conversations with Paula and Robertpolitics & government

The erotic charge between Obama and Clinton

Posted on December 15th, 2008 by Robert Anthony Watts

Robert: Paula, I’ve been afraid to write anything about the election and about the transition for fear that I would be disappointed or made a fool of for praising Barack’s achievements. But I’ll take the leap and say that I think he has handled the process marvelously. I mean, he has picked people who all seem to be really smart and really practical. He’s selected problem solvers — smart people who have “practical creativity,” as David Brooks put it in the Times.

I think the appointment of Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff was an amazingly smart choice. Emanuel is one of the most energetic and practical people in Washington. Emanuel will be able to help Barack forge great relations with the Congress. He’ll know how to guide Barack through the back and forth over legislation. Emanuel is famously abrasive, but Obama is likely to smooth his edges. And some abrasiveness seems called for in a chief of staff, who has to play the bad cop to the president’s good cop. But what about that other, controversial appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State? It’s a brilliant choice, in my opinion. What do you think?

 

   Paula: I agree with you about Obama’s impressive transition. His judgment and presentation have been so impeccable that one almost feels that he’s bound for a fall. Overachievers tend to take this sort of view — that when things are going well that means that soon they won’t go well. I wonder if Obama is worrying about this.

I know that a lot of people seem to think Emanuel is a great choice. Certainly he pleases the Clinton constituency. But then the choice of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State takes care of that.

As for her appointment, I feel good about seeing these two former foes join forces. I’ll go even further and say that I sense a powerful positive energy between them. On Dec. 2, the Times ran a front page article about the appointment with a photo of Obama and Clinton clasping hands and looking intesnely at each other. It looked to me like he was about to give her a passionate kiss.

My theory is that this was not an accident of the camera or the result of loony projection; there is an attraction between them. I account for this in two ways. First, the antagonism that existed during the primary was such that easing that strain would logically produce a rush of goodwill and more — a feeling of exuberance that might well border on the erotic.

Second, despite the age difference, Obama and Clinton are two people who would logically be attracted to each other. Their primary campaign reads like a Jane Austen novel or a Tracy-Hepburn movie: two well-matched adversaries who resolve their differences in a reconciling embrace. I should add that I wholly support the attraction, if not its consummation (which might be messy for the country, though it would offer Hillary and her advocates a proper revenge on Bill). The feeling that I postulate they have for each other will energize them and make more urgent their work together. Do you think I’m spinning away from reality here?

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