My theory on why Rev. Gov. Huckabee is still running / The Arkansas Governor <> Machiavelli connection | McCain & Sun Tzu

If you don't know who Machiavelli is...

1. Oh come on! Stop pulling my leg...
1. Ow, it hurts, I mean it!
1. It doesn't need to be any longer!
1. Or at least pull them both... I HATE asymmetry!
   
2. Click here for the Wiki article.
   

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Now, I created that slideshow to make the point that just as President Clinton was and is often mis characterized & underestimated as nothing a bumbling lovable charmer, so too Rev. Gov. Huckabee. Both are masters following after The Master, Machiavelli.

Both former Arkansas Governors are nothing if not intelligent & articulate with "black belts" in the martial art of politics.

Rev. Gov. Huckabee is still in the race for the following reasons:

1. To become leader of the "conservative movement"- a role which is not naturally his, since his record and policies are as inconsistent as Gov. Romney's and unorthodox as Sen. McCain's.
   
2. To define that movement in exclusively social terms... which is to say- to coopt the entire mantle of conservativism for the Radical Religious Right.
3. To make sure that McCain has to pull "right" (as he defines "right")

He may succeed in #1... on #s 2&3... its less certain. Should McCain win the Presidency, then #2 is unlikely to happen, but he'll still stand a good chance of coalescing the "dissenting conservatives" around him.

On #2- I hope McCain doesn't fall for that "rope-a-dope" ploy. Military man that he is, he is doubtless familiar with Sun Tzu's seminal Art of War- it is required reading in military academies through out the world, and well so! I hope he heeds it, especially these points:

Thus the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans, the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces, the next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field, and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.
-Sun Tzu, the Art of War

If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.

He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.

In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack - the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers. The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle - you never come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination?

And finally and most crucially...

The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him.


Quotations found at http://www.military-quotes.com/Sun-Tzu.htm, emphasis mine