DJ COMMUNITY

Is President Obama Using ‘Rope-A-Dope’ Strategy?

Larry Buford

*With his compromising and seemingly rollover approach to the Republican Party (or ‘Grand Old Party’ [GOP]), it’s like President Obama is saying “give me your best shot.” It smacks of the strategy Muhammad Ali used against George Foreman during the Heavyweight Championship bout in Zaire back in 1974 (notice I did not use the word fight. I believe the president has not yet begun to fight).

Ali was not favored to overtake the younger, stronger Foreman. He knew it and played the role of the loser during the opening rounds, leaning on the ropes and forcing Foreman to work against his own strength. Before Foreman’s camp figured out what was going on, it was too late - like a frog that remains in a pot of water that’s reached the boiling point!

America favors an underdog, and President Obama knew that coming into the game. He fought for center ring and got it. Then I believe he strategically drew out all the dark forces, and ire of the GOP (leaning on the ropes if you will) to show the American people and the world as we are now seeing today, the ills and the Achilles Heel of a polarized Capitol Hill.

Where is the decency and civility? While the president is allowing the GOP to be the bruiser (some view it as lack of leadership), he is still scoring some significant technical points that will count in the end. Through all the unprecedented contempt, mudslinging, hoodwinking, filibustering, and accusations the GOP has thrown at the Office of the President, President Obama is still tactically and surgically getting things done. To name a few: The decades-deferred Health Care Reform Bill was passed; Osama Bin Laden was eliminated; and the critical debt ceiling crisis was mitigated. Not to mention the broom and dust pan he bravely commandeered to clean up the mess of his predecessor!

Our gifted president has shown and proven his competence and craftiness over the shenanigans that have too long been a way of life in Washington. I think the back story to this whole saga with the political strategists, pundits, lobbyists, and “so-called” tea partiers, will play out like the biblical story in the Book of Esther where the hangman’s rope Haman had prepared for Mordecai, was used to hang Haman. America has a larger purpose than the stupidity we’re seeing right now!

Larry Buford is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer. Author of “Things Are Gettin’ Outta Hand” (Steuben Pub. www.amazon.com), available at Smiley’s Bookstore in Carson, CA. Visit the author at www.editorialbylarry.com (213) 220-8101