Obama’s Debt to Ali [a guest post]

Washington (INS). In an exclusive INS interview President Obama explained his strategy on health-care reform as indebted to the boxer Mohammed Ali, an early boyhood hero. “My debt to Ali is threefold,” said the President. “First I took an Arabic middle name, Hussein. Second, I use the rope-a-dope. And third, I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.”

For the first time Mr. Obama revealed that his middle name was not given by his parents but self-selected when the former Cassius Clay took the name Mohammed Ali. “If I’d been old enough, I’d probably have been the minister of education for the Black Panthers,” said the President.

As for the rope-a-dope, Ali’s strategy of leaning on the ropes and dodging an opponent’s punches till he tired, dropped his arms, and offered a KO target, Mr. Obama said he’s just leaning on the ropes while Republicans like Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Blue Dog Democrats like Rahm Emanuel flail around trying to knock down a public option for health-care reform. “As soon as those dudes run out of gas, pow!—right in the kisser! They go down for the count and I pass my reform bill.”

Likewise, Mr. Obama says, he is floating like a butterfly above the partisan battle over reform. But as soon as he has distracted them with his beauty, “Zap!—I’ll sting them like a bee and send them howling to jump into the Potomac, and I can pass the rest of my agenda.”

Asked about other role models, the President said that he admired the cool wardrobe of hoopster Walt Frazier. “But you know Michelle—she wants me to look like the fools she went to college with at Princeton, so I wear all these dark suits and rep neckties. But after I’m out of office, watch out, Clyde!”