Josh bolten
Obama’s ‘barkiavellian’ political strategy
by Frank James
Bill Kristol, the conservative pundit, may have gotten Iraq wrong. But he understands the power of the Obamas’ future canine.
When now President-elect Obama said during the presidential campaign that he and wife Michelle promised their two girls a dog if Obama won the presidency, he took part of the American psyche hostage. Voters were going to be responsible for two little girls not getting a dog if they didn’t elect Obama.
There had to be a few people out there for whom this was enough, if only subconsciously, to vote for the Democratic ticket. Resistance was futile. How could they deny the girls a dog? It was Machiavellian on Obama’s part. Or Barkiavellian.
Anyway, in his column today, Kristol says that though he wasn’t feeling great on Election Night he was still all right as he consoled himself with what he saw as a few ground truths:
In other words, this was a good Democratic year, but it is still a center-right country. Conservatives and the Republican Party will have a real chance for a comeback — unless the skills of the new president turn what was primarily an anti-Bush vote into the basis for a new liberal governing era.
Those were my thoughts when, a few minutes into his victory speech, just after midnight, Obama told his daughters, “And you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the new White House.”
I gulped.
Not out of my deep affection for dogs, fond of them though I am. But because while we’ve all known that Obama is a very skillful politician, he hasn’t until now been a particularly empathetic one. Competence plus warmth is a pretty potent combination. Suddenly visions of the two great modern realigning presidents — Franklin Roosevelt (with his Scottish terrier Fala) and Ronald Reagan (with his Cavalier King Charles spaniel Rex) — flashed before my eyes. Maybe a realignment could be coming.
Obama was, naturally, asked about the promised-but-not-yet-purchased puppy at his press conference Friday. (If one were being churlish, one might say that it was typical of a liberal to promise the dog before delivering it. A results-oriented conservative would simply have shown up with the puppy without the advance hype.)
Obama commented wryly that the canine question had “generated more interest on our Web site than just about anything.” He continued:
“We have two criteria that have to be reconciled. One is that Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypoallergenic. There are a number of breeds that are hypoallergenic. On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but, obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me. So — so whether we’re going to be able to balance those two things, I think, is a pressing issue on the Obama household.”
Here, in a few sentences, Obama did the following: He deepened his bond with every dog lover in America. He identified with every household that’s tried to figure out what kind of dog to get. He touched every parent with a kid allergic to pets. He showed compassion by preferring a dog from a shelter. And he demonstrated a dry and slightly politically incorrect wit by commenting that “a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me.”
Not bad. It could be a tough four or eight years for conservatives.
Kristol is right to be concerned. Once Obama unleashes the hounds, or in this case a shelter dog, and we see photos of it romping on the White House South Lawn with those cute little girls, it’s over for conservatives. Unless they can find their own transformative politician with a cuter dog.
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