"Friends, Romans, Countrymen" - Democratic Underground

H2O Man

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Wed Feb-13-08 06:19 AM
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"Friends, Romans, Countrymen"

"I’m the man this poem is about/I’ll be champ of the world; there isn’t a doubt/Here I predict Mr. Liston’s dismemberment/I’ll hit him so hard he’ll wonder where October and November went.”
-- Cassius Clay; "I Am the Greatest" LP; 1963

All of life imitates the sport of boxing. We can only understand the world of politics when we view it in the context of a boxing match. Let’s take a moment, and look at what has taken place this month in the Ring of Life.

Barack Obama, the underdog in the democratic primary, won three rounds yesterday. This makes a total of seven straight rounds since Super Tuesday. Because the number seven reminds me of the young heavyweight challenger Cassius Clay’s prediction on what round he would take the title from Charles "Sonny" Liston, I thought we might look at this as a continuation of that February 25, 1964 fight.

Sonny was considered the inevitable champion from when he turned professional. Senator Clinton was promoted as the inevitable democratic nominee since before she even announced her candidacy.

People considered Liston unbeatable. They pointed out how he beat anyone that was put in front of him. Many contenders were so afraid of him, that they were beaten before the first bell. Senator Clinton has also put together some impressive wins, and people assumed the democratic primary was over before it began.

Barack Obama was considered a brash young contender when he entered the primaries. Some of the older contenders, who had been in the ranks for many years, were not taking him too seriously. "He seems a bit clean for this game," some thought out loud. They said he was exciting, but untested, and they recommended that he wait until he was more experienced before challenging for the title. Yet Barack refused to simply Biden his time, and began to defeat the older contenders.

The Old Mongoose, Archie Moore, said that he had almost become Clay’s trainer, and that he would teach the young upstart a lesson. Clay said, "Archie’s been living off the fat of the land; I’m here to give him his pension plan." Cassius knocked Archie out, and a few of the doubters pointed out that the young man’s poetry sounded unoriginal. But his LP was a best-seller.

Finally, Clay signed to fight for the title. He was the underdog. The experts kept saying, "But look how easy Sonny disposed of Little Ricky Lazio!" The smart money was on Sonny. In the democratic primary, the experts were thinking of how easily Hillary Clinton had handled Little Ricky. The smart money was on Clinton, and in fact we were told that she had so much money that no one could compete with her in a long fight.

Cassius Clay knew something: Sonny had been knocking everyone out early. Like he would say about Big George Foreman a decade later, it had been a long time since Sonny had heard "Round Seven!" No one knew how he would look if they heard "Round Nine!" All the people in Liston’s camp were so sure that Sonny would knock young Cassius out in one or two rounds, that they never thought of it going into the middle rounds. Just like the Clinton campaign was sure that Hillary would wrap up the nomination by Super Tuesday.

In the first round of that Miami Beach battle, the fans were surprised at how well Cassius did. In the second round, Sonny started to look a little better. The experts at ringside were sure it was only a matter of time. And, in a sense, it was.

Obama shocked the political world with his victory in Round One. Hillary came back in Round Two. And even though the experts at ringside began to sigh with relief, there was some panic in Clinton’s corner. There’s an old joke about a fighter telling his main cornerman, "Why don’t you go out there and show me what you mean?" And for a brief time, it appeared that Bill Clinton wanted to get in that ring himself, the way he was carrying on at ringside. As Malcolm X said about his sitting ringside at the Clay vs Liston fight (in seat #7), it’s easy to make a fool of yourself at a boxing match.

The dirty fighting started. It wasn’t unexpected. Liston’s corner had put an ointment on the old champion’s glove, a tactic that they had used before. When Liston jabbed Clay, it got in the young man’s eyes. Both in boxing and politics, one finds thugs. In his life, Sonny Liston never encountered a lower specimen of humanity than Mark Penn. And Penn began a Rovian series of nasty tricks. But Penn has turned out to be the fly in the ointment for the Clinton camp. The low blows have all backfired.

Barack Obama has won seven straight rounds since Super Tuesday. The Clinton corner has tried to pretend everything is fine, but when you see changes in the campaign manager in between rounds, it isn’t a good sign.

Senator Obama is able to raise far more money than Senator Clinton. The fans are all cheering for him. It’s not just the spectators in the arena. All around the country, the big excitement in this contest is not the inevitable champion Hillary Clinton. Pick up any newspaper. Turn on any television station. Watch YouTube. Many of those fight fans who came to cheer for Senator Clinton are now supporting Senator Obama.

There are those in the Clinton camp who are saying it isn’t over. And they are right. But the truth is that their best chance is to have her last until the convention after the last round, in hopes that the judges/ super delegates are going to score the fight for her. That’s where the Clinton camp’s best hope is – not for a victory based on the votes that define the democratic process – but by a scoring system that could steal the decision from the true winner.

Sonny Liston had the good sense to sit on his stool, rather than continue in a battle he could not win. Young Cassius went on to become widely recognized as the greatest heavyweight champion of all time. Even those people who doubted him when he was young, came to love and respect him. He became the most recognized person on the planet, and a global ambassador of peace and goodwill.

Now let us focus on the Fall of John McCain. Barack Obama will make him wonder where October and November went.