In watching this presidential election melodrama unfold every four years, I have come to the conclusion that being an intelligent, talented, decent and charismatic candidate isn't enough to get you elected.
In fact, if you don't have what else it requires, these qualities can work against you. If you are intelligent they call you elitist. If you are talented, they say you don't have enough experience. If you are decent, they call you a wimp. And if you are charismatic they say all you know how to do is give a speech.
So you need something else. And I'm not talking about money.
For decades, the Republicans have defeated candidates who were intelligent, talented and decent (though not so charismatic) because the Democratic candidates did not have this other element.
So, if it's not money, what is it?
It's the ability to outstrategize your opponent.
Typically, Republicans use the strategies of pandering, dirty tricks, lies and smears, and this enables them to win. They are ruthless and completely devoid of conscience and a sense of fair play. Political campaigns are wars to them, with their opponent the enemy, and therefore undeserving of courtesy or fairness.
In this primary season, it's clear Hillary Clinton has become a Republican in her strategy. She has no conscience and no sense of fair play. She is pandering with her ridiculous gas tax holiday for the summer (before the election when she will have no power). She is dishonest (Bosnian sniper fire), and she is fine with the use of smear tactics (bringing up Hamas and Farrakhan and William Ayers and associating them unfairly with Obama). She has become a pro at taking things out of context and exploiting them, like the "bitter" comment or Rev. Wright's sermons, and she is increasingly using fear as a tactic, even including the face of Bin Laden in one of her commercials.
Hillary has decided that she cannot beat Obama unless she becomes a Republican in her strategy. This is because Obama has something she was not prepared for: charisma. What Gore and Kerry lacked, Obama has in abundance. And she couldn't defeat that, because when it comes to charisma, Hillary has none.
But Republican strategy isn't the only kind of strategy that can win, although it's the kind of strategy that has won for decades, (you must exclude the two Clinton victories in the nineties, which Clinton won only because Ross Perot stole enough votes from the Republicans to throw a monkey wrench into any strategy.)
Barack Obama has a different kind of strategy, one that is working to neutralize the smear tactics of the Clinton and McCain campaigns, without engaging in smears himself. However, avoiding smears doesn't mean always staying above the fray. Obama has had to do some things that some of his more progressive supporters criticize him for, like going on FOX News, and condemning Jeremiah Wright. The more ideological of progressives believe FOX is the enemy and should be boycotted, while much of what Jeremiah Wright said was actually valid and should not have been condemned by Obama.
But progressives make a huge mistake if they insist Obama remain pure and not engage in strategy. Obama can wage a positive campaign and still show the toughness he needs to show by going on FOX and condemning his former pastor. That's strategy. That's taking into account the number of votes he needs to win, and the kind of voters he needs to include in a broad enough coalition to be victorious over both Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
It's fine to have a progressive ideology and want your candidate to adhere to your ideas as well as your philosophical approach to campaigning, but if your candidate loses over and over again because he won't engage in tough strategy, your desired policies will never be implemented.
Obama is not the most progressive candidate this season. Kucinich was far more progressive. But Kucinich runs each year and never wins. Why? Because Kucinich refuses to be a real candidate who engages in tough strategy, which sometimes means talking to your political enemies, and other times doing things you wish you didn't have to do.
The Republicans (including Hillary Clinton) are willing to do anything, say anything and smear anyone in order to get elected. You can't expect Obama to just sit there and take it and still be elected. You can't expect him to remain pure and beat Clinton and McCain. He's doing the best job I've ever seen in keeping things positive, but you have to allow him to fight back.
Progressives have to stop trashing Obama for things like going on FOX News, or condemning his former pastor. His pastor had to be condemned, not just because he was bringing Obama down, but because he was making a spectacle of himself and distracting everyone from the real issues. He insisted on stepping into the campaign, and he got stepped on. He got what he deserved, no matter how good a humanitarian he has been, or how brilliant his thinking. And Obama had to go on FOX News to finally shut up Chris Wallace.
Waging a political campaign is not like sitting in a progressive think tank and discussing ideas. It is more like fighting a war, and Obama is fighting on two fronts right now and doing a darned good job. You progressives should be proud of him and stop giving him grief because he is doing what political candidates must - he is engaging in strategy. And he's doing it so maybe, just maybe, some of those progressive ideas you so desperately fight for might finally have a chance of being implemented.
