What Schulberg Might Have Told Obama About Fighting

Organizations that can't touch Obama in the ring are moving to a crowding, brawling, Frasier-like approach to the debate.
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Budd Schulberg, Academy Award winner for the script of the movie On the Waterfront, and a member of the Boxing Hall of Fame, died this past week. Too bad he couldn't have been the corner man for President Obama in his fight for health care reform. I think the President could use a guy who knows the difference between the Marquis of Queensbury rules and a street fight.

I met Schulberg once, and only briefly, through my friend Jack Newfield, another writer with a love of boxing. Jack once described himself as the writing equivalent of Smoking Joe Frasier, working hard, boring in, taking shots to land shots. From nights at Jack's house, watching the fights of the old timers, to many dinner discussions, I learned again what the older generations of my family knew about boxing -- never box a boxer, don't slug with a slugger. This is a lesson the President should be learning now as the opponents of health reform are using brawling tactics to stifle debate and smother voices of the supporters of health reform. In short, organizations that can't touch Obama in the ring, are moving to a crowding, brawling, Frasier-like approach to the debate.

Loud voices, obnoxious chants, signage that borders on fantasy and nightmare scenarios. Shouting down Members of Congress at public meetings. This is the Carmen Basillio approach to fighting -- elbows, forearms, body punches (some below the belt) -- a style from another era, a smart choice if you can't match the President's arm reach, or get inside his jab. Maybe it's the only style that works when you have such a decided disadvantage in the center of the ring.

The question becomes, then, what can the President do to blunt these tactics and re-capture control of the debate. Many political consultants, at least of the older ones, use sports analogies, particularly from boxing and football. Hopefully, the president has someone around him who has knowledge of different fighting styles. First thing is to understand that, whatever your initial strategy, it might be wise to recalibrate. Winston Churchill once said " No matter how beautiful the strategy, occasionally it is wise to look at the results". On "Meet the Press" this Sunday, Jon Meachum, Editor of Newsweek magazine, said that the President and his team had lost control of the debate, a most un-Obama like development.

So, the opponents have decided to use the August Congressional recess to batter individual congressmen and senators in their home districts. With all our modern technology, it is fairly easy to raise a group to attend events and share tactics to disrupt or to show a strong grass roots presence. The Obama team knows this form of organizing from their own successful campaign last year. So, when your opponent adapts and negates your advantages, how do you respond and regain control of the fight?

Budd Schulberg, or Newfield if he were here, may suggest the Muhammed Ali tactic of the Rope-a-dope. When confronted with the powerful slugger George Foreman (he of the grills, yes), Ali deliberately chose to lay on the ropes and absorb, and deflect, as many punches as possible. After setting one pace in the first round, Ali then went to the rope-a-dope for the next six rounds. While occasionally firing a punch or two at Big George's face, mostly he covered up and deflected or absorbed as much as Foreman could throw, eventually wearing out Foreman from the exertion and the heat in the ring. Since the President's opponents have adopted this same attack strategy, and since they have targeted all of August to pound away, there seems to be a parallel to the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974.

If the President, who has allowed Congress to take the lead on fashioning a health reform bill, uses August to develop his version, come up with particulars, and develop arguments against the attacks leveled by these brawlers, he can regain control and win the battle after Labor Day. After the public is tired of the tactics and the nonsense and the disruptive games, a crisp, clean, direct approach from the President, using his skills with language and presentation, will appeal to most Americans, who hate politics anyway. The President can come off the ropes, and rally his forces like Ali did in Zaire over 30 years ago.

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