Sunday, September 28, 2008

Broder Thinks McCain Was the Alpha Male in Friday's Debate

No, really!

It was a small thing, but I counted six times that Obama said that McCain was "absolutely right" about a point he had made. No McCain sentences began with a similar acknowledgment of his opponent's wisdom, even though the two agreed on Iran, Russia and the U.S. financial crisis far more than they disagreed.

That suggests an imbalance in the deference quotient between the younger man and the veteran senator -- an impression reinforced by Obama's frequent glances in McCain's direction and McCain's studied indifference to his rival.

Whether viewers caught the verbal and body-language signs that Obama seemed to accept McCain as the alpha male on the stage in Mississippi, I do not know.

Sorry, Broder, but this was McCain desperately trying to be alpha male, and totally failing. Ignoring a would-be challenger only works as an alpha-male strategy if the challenger can genuinely be brushed off, like a grownup ignoring a kid who wants to be a part of the grownups' conversation. But as the Bush years have demonstrated, ignoring intelligent, able people is a sign of serious weakness, not strength.

Of course, Broder regarded Bush as an alpha male, long after Bush conclusively demonstrated he wasn't. Gotta wonder what color the sky is, in Broder's world.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

dude, I read Broder's squitterings of yesterday, and it made the Pepsi come out my nose (of course, I wasn't drinking Pepsi, but..)
It was delusional, and weird. How McCain's dismissive and contemptuous affect was somehow stronger is beyond my understanding.
Maybe Broder thinks it infa dig as it were, for McCain to engage a Democrat equally.
That was one whack column, in a long series of tortured positions from the Dean.
(I can't see him so referred to without seeing Broder recast as Dean Wormer in a remake of "Animal House"...)

low-tech cyclist said...

Mr Bill - good to see you over here!

In your Animal House remake, can I be the guy who throws up ON Dean Wormer? :)

Anonymous said...

Sure, and we can have some fun hours casting this turkey...
Obama is sooo Otter...
Dick Cheney for Neidermeyer.
Palin is of course Mandy Sue,
Barney Frank for Bluto.
(it would have a somewhat updated take on sexuality..)
Maybe Paul Krugman or Bill Clinton for the Donald Sutherland role...

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