General Admission
Grading Grace in politics
By Al S. Mendoza
IN the word war between Grace Poe and Jojo Binay, there is not one winner emerging.
Both were winners.
The media mileage they got, and continue to get, made them stars for all seasons.
That’s because politics is the art of everything.
Jojo saying Grace is not a Filipino was but a political jab.
Sour grapes was Jojo?
No. Part of his political savvy, period.
All political animal know when to pounce on a hapless prey.
Look how Grace reacted to that citizenship issue of hers: Blood boiling. Close to being hysterical.
Jojo had the last laugh.
But, of course.
He is the veteran, having been in politics the last 40 years or so.
But did Grace lose?
Wrong. Both were even winners.
And even as Jojo’s offer to partner with Grace was diffused just as fast, it put both in the spotlight.
In politics, popularity ranks No. 1.
Look at Binay.
Under fire for alleged corrupt practices when he was Makati mayor, he is unfazed and insists he’s not abandoning his ambition to run for president next year.
He believes he could pull it off again, the way he upset the heavily favored Mar Roxas in the battle for vice presidency in 2010.
If you weigh things down, the masses of our Filipino people, especially those in the countryside, are not exactly, totally, familiar of the on-goings in the Big City.
They are unaware of the seriousness of the charges against Binay, and are almost sure of sending Binay to the Palace come 2016.
He’s so well entrenched in power, his machinery nationwide is securely in place, so that I dare say the only way to stop Binay from replacing P-Noy is through disqualification.
But can the Ombudsman do it, let alone the Sandiganbayan?
Can a plunder-conviction still happen, when May 2016 is but merely 347 days or so away?
Of all the presidential contenders, Binay is way ahead in exhibiting the true colors of a politician.
He is the master of avoiding confrontations as he knows he can be cornered with just a minor slip.
By doing that, consistently, he is not a coward, he is just being practical.
Being a greenhorn, literally, Grace Poe doesn’t still have the grace of political sparring the practical way; unlike Jojo Binay.
Listen to Henry Adams: “Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.”
Good politicians pick fights that suit them.
So that Grace fighting back at every opportunity is bad politics; very PNoy-like.
So that when Grace immediately said no to Jojo’s offer to be his running mate next year, that exposed a terrible chink in her armor.
As Benjamin Disraeli said: “Finality is not the language of politics.”
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