Obama Should See This Play

Thanks to Boston political commentator turned playwright Dick Flavin and to gifted actor Ken Howard (television's "White Shadow" and the excellent movie "Michael Clayton"), who uncannily captures the warmth, humor and compassion of the late House speaker, I had a totally fulfilling theater experience laughing and tearing up at "According to Tip," a one-man show drawn from the spoken wit and street-corner wisdom of Massachusetts Democrat Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill.

It's a shame Barack Obama has not seen this play. He's a smart fellow, and he could learn a lot about being a presidential candidate and maybe about being a president.

The play reminds us of when politics was fun and human. O'Neill was House speaker from the last days of Gerald Ford's presidency through Jimmy Carter's one White House term and most of Ronald Reagan's two. Noting the similarity of his own and the Gipper's backgrounds, two Irish-Americans from humble roots on whom Fortune had smiled, the Democratic speaker could never understand how the Republican president was able to, contrary to O'Neill's defining values, "forget where he came from."

Recounting how, despite his political disagreement with House Republican leaders on issues, he had always been friends with them, Tip told president-elect Reagan that the two of them could follow that same example and observe "the six o'clock rule," when political antagonists could relax and be friends.

A call from President Reagan in the White House to Speaker O'Neill would often begin this way: "Hello, Tip, is it after six o'clock?" to which O'Neill would respond, "Absolutely, Mr. President."

O'Neill, a stranger to self-importance, loved to play golf.

He was not a great golfer, shooting in the 90s. But what is jarring in this current era of entitlement, when so many public officials think privilege and perquisites are their special prerogative, is that House Speaker O'Neill played — often with his friend, House Republican leader Bob Michel — at Hains Point, a Washington, D.C., public golf course. He called himself "not a save the whales liberal," but rather "a save the jobs liberal." It's all there to enjoy and reflect upon in this theatrical gem, "According to Tip."

But what's this got to do with the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee? This week, he told a small fundraiser, "The odds of us winning are very good." On his recent trip overseas, he spoke about meeting foreign leaders whom "I expect to be dealing with over the next eight or 10 years." In a meeting with House Democrats, he was quoted as saying, "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions." Self-assurance in a candidate is good. Cockiness is not good.

Here is what Barack ought to hear from Tip: The night before Election Day in his first campaign, O'Neill's across-the-street neighbor, the high-school elocution teacher, Mrs. O'Brien, told the candidate, "Tom, I'm going to vote for you tomorrow even though you didn't ask me to." The young O' Neill protested: "Mrs. O'Brien, I cut your grass in the summer. I shovel your walk in the winter. I didn't think I had to ask you."

Mrs. O'Brien gave young Tip a piece of advice he would repeat several thousand times to his fellow Democrats everywhere: "Tom," she said, "let me tell you something: People like to be asked."

It's just as true today, Sen. Obama. People don't like to be taken for granted. Mr. O'Neill reminds us in "According to Tip" that people like to be asked!

To find out more about Mark Shields and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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COPYRIGHT 2008 MARK SHIELDS