WHAT political lesson should Americans draw from the death of Muhammad Ali, an event so large that it united such figures as Barack Obama and Donald Trump in public mourning? As news broke of the boxer’s passing at 74, the Republican businessman tweeted that the former heavyweight was “a truly great champion and a wonderful guy” who will be “missed by all!”
For his part the president noted that in his private study, just off the Oval Office, he keeps a pair of Mr Ali’s gloves on display, just under an “iconic photograph” of the young champion “roaring like a lion over a fallen Sonny Liston”.
Some will see nothing more than opportunism by two politicians pandering to popular grief. Though Mr Ali provoked much fury in his youth by refusing to serve in Vietnam and by converting to Islam, ditching his “slave name” of Cassius Clay along the way, he died a national treasure, his explosive reputation made safe by time, suffering and stoicism—and above all his long fight with Parkinson’s disease and the damage caused by years in the ring.
Critics of Mr Trump see pure hypocrisy in his praise for a boxer...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/1tdyZMW
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