Rocky Balboa & The Presidential Election
April 21st 2008 15:34
As we prepare for the showdown tomorrow in the Pennsylvania Primary between the two fierce Democratic competitors of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, I felt the time was right to honor the state of Pennsylvania by comparing the three remaining national big party canidates to that of the Philadelphia mythical hero Rocky Balboa.
Rising up back on the streets.....
From an enviroment where only the strongest survived, this product of a broken home fought many low level battles before he being discovered.
Losing his first fight on the national level taught this technical genious what it was like to be humbled and to not fight for personal glory but for his supporters.
Ultimately this loss taught him what it would mean to bring the greatest championship of the world back to the American people where it belongs.
Being a winner was important for this fighter as he took what he learned from his life and faith as far as grassroots promotion and fought against a system that isn't working for the people applying it it to the national stage.
For Obama getting the people involved in the electorate has always been an important part of his fighting technique as he jooks and ducks to avoid punches instead of brutally sticking his chin out only to receive punishment, punch back and get hit again in a never ending cycle.
Victories were won and lost in his early years with the Illinois senate as he represented his district on the state stage and eventually into national United States House of Represenatives and United States Senate runs.
Talent and a tenacity to fight lead to the call for this young poltician to grace the national stage like a future champion appearing on camera for the first time at a World Title Fight as he was billed as the next big thing.
This speech was for a party that was looking to him as the future represenative and was suffering from putting a great fighter in the ring only to lose in a close defeat by decision in a bitter world title fight that went to the judge's scorecards.
This speech inspired a party to wipe away her tears from an election where they landed more punches and felt they lost because of outside factors in the judge's decision who were not part of the proscess.
The result of this election was no different then the four years before as body blows countered jabs on the scorecards and their was no clear cut winner.
Demographic split of the nation went back to these cards mirroring the map from four years before and the other guy landed more punches in this fight and also won clean in the eyes of the nation.
The Democratic Party vowed to never lose again by playing nice and looked to their next prize fighter, a slugger who fought out of the State of New York who always came out swinging and never backed down, no matter how much punishment she took.
This fighter was known as the "chosen one" based on her affiliation with a team that produced the last world champion from their organization to carry the world title.
It was during this time that she signed onto a fight in the Republican controlled Congressional arena for health care.
It was on this stage where she threw punch after punch only to to be battered herself.
A proven fighter who truly carried her teams banner of never quitting and doing whatever it took to win often leaving the ring with swollen eyes and lost teeth after every encounter.
Many people would look at this as tenacity and pouring her heart out for these causes only to be stifled by a system that couldn't be worked with.
While others would look at the shear brutality and destruction left in her wake as both the fighter and her opponents were carried off to the hospital after every encounter.
Unlike the end of Rocky where there was reconciliation with the promise of a rematch and friendship out of respect, these battles left only an empty ring with no compromise or solutions.
With world champion trainers who have been associated with past champions and a will to win it was considered a perfect combination to bring back the glory her team carried for the Democratic Party in the 90's.
The Clinton fighting style on paper was the perfect remedy for battling what the past eight years of Republican fighting brought to the ring.
The theory was that in order for the Democrats to get a leg up in title fights they had to fight fire with fire by bringing remanants of the last Democratic world champion to invoke the glory days of the party.
While the dream matchup of the boxer versus the puncher was being fought to no end in the Democratic arena, the defending champion Republican party wrote the story of a hard nosed fighter who was written off and came back to win.
Like Rocky, John McCain was always counted out as an underdog when it came to big fights.
With a perfect record in his state he always faced immeasurable home field advatntage in local title fights and fought for his parties championship only to be knocked out by the next big thing.
The chosen one status has ended all of his Presidential world title bids at the party level and feelings of forging ahead without this system have been thrown around in conspiracy theories through out time.
Pundits have said that he would be a better fighter if allowed to fight his own style without aiming to please trainers or party leaders.
In a field of weak canidates who failed to live up the classic Republican style of fighting the party has been known for since the Reagan campaign, much like the storyline in the movie Rocky Balboa age proved to be better than the flash and flare of his younger opponents.
With this advantage he carries thousands of fights under his belt and the wisdom needed to carry his party to victory in the general election rather than the reliance on principals of God and Guns that spelled victory for past world champions from his political arena.
Trading jabs and body blows Obama vs Clinton is a battle eight years in the making.
Barack Obama, the flashy fighter with a war chest of funding from fan support versus the old line fighter in Hillary Clinton who was graced with money from old political allies and special interests.
Clinton was trained with the knowledge that that she had to be a puncher and knock out opponents as the only way of winning the title while Obama works the system in the spirits of moving across party lines and bringing the nation together.
Obama's words are equivalent to the shake and bake as he dazzles his audience into hope and belief motivating a new base of voters but he also backs that up with an over hand punch to the system by not accepting lobbyist money and bringing out the dirty secrets of how our government works and hasn't worked in our nation's history.
Hillary Clinton represents a party that has been beaten up politicaly the past three decades in an effort to compete against the Republican machine that has used religion and private ownership of guns as a platform for success.
Change for this line of Democrats is through the power structure of D vs R which has proven to be a failed strategy with both our Congressional and Executive branch below 30% in approval ratings.
The solution for the Clinton base has been to get her opponent ready for the general election by breaking out the kitchen sink strategy used by legendary Republican fighters, discredit her opponent's ability to lead and to divide her opponent's talents through slash and burn.
Talents of bringing people together have been deduced to African Americans, young voters and the rich voting for Obama while women, the working class, Hispanics and Asians are voting for Clinton.
It is of this groups belief that coming together across party line's is foolish and an impossibility in today's political system with a result of the the Republican old line continuing their practices through dominance.
The problems our nation saw in the 2000 election along a geographic line have now turned into an ethnic, gender and generational war. I
'm not sure where this will take us for the big fight in the fall as many other factors have a tendancy of coming into play on the national stage.
All three canidates are underdogs in a national perspective with Clinton being the only canidate to garner instant international name recognition through her husband's Presidential years.
This recognition is both a positive and a negative coupled with the campaign she's currently running where the negatives are racking up by the minute.
A true prize fight for the ages will be one with the young Senator from Illinois taking on the seasoned veteran war hero Senator from Arizona.
Neither fighter is a puncher but in the spirit of Ali's greatest battles I can see both men fighting for the Independent middle as this will be the strategy for deciding who puts their hand on the bible in January and ultimately gets the keys to the White House.
A battle of the minds and issues will be the only way our country can move forward to start getting things done for the betterment of our nation.
This political battle will make both canidates better and will ultimately place the best canidate into the Oval Office.
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