Horse imagery works for the two candidates as well. Obama seems more a youthful (“She rocks!” he shouts about Hillary Clinton to a crowd), frisky and sometimes impatient stallion. McCain is, of course, the old warhorse, his mobility curtailed from old wounds but still ready for combat.
McCain’s sometimes-pained expressions show that he’s been through all this before in the 2000 primary campaign against George W. Bush (not to mention weathering two terms in the House and four in the Senate). But for Obama, midway through his first Senate term, a presidential run must seem entirely new and fascinating.
This campaign is not just about liberal/conservative or Democrat/Republican. With two such antithetical choices this time around, we as voters have to ask ourselves other, more fundamental, questions: How do we define competency and leadership when a war veteran is set against an anti-war idealist, when one who has seen it all is challenged by one who still wants to see it all, when experience and deliberation are set against hope and change?
McCain and Obama are archetypes who transcend the usual politics. And that’s why we can evoke everything from boxing to the Ancient Greeks to figure out who should win.
But as the two candidates in the months ahead debate the war, energy woes, and a troubled economy, the election will ultimately come down to whether more Americans think a workmanlike old pro can see us through one more time, or more think the times demand we gamble on a charismatic newcomer who promises us deliverance.
— Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a recipient of the 2007 National Humanities Medal and the 2008 Bradley Prize.
© 2008 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.< Back 1 2 
