What Obama Should Learn From Lenin

What Obama Should Learn From Lenin

Thirty-eight years ago a film called The Candidate was playing in theaters around the country. It told the story of a young politician named Bill McKay (played by Robert Redford) and his quixotic campaign to win a seat in the United States Senate from California. That, of course, was the year of George McGovern’s run for the presidency against President Richard Nixon. It was also the first year 18-year old Americans could vote. So the movie tapped into the whole young-rock-star-charisma-change-the-world zeitgeist.

It was a “Yes, we can” political prologue.

In the final scene of the movie, McKay and...