"Less Spocky, More Rocky"
My buddy Tony Seton's daily SetoNotes today bemoans the lack of guts and courage among Democratic leaders, not just today but in the recent past as well. He views President Obama as someone who is "not a warrior," and quotes Maureen Dowd as saying we need someone at the helm who is "less Spocky, more Rocky." Clever turn of phrase but perhaps not too far from a real truth.
Tony says that if Al Gore had gotten mad and really fought for the stolen election he "lost" or if John Kerry had not let the lying Swift Boaters do him in, we'd have been spared the Bush-Cheney debacle. And he's right. "What we need," he concludes, "are more warriors...for peace and justice." I'm not sure you can go to war for peace, but certainly we need leaders who can ignite passions in their team members and in their followers to pursue important goals like health insurance reform with more vigor and perhaps a willingness to become righteously indignant at the scurrilous lies and ad hominen attacks so freely indulged in by their unprincipled, win-at-any-cost opponents. Has it actually become true that in a public debate he who is willing to tell the bigger lie with the loudest voice wins? Or has it always been that way and I've been to naive to see?
