It’s clutch time and Obama needs to be like Mike
OPINION - As President Obama prepares to put on a full-court press for health care reform in a speech to Congress tonight, he needs only to look back at one performance from "His Airness" to gain inspiration.
This week, Michael Jordan will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He will always be remembered for his many accomplishments and record-breaking achievements in the sport. However, as President Obama prepares to put on a full-court press for health care reform in a speech to Congress tonight, he needs only to look back at one performance from “His Airness” to gain inspiration.
Twelve years ago, in the NBA Finals, Michael Jordan was going to lose. Sick with the flu, he could barely walk, and his aura of invincibility had been shattered in the eyes of the American public. Mike was going to finally relinquish one of his many titles and Karl Malone was going to get the championship that we all now know he never received.
But Mike was Mike, and Karl wasn’t. Mike found a way to win and Karl Malone found a way to become “posterized” as yet another footnote in the astonishing legacy of the great Michael Jordan. Every great man or woman has an opportunity to build his or her legend, and it comes during the most trying of times. It is how we respond to these moments that make the difference between becoming Michael Jordan or just another Charles Barkley.
Like Michael Jordan 12 years ago, our president has his back against the wall. Karl Malone has been replaced by Rush Limbaugh as the hurdle du jour, and we all know that the destiny of Barack Obama makes it seemingly inevitable that Rush Limbaugh is going to lose. Like the “Jordan Rules” created by the Detroit Pistons to slow down Jordan in the 1980s, Obama’s rivals in the Republican party have dug deep to find secrets for undermining the big, Superman with a massive IQ.
Tonight’s speech before Congress has an opportunity to become one of the “Obama Moments” – and also one of Mother Nature’s ways to force President Obama to earn the legacy he wishes to obtain. This is the political version of the Muhammad Ali – George Foreman fight in 1974. This is Tiger Woods dominating golf after watching the PGA do everything in their power to “Tiger Proof” golf courses and create artificial rivals for him. Situations like these are when highlight reels are made; we should really embrace this moment.
Like Michael Jordan, Obama has already done the impossible by giving us our first ebony leader 100 years ahead of his time. When it comes to healthcare, he will surely emerge victorious once again. He has come too far, too fast, to allow his young presidency to be ruined in his first year in office. The adrenaline rush of the fourth quarter runs through his veins and he is going to absolutely nail this speech. But also like Mike during that fateful, flu-riddled game against Malone, Obama might hobble his way to a performance that is barely good enough for him to win. I hardly expect healthcare reform to be dramatic or significantly impactful. It might simply become a matter of saving face.
Obama supporters must realize that they are in this game with him. Those who walked for miles to pass out Obama fliers need to stand up to critics who choose to stalk town hall meetings designed to embarrass the president. Obama is not only the first black President of the United States, he is also the first president put under fire for speaking to public school students. He is the president who was not offered an honorary degree from the academically mediocre Arizona State University. He has been compared to Hitler, the Joker, Stalin, and a gorilla. They must back him up when he’s in trouble, for his problems on the job are not much different from every other black or working class man in America.
Our president, being pressured in the last minutes of a big game, needs the fans in the stands to cheer as loud as they can. He needs all the young folks who came out for him during the campaign to march the streets with zero tolerance for racial intolerance. We must love Barack as much as his enemies hate him, even though it seems that there is not that much love in the entire world.
But while the fans can certainly cheer the hero from the stands, the truth is that the hero must win the game on his own. We are not going to be in the halls of Congress during the president’s speech, and we are not at the negotiating tables to define how healthcare is going to look in a few months. Obama knows that his speech must be inspirational, clear, direct, bold and informative. That is exactly what he is going to deliver. Like Michael Jordan 12 years ago, President Obama will sink that critical shot before the buzzer, with his tongue wagging as he flies through the air.
President Obama will find a way to win, and his supporters should enjoy watching him do it.
