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Al Swift's Commentary:
In Search of the Crisp and Clear –
Recruiting a Presidential Candidate.
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Since the beginning of this Presidential Campaign, John Kerry has been plagued by the inability to make his points crisp, simple and readily understandable. He is notorious for getting into complex detail, often leaving his audience without a clear idea of what he said. Let me suggest that this may be more because of his experience as a legislator than any flaw of mind or character.
Dick Gephardt had a similar problem. Howard Dean did not. Al Gore had a similar problem. Bill Clinton and, importantly, George Bush do not. Walter Mondale? Ronald Reagan. Put another way, those with extensive legislative experience tend to have this problem. Governors do not. Why is that?
My guess: It is because of the fundamental difference between legislating and administering. Governors, presidents, mayors and other executives tend to deal with concepts and leave the details up to their extensive staffs. Working out details is not really their job as much as creating an administrative climate in which those details are handled and creating the political climate in which the concepts can be transformed into reality.
Senators, Congressmen and state legislators have a very different job. Details – because that’s where the Devil is – are what they work with. That is often where a good idea can go wrong or a bad idea can be fixed, where compromises are often worked out. A legislator is – almost by definition – a detail man. Once you get used to thinking in detail it is hard to get back to stating simple concepts. You know those details are important and the temptation to explain every one of them is very hard to resist. I found that true when I’d address the Chamber of Commerce or a labor union, an AARP group or the Kiwanis club. I was especially bad with high school and college students. I always thought they deserved the best answers. Too often they just became the longest answers.
I am not saying a Senator or Representative could not make a good president. Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon -- whatever their flaws, their legislative experience did not seem to contribute to them. Nor am I saying that all governors are crisp and clear and all legislators mired in detail. But there seems to be a real trend that way.
So? Well, all other things being equal, political parties might be wiser to look to our fifty state houses for their nominees. They may or may not govern better, but they should be a lot better campaigners.
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