Alpha Male

Obama was at ease.  He humiliated Trump again.   It is another way to be an "alpha male", and it works.

It is an old and familiar narrative, from the Iliad to your current movie screen:  A woman is in trouble from a dangerous man, a man who has destroyed others and is coming to get her.    A male defender step up with the confidence and the means to defeat the threat.

I watched Obama campaigning in Pennsylvania yesterday.

There are a lot of people who hate President Obama.  Just listen to ten minutes of AM talk radio.  He doesn't have everyones support but polls show that he currently has a 58% approval rating.   I'm confident Obama would easily win a 3rd term over Donald Trump if the election were between Donald Trump and Barrack Obama.  

"We fought our way back from the worst recession in 80 years"

  I watched video of Obama on stage.  Youtube shows the full one hour event, but this bit of video clip from CNN reveals what I am describing:   Click here: Obama Campaigns for Hillary


Watch him.  He is comfortable with himself.   He looks at ease.  He has the key to defending Donald Trump's attacks: humorously dismissing and mocking him.   Trump is a big defender of the working man?   "He wasn't going to let you on his golf course."   Obama looked confident and secure within himself.  Comfortable being who he is.

Trump defeated his Republican opponents by being more "alpha" than them.   He was taller that the others (except Jeb, who slumped), and he belittled and taunted them.  "Lying Ted".  "Little Marco." His delegitimized them.   He out alpha-ed  them.  

Trump understands that Obama's mildness and calm manner created a niche among Republican voters.  Many voters see Obama's manner as weak, and too respectful of the interests of others.  GOP opponents noted this.  Chris Christie used the word "feckless."  Sarah Palin criticized Obama's "mom jeans."   Romney's pre-campaign book was titled No Apology.  Trump was the candidate most successful in filling that open niche.  

Trump became the alpha male who humiliates and destroys his opponents.  Of course Trump says nice things about Putin.  Trump admires and emulates him.

Obama is another form of alpha, equally alpha but not symmetric to Putin/Trump style alpha.   Trump's is the destroyer, tough and cruel, willing to use torture, proudly using the word "vicious" in his response to an external threat.  An American Putin.   

Obama on stage appears fearless and dismissive.  He communicates that Trump isn't frightening, he is silly and trivial, an obvious hypocrite.   It is the position Obama took at the White House Correspondent's dinner, when he mocked Trump for the triviality of the burdens he carried: which C-list celebrity to fire on a TV show.   Trump was publicly humiliated.  Obama did not attack Trump; he scoffed at him, which was even worse.


The key to the Obama approach was not that he said different words than those uttered by Cruz or Rubio or any of the other defeated Republicans.   It was Obama's manner: utterly at ease and confident.

Obama will not be there on stage during the upcoming debates.  Too bad.   When attacked or questioned Hillary Clinton gets lawyerly and private, which comes across as defensive because it is in fact defensive.  She gives up as little ground as possible.  This communicates the unspoken message that her opponents have power and that she has something to hide or protect.   

Obama communicates that Trump simply isn't in his league, not even playing the same game.  It isn't varsity quarterback versus the junior varsity upstart.   It is varsity quarterback versus the yell queen.     Obama has no need to aver his hands are normal.  Trump did.  Trump is vulnerable to appearing illegitimate as an alpha male president, when he is mocked for being who is is, a flamboyant self aggrandizing entertainer.   Obama acknowledges Trump for who he is and delegitimizes him as president.  

Hillary shows no evidence of being able to accomplish what Obama does. She does not have Obama's presence.   It is possible that Obama can do this work for her as he campaigns on her behalf.   His apparent fearlessness re-establishes Trump as the alpha-male of show business, not of president.  Obama looks like an alpha president who considers Trump a self promoter in the ring with professional wrestlers.   Not presidential.   

Tarzan comes to the rescue of Jane.

A great many voters will be immune to Obama's message.   They hate Obama.  They aren't her voters and never were.  Obama's campaigning won't work universally but it is positioned to work among the people for whom it needs to work, the core Obama base of young people, blacks, and Hispanics who like but are not passionate about Hillary.

It is possible that Hillary's pride and ideology will clutch defeat from the jaws of victory.   Al Gore did so 16 years before, when he refused to let Bill Clinton campaign for him.  Hillary is a feminist.  She may feel it required to show that she does not need help, not from Bill Clinton and not from Obama, not from any man.  She may think it will make her look weak, and, worse, that it will make women look weak.  

Bourne Legacy

She may want to re-write one of the deep messages in literature, religion, and culture, that women are sometimes defended by men.  Women are the prize, not the warrior on the front lines.  We know the story: a good woman is in trouble and it takes a good man to stand up to protect her from danger, be it man or gorilla.  Hillary has Obama.  She will fear this makes Obama the hero, not Hillary.  She will hate that idea.  She needs to be Tarzan, not Jane.  She needs to be Achilles, not Helen.  She wants to be the leader of the Magnificent Seven, not the town under attack. Hillary wants to be seen as Jason Bourne, not the woman cowering under the desk.  

I understand her concern.  But she need not be the woman cowering.  She can be the leader.  She can be Catherine the Great.  

At her service

Hillary needs to have the grace to see using people with political appeal she simply does not have does not diminish her.  Using Obama--and Bill Clinton--would show she knows how to use the tools at her disposal.  The Queen on a chessboard is powerful, but not all powerful.  Only a fool exposes the Queen when a knight will do the same job better. 




Wait!  There's now a podcast, too.
Frequent Guest Post author Thad Guyer and I discuss the issues in this extraordinary political year in the podcast titled: Two Left Eyes.   We express our concern about Hillary Clinton's campaign technique.  Check it out.  Click here for the Podcast