A Little Of The Old In And Out



(image via abcnews)

In: The New Manliness. Something that really struck us about the "60 Minutes" interview with Sully is the even-temperateness of the Air Force Academy grad. It reminds us of our current President and Commander-in-Chief. It represents a new kind of manliness that was validated by the American public on November 4th, a balanced masculinity, an authentic masculinity that is not always posturing, brush clearing, imperial, unilateralist, incapable of admitting error and, ultimately, appallingly false.

The new manliness is neither the musk of the lying, cheating steroid abuser that is A-Rod (Steroids as metaphor), nor is it the cloying musk of bankers, disgustingly aggressive, who spent the past decade blind drunk on the phantasmagoria of infinite, disharmonious, anddisproportionate growth in the form of bad assets belchings (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment).

One of the benefits of this new found masculine moderation -- this psychological sobriety -- is that the rational mind can now operate at maximum efficiency. "I knew I had to solve this problem," said Sully to Couric about the problem of landing the plane. "I had to find my way out of this box."

And this is precisely what the American electorate is looking for in Obama when we made our choice on this past election day with regards which personality would be better to solve this economic crisis.



(image via foreignpolicy)

Out: Ehud Barack. The volatility of Israeli politics is such that it is hard to count anyone's political career as irretrievably lost. Still, former Defence minister Ehud Barack, who administered the attack on Gaza is expected to trail in fourth in today's election behind Avigdor Lieberman. Still, three years ago (scroll to bottom of page) this blog counted Netanyahu out completely as Ehud Barack's star shone brightly.

The pendulum swings. And while of the four major candidates to form a coalition government to become the next Prime Minister of Israel, Barack seemed the most likely to use his impeccable military credentials to move in the direction of peace. Alas, he will not get the opportunity to prove that that is his mettle. Ehud Barack may have a second chance in the future, as we said: Israeli politics is impossibly volatile. Just not in this immediate future.