Posted 4/23/2009

OBAMA'S THREE RING CIRCUS

There's a big circus tent pitched over Washington these days.

It's full of elephants, bareback riders, strong men, trapeze artists, lions, monkeys and – of course – clowns. Many, many clowns (mostly from Congress, but some heads of foreign countries as well. Think Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Morales and Berlusconi).

There are so many acts going at once it is hard to decide what to watch. While John Ringling's "Greatest Show on Earth" boasted three rings plus clowns, President Obama's "Greatest Show on the Globe" boasts hundred of performances, all going on at the same time.

Standing at the center of an incredible array of frenetic (and sometimes entertaining) performances is Ringmaster Barack Obama. Marshaling all this craziness is a herculean task, but Obama is doing it with masterful aplomb and cool.

Obama has the Democrats and Republicans in Congress performing as a team of jugglers, so far keeping trillions of dollars flying around the air without hitting the ground.

He has launched an entertaining dance of the elephants (Pentagon, Defense Contractors) as chief elephant trainer Secretary Robert Gates attempts to teach them new tricks, like how to fight low-tech opponents (Afghanistan, Somalian pirates, al Qaeda) with inappropriate high-tech equipment. Gates is also attempting to get the mastodons to give up some high-tech contracts in favor of low-tech designs.

Obama's making a huge effort to get the trapeze artists like Eric Holder (Justice) and Janice Napolitano (Homeland Security) to cooperate in mid-air.

He has created a bipartisan movement toward health care reform as some high-strung Democrat and Republican horses have started prancing in the same direction.

He has presided over international meetings and retained his cool in the face of hysterical anti-American diatribes made clowns of renown such as Chavez, Castro and Ahmadinejad.

He has nudged his own pro-labor, anti-free trade Democrats toward approving a long-overdue trade agreement with South American ally Columbia.

Will Ringmaster Obama and his "Greatest Show on the Globe" succeed?

It will, and he will, so long as he remains the cool Ringmaster.

Ringling Brothers survived long beyond the time of circuses because the Ringmaster was always in control. He never lost his cool. He was never diminished by time or circumstance.

There have been many successful Ringmasters since Ringling. Many thrived in the television era.

Ed Sullivan was TV's first great Ringmaster. His hour-long show fairly bristled with all kinds of exciting acts. On his show you saw monkeys, clowns, pop singers, opera greats, jugglers, acrobats, comedians – everything imaginable. He even introduced Elvis Presley and the Beatles to mass audiences.

But Sullivan never smiled. He never cracked jokes. He was a Ringmaster with the stiff back of a West Point general. Even though critics asked him to become "more human," he refused. Sullivan realized his kind of circus demanded a strong, silent Ringmaster to prevent the circus from degenerating into an asylum.

Hill Street Blues' gaggle of cops at times seemed like a bunch of lunatics. They were all driven by personal foibles which at times interfered with their jobs. They were almost as crazy as their perps, but entertaining to watch. Hill Street Blues was a great circus because it had a strong, silent Ringmaster holding it together, Precinct Captain Frank Furillo, who constantly made hard, wise decisions in seemingly impossible situations.

The show was a huge success until the writers decided to humanize the captain by having him verbally assaulted in each show by his ex-wife, Fay. Then they weakened him beyond redemption by having him succumb to alcoholism. With that, Hill Street Blues, a once-great circus, was transformed into an asylum. Ratings disappeared and the show was done. Everybody loves a circus, but nobody wants to watch an asylum. The difference between the two is the Ringmaster.

LA Law was the attorney version of Hill Street Blues. It too became a huge hit as its crazy but entertaining bunch of lawyers ran off in all kinds of outlandish directions and through all kinds of ridiculous cases. It was successful because the managing partner, Leland McKenzie, was strong, silent, brief and unshakeable. But for some perverse reason, the writers decided to weaken him by bringing in a high-powered female partner who made him seem weak by comparison. With two players competing for the role of Ringmaster (and suing each other), the show was transformed from circus to asylum. It quickly collapsed in the ratings.

Judging Amy was a great success as long as Amy kept her cool while getting emotionally involved with her cases, her lawyers, her lovers, her daughter and her mother – all off-center characters. But as they years went on, the emotional content of her life increased and the cool part decreased. The circus was becoming more asylum with each new episode. In its last year, the show committed hara-kiri over Amy's infatuation with a female gangbanger. The Ringmaster didn't simply weaken, she imploded. As did the show.

Baseball has always had teams which were collections of characters. Think Dizzy and Daffy Dean of the St. Louis "Gashouse Gang." Think the beloved "Brooklyn Bums." Think the New York Yankees in the days of Babe Ruth. They were great and successful circuses because each had a highly respected Ringmaster (manager) who kept the circus under reasonable control.

The United Nations was once an admired institution, even though it had more than its share of clowns in the General Assembly and occasionally in the Security Council. But since the time of Secretary General Trygve Lee, the leadership of the UN has passed down to lesser and lesser Ringmasters. Gradually the UN became less like a great global circus and more like a big global asylum. Today, it seems that the inmates have taken over asylum, which has lost all hope of preserving peace in the world.

The formula for running a successful circus has never varied. Lots of entertaining acts and activity held under control by a strong, respected Ringmaster.

It doesn't matter whether the circus is a television show, a baseball team, a corporation or a government. The rule is the same – a strong Ringmaster presiding over great and colorful activity.

In his first one hundred days, Barack Obama has been a very successful Ringmaster.

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