Obama Just Rope-a-Doped McCain and Beat Him Senseless

Two thoughts this morning.

First of all, happy birthday, John McCain. Enjoy being 72 years old.

Second: As a lingering former TV critic, I've been watching the presidential campaign with a sharp eye on how Obama and McCain have been portraying each other in TV ads. For a while, I thought McCain's crazy attack ads were landing more effective (if dumb) blows.

Man, was I wrong. I think Obama recently took a vacation and laid back a bit, so that he could see what McCain's Karl Rove team would stoop to in trying to define Obama as a lightweight of various degrees.

I am convinced now that Obama, who plays both basketball and poker, was switching to another metaphorical discipline: boxing. And he was playing an Ali style called "rope-a-dope." "Rope-a-dope" is when Ali would back up against the ropes while another fighter threw a ton of tiring punches at Ali. Ali, knowing he was stronger in the long haul, waited until his rival tired out, and then he'd pummel the guy. This style didn't always work for Ali.

But this is what Obama just did to McCain. For some weeks, he was letting McCain punch him here, punch him there, just to see how much he could let McCain wear himself down morally and creatively, attack after attack.

And then Obama realized McCain had bottomed out with his "celebrity" and "ready to serve" attacks. At this point, accepting the Democratic nomination, Obama unleashed his heavyweight power to show everyone just how many ways he could respond to McCain's stupid and inane low blows with a flurry of his own knock-out smacks.

You see, McCain's people were so desperate to ding Obama, they didn't realize they were, at once, both lowering expectations while raising anticipation for Obama's acceptance speech — through their "celebrity" ads and the attacks that Obama is an experience-lightweight. And then Obama, the most consistently convincing stump speaker in two or three generations, delivered what Pat Buchanan (a Republican architect of the GOP's racist "Southern Strategy") called "the greatest convention speech."

Rope-a-dope. McCain was the dope, in case you're wondering. Now, that doesn't mean the election is over, of course. But if McCain's team of Rove sidekicks thought they could push Obama around the way GOP attack dogs pushed around previous Democratic nominees, they just got the wake-up call of their soulless lives. Rhetorically speaking, Obama punched them in the face about 140 times.

Obama looks strong. McCain looks weak. That is the state of the race today on McCain's 72nd birthday. Oh, by the way John, what were you doing when Hurricane Katrina landed on my mom's house in New Orleans on your birthday three years ago?