The Set-up: There is a great scene in the Irish-American gangster movie, The Road to Perdition, starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman. Hanks, a trusted hit-man, is like a son to Newman. But when Hanks’ kid is an accidental witness to a roughing-up turned murder by Newman’s real son, played by Daniel Craig, Craig takes matters into his own hands without checking with his father. He attempts to silence Hanks but only ends up killing Hanks wife and other kid when it turns out that Hanks is not home.

The Point: Newman is furious. He parades Craig before the mob family and demands an apology. Craig is intimidated, but stands to say his peace. He begins by saying, “I would like to apologize…” Newman, still furious, cuts him off and screams at the top of his lungs while pounding the table, “You would LIKE? to apologize?” Craig gets the point and starts over, more meekly this time, by saying, “I apologize for…”, skipping his intention to do so and getting straight at it.

The Analogy: Barak Obama said again, as late as this past Friday, that he intends to start to get tough with Hillary. Like Newman, I am furious, but I don’t have Obama to yell at except on these pages. It is abundantly clear, to me and many others, that Obama has already wasted too much time saying he is going to get tough and no time actually getting tough. He will be given several opportunities tonight at the Democrats debate to carry out his intentions, but my guess is that he wimps out. He’ll almost get tough, but then he will want to have it both ways and neutralize it by saying something nice. Watch his body language.

Conclusion: Obama is within the margin of error, two percentage points, for a tie with The Wife in Iowa. So my guess is that he goes South Chicago lite. And there will be no movie. But, I’ll give him one last chance.