In a scene near the end of the fascinating HBO mini-series, John Adams, the elderly statesman has been called upon to comment on a painting depicting the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  Some 50 years has passed since that famous event in the nation's history, and the painter has presented a fanciful portrait of all the men gathered together dramatically to put their names on the document.

This upsets old Adams, who upbraids the artist for his imaginary work.  "There was a revolution going on," he points out drily, "and most of us were out fighting it."  He explained that it took months to gather all the signatures, since each of the men had to attend to it whenever he could get a chance to do so.

In the fifty years since the fledgling country broke free of its yoke to mother England, Adams has seen many changes, and he frets that the original ideals that set forth the concept of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have been lost in the hurly-burly world of politics and the more mundane business of governance.

But a friend tells him how irreplaceable and valuable had been the contributions of John Adams and his friend and competitor, Thomas Jefferson.  He says:

"Many of us FOUGHT in the revolution...but you and Jefferson...you THOUGHT it for the rest of us."

This one quote, out of hours of fine writing and production values and acting that brought forth the program, had a profound effect on me.

There are several different ways to look at it that are relevant to our current presidential race, and one of them is the emphasis that some candidates put on FIGHTING.

Yesterday, John McCain said, "What America needs in this hour is a fighter, someone who puts all his cards on the table and trusts the judgment of the American people."  Pointing out that, "I have fought for this country since I was 17 years old," (a dubious claim, since I'm assuming he's referring to the beginning of his career at Annapolis, which is significant mainly for tales of his carousing, swearing, drinking, philandering, gaining demerits, and pissing off superiors--which hardly qualifies as fighting for one's country), and goes on to say, "I'm an American.  And I choose to fight."

This sounds very rah-rah, and should, on the surface of it, fire up the voters who, the conventional wisdom goes, like nothing better than someone who will fight.

Hillary Clinton thought so, too.  As her campaign wore on and she began to lose to the upstart, Obama, she started framing her narrative more and more as someone who, "will fight for you from Day One."

She spoke often about how hard a worker she was, how much of a fighter she was, and how hard she was going to both work and fight for the downtrodden if and when she made it to the White House.

But a strange thing happened on the way.

Turns out, the voters weren't so much interested in a fighter.

Why is that?

Well, consider it in the context of what the friend of John Adams meant when he said, "We fought in the revolution...but you thought it."

In that same scene, he went on to explain that, even though Adams and Jefferson disagreed on various approaches to founding a new democracy, "You were like opposite book-ends," said Adams's friend.

In other words, though their ideas might have been different, they were still both important to laying out the foundation that a nascent nation might need to break away from a suffocating mother country and become its own force on the world stage.

And while great warriors--think George Washington, of course--were needed to do the serious military battling necessary to overthrow an occupying army, at the same time, great THINKERS were also needed to tackle not just the IDEA of freedom, but the NUTS and BOLTS of how to accomplish and sustain a free government, based on laws and universal rights and responsibilities of the community.

What Adams's friend was saying was that it was relatively EASY to do the fighting.  Most anyone could pick up a musket and pouch of powder, join the militia, and go off to shoot Redcoats.  The great numbers of Revolutionaries could take care of the frightening business of overthrowing an army.

But there were only a HANDFUL of great thinking men, men of genius and grace, visionaries who could see unfurled before them the banner of democracy at a time when most of the rabble was just pissed off that they had to pay taxes to a foreign government that didn't seem to care about them.

These men were intellectual giants, men who could not just write beautiful words or deliver eloquent speeches, but who could set forth precepts that would hold fast against grave challenges for more than 200 years.

The Revolution, such as it was, would have fallen flat without those men, who may never have personally fired a shot.

(As the war in Iraq has proven, a military can overthrow another army with relative ease--it's knowing what to do NEXT, and accomplishing that vision, that is the REAL test.)

Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John Adams, and others--they established this government and this country.  They THOUGHT the revolution.

We have had a series of leaders in this new century who are great fighters, (or think they are, anyway).  They strut and they swagger across the world stage, throw their army at global problems, and narrow their worldview down to the simple, and simplistic, "You're either for us or against us."

That worldview extends, not just overseas, but here at home as well, in battles with congress and campaign battles.  And even, WITHIN campaigns.

While Hillary Clinton was bragging about how hard she would fight for us all, her own campaign was riddled with infighting, backbiting, blaming, and leaking all to the press.

The same thing is playing out now, in the "fighter" McCain's campaign.  There are reports that his own running mate is aligning herself against him in several issues and outright ignoring him in others as she positions herself for a possible run in 2012.  On at least three separate occasions, McCain has fired or otherwise completely overhauled the top leadership of his campaign, and during each phase, there was, as in the Clinton campaign--infighting, backbiting, blaming, and press-leaking.

Having a fighter in the Oval Office is not always a good thing, because fighters tend to fight.  With everyone.  With anyone.  With opponents and with friends.  With themselves, even.

But what we are facing as a nation is far bigger than that.

Right now, there are several deep, almost invisible undercurrents running in the American psyche, provoked and brought forth to the surface by recent events.

One is a cynicism and an over-riding despair.  Every day brings more scary news, and it's not just on television.  Hearing about lay-offs on the news is one thing; it's quite another when it hits your own family or someone you love.  Or when someone you know loses their home, it is absolutely devastating.  Just about everyone has had to make some kind of sacrifice.

This leads to a generalized anxiety that lays like a pall over the population.  We see signs of emotional devastation--beloved pets abandoned at animal shelters when their owners are homeless, children turned into foster care so they won't have to live in the streets, suicide hotlines jammed with calls, and domestic abuse sky-rocketing.  Crime rates are going up, particularly robbery and burglary.  Pawn shops are seeing more business--one pawn shop owner spoke of someone he would not name, who had brought in an NFL Superbowl ring to pawn.

At a time like this, it is instinctive to think that we as a nation would want someone to fight for us, right?

But consider two candidates this past week.

On Sunday, John McCain's campaign said that he would not be putting forth any new economic plans or programs, "until events warrant."

Instead, on Monday, he unveiled A NEW STUMP SPEECH, in which he revealed his exciting new catch-phrase, "We've got 'em right where we want 'em!"

It was during this speech that McCain talked about how he was going to fight for us, how he understood how it feels to be afraid, and that as an American, he was a fighter.

But on that same Monday, Barack Obama unveiled a major new economic "Middle Class Rescue" program, which included half a dozen new proposals designed to encourage hiring, create jobs, prevent home foreclosures, buck up state and local government plans for rebuilding infrastructures (thus helping those states and cities as well as creating new jobs), tax breaks for emergency 401(k) and IRA withdrawals, tax relief for unemployment benefits, and so on.  He also announced measures to ensure that major lending institutions were being fair as well as accountable.

It's a very detailed plan, and you can read the entire speech here:

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/obama_speech_theres_one_word_o.php#more

At the conclusion of his remarks, Obama said: