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Monday, September 29, 2008

Nice Try, Healy, but your talking points don't work
Posted by Jill | 6:26 AM
Patrick Healy in today's New York Times tries mightily to cast John McCain's frantic flailing last week as a strength; a manifestation of a "can-do" attitude:
Mr. McCain, who came of age in a chain-of-command culture, showed once again that he believes that individual leaders can play a catalytic role and should use the bully pulpit to push politicians. Mr. Obama, who came of age as a community organizer, showed once again that he believes several minds are better than one, and that, for all of his oratorical skill, he is wary of too much showmanship.

[snip]

On Capitol Hill, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House minority leader, said that Mr. McCain’s support had been critical to bringing the Republicans into the negotiations. Mr. Boehner said that without him, “They would have run over me like a freight train.”

For Democrats, the episode was one more reminder that Mr. Obama was more analyzer-in-chief than firebrand — though in this case, they gave him high marks for his style. Still, given concerns among Americans about the economy, Mr. Obama risked seeming too cool and slow to exert leadership.

Aides and political allies to both men agreed Sunday that perhaps no episode thus far in the campaign better demonstrated how they would approach managing problems as president. Their instincts, temperaments, and leadership traits were in the spotlight in Washington, as well as their limitations and foibles — characteristics that also showed through stylistically in Friday night’s debate.

Both candidates said on Sunday that they were inclined to vote for the bailout even though they were not completely happy with it. McCain advisers also began making the case that Mr. McCain had emerged as an important ally for House Republicans, while Mr. Obama criticized Mr. McCain for initially showing a “Katrina-like response” to the economic crisis when he said that “the fundamentals of the economy are strong.”

As Mr. McCain appeared as a man in motion last week, Mr. Obama’s cautious side was on clear display. He loathes gambits as too unpredictable, which is why, aides say, he would have never suspended his presidential campaign like Mr. McCain did on Wednesday to join in the bailout negotiations in Washington.

Mr. McCain, meanwhile, thrives in the fray, which accounts for his lead role in the Gang of 14 talks on judicial nominations and in legislative wrangling over campaign finance reform and immigration. Yet Republicans acknowledge that no McCain imprint appears to be on the final bailout package moving through Congress, and some of them were trying Sunday to put the best face on his role by casting him as a man of action.

“By halting his campaign, he magnified just how important this bailout was to the nation, and showed that he would approach a crisis by locking everyone in a room and keeping them there until they had a solution,” said Anthony V. Carbonetti, a Republican political adviser to former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York.

“And with Obama, you saw a kind of laissez-faire attitude — ‘you guys know it’s important, deal with it,’ ” Mr. Carbonetti added.

Yet many Democrats — even some who have been critical of Mr. Obama in the past — said they were impressed with his performance over the last week, and described Mr. McCain as substituting theatrics for leadership. Mr. Obama consulted with Bush administration officials and Congressional Democrats, emphasized his priorities for the bailout, and told both sides that he was willing to do whatever would be most helpful to reach a bipartisan bailout agreement.


It's understandable that a journalist might prefer John McCain's "shoot first and ask questions later" method. After all, impetuousness and the Grant Gesture makes far better copy than the calm, measured response that evaluates options and arrives at a conclusion through rational thought. But this country is in such dire straits right now that the good of the country is far more important than making the lives of journalists easier by giving them easy pickin's.

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1 Comments:
Blogger Bob said...
Leaders who cannot lead without a crisis tend to invent them. In only one month, McCain has invented three where his leadership was not required.
9/29/08, 5:18 PM  
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