistence on bipartisanship and you end up with the recipe for something that falls far short of real reform.

Rahm Emanuel is quoted as saying, “The only nonnegotiable principle here is success. Everything else is negotiable.” This just emphasizes the point I made. Anything that can be characterized as success is acceptable.

Obama will try for reform but his other nonnegotiable principle of bipartisanship requires him to take lots of punches. Lots. It will resemble Ali’s Rope-A-Dope strategy. As did Ali, Obama faces a powerful opponent, capable of inflicting significant damage. Ali’s game was to absorb punishment while his opposite tired.

There is a difference though. Obama’s opponent will never tire. That requires a different strategy. Rather than continue to let the leeches of the healthcare industry inflict damage, Obama needs to cut to the chase and land a knockout punch. Please forgive the mixed metaphors.

A knockout punch? Aren’t the leeches too strong for that? Actually not. First, Obama already has achieved, or been handed, his required bipartisanship. The overwhelming majority of the American people want the option of a public healthcare plan. That majority even includes 63% of Republicans. Though not as impressive, there also is a majority in support of a single-payer plan.

The people have formed a bipartisan coalition. That is far more important than a coalition in the House or Senate.

I have begun writing another book. This one is on politics and economics. Having begun my endless tour through the Groves of Academe with a sheepskin inscribed with the word History on it, an intense look at our history was a given. I realized from looking at the Founding Fathers, shorn of a couple of centuries accretion of American Idol-style veneration, that they actually weren’t leaders.

The Minutemen, the Sons of Liberty, various committees of correspondence and a host of other groups sprang up to resist the British and their factotums. The Founding Fathers were a wealthy elite that disliked the rule of the British parliament and monarch but had too much to lose to get out in the vanguard. They came in later, after they saw what the people were doing and realized that they could lose everything if the people were successful. They then maneuvered to place themselves in the lead.

It is necessary for the people to be seen by our elite as the leaders. They need to realize where the people want to go and jump out in front to “lead.”

Rope-A-Dope worked well for Ali because it was appropriate to his situation. It is not appropriate to Obama’s situation. All Obama needs to do is recognize the existing bipartisanship and twist a few arms on the Democratic side of the aisle. The sentient Republicans will see the light and climb on board. The result could be a Congressional bipartisanship significantly greater than the three Republican Senate votes for the stimulus package.

For the opposition to view Obama as strong, he first must realize the power of the support that is out there across the country. He then needs to act as the unstoppable force that he has the potential to be on this issue.

He needs to completely ignore the rants of all of the political prostitutes who sold themselves to the insurance and drug corporations. He needs to ignore every suggestion they pass along from their johns. Every such detail is designed to weaken the final product.

He needs to focus on providing the people what they need and want. It could mean that, in the near future, he could have even more decisive margins in both houses.

Tagged as: ali, bipartisan, Health, healthcare, rahm, reform, rope a dope, single payer