I am not usually a big fan of any film to which one could affix the adjective “macho.”  The last action movie I saw in theatres may well have been “Independence Day.” That was 1996, I was headed off to summer camp, and Bill Clinton was my political idol. (Cut me some slack, I was twelve.) Some of the only “macho” films I have enjoyed in my life, however, have been the Rocky films.  Face it, who doesn’t love a story of the proverbial David battling against all odds to triumph over Goliath? What is even more compelling about the character of Rocky is his ability to take a serious beating, never give up, and vanquish his opponent with a hail of punches just when all seems lost. This dogged tenacity led Rocky to victory over Apollo Creed, Mr. T., and even the entire U.S.S.R (as embodied by Dolph Lundgren). The analogy of Rocky can be just as overused in our modern parlance as David and Goliath, but I couldn’t help thinking of “the Italian Stallion” this last week as I watched the vigorous counteroffensive coming from President Obama.

The election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts was the haymaker that put our battered hero on the canvas. One could almost hear the distressed corner man pleading “It’s ova’ Barrack!”  But, just like Rocky, the President has pulled himself up off the matt, bruised and bloody, but seemingly determined to fight on with a previously unseen determination. When President Obama addressed Republican House members last week, it was immediately clear why the GOP tried to block the event from being televised. They threw their usual punch combos at a President who suddenly didn’t dodge, but rather countered with precision blows of his own. To paraphrase the exchange would be to do my esteemed readers a great disservice. Watch it yourself online, but suffices to say that when Fox News cut away from the coverage it was about what you’d expect Soviet State TV would’ve done in the closing rounds of Rocky IV.  Obama had warned the Republicans a week before, saying (repeatedly) that he intended to “fight”--and fight he has.

Riding the momentum from, as we say in the South, taking the GOP behind the woodshed, the President has embarked on a fiery whistle-stop tour, blasting his obstructionist opposition from every bully pulpit he can find. Many of us, jaded by this Administration’s almost codependent insistence on bi-partisanship, have suddenly sat up and paid attention. This is what we’ve been waiting for; the moment when our hero wipes the blood from his face and starts fighting back. This looks a lot like what just might finally yield the “change” we wanted to believe in, but it remains to be seen if it can be maintained. In order to get anything done this year, President Obama must take his own advice to Senate Democrats and resist the impulse to “tread lightly, keep your head down and play it safe.”  If he can stay on the offensive, he just might snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.  But don’t forget, in Rocky I, Rocky loses by split decision, a fate that could still befall our beleaguered President.