'The Godfather' doctrine

[bemildred]

It is one of the best-known scenes in cinematic history. Vito Corleone, head of one of the most powerful organized-crime families in New York, crosses the street to buy some oranges from a fruit stand. Seconds later, his peaceful idyll is shattered as multiple gunshots leave him bleeding in the street -- victim of a hit by Mafia rival Virgil "the Turk" Sollozzo.

By a miracle, he is only badly wounded. Two of his sons, Santino (Sonny) and Michael, and his adopted son and consigliere, Tom Hagen, gather in an atmosphere of shock to try to decide how to save the family.

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Thinking long term, Michael also adjusts the institutional playing field to the family's advantage through a combination of accommodation (granting the other families access to the Corleones' New York political machinery) and retrenchment (shifting the family business to Las Vegas and giving the other families a stake in the new moneymaker, gambling). A similar effort at preemptive institutional reform is vital if America wants to persuade its competitors to resist the temptation to position themselves as revolutionary powers. Doing so now, before the wet concrete of the new multipolar order has hardened, could ensure that, though no longer hegemonic, America is able to position itself, like the Corleones, as the next best thing: primus inter pares -- first among equals.

Can any of the candidates vying to become the next president of the United States match Michael's cool, dispassionate courage in the face of epochal change? Will they avoid living in the comforting embrace of the past, from which Tom and Sonny could not escape? Or will they emulate Michael's flexibility -- to preserve America's position in a dangerous world?

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-mitchell7-2008may07,0,2853781.story

[jaysunb]

1. Good analogy

and Barack Obama fits the Michael role perfectly.

:hi:

[bemildred]

2. I thought it was good.

A clever idea well written out.