Pol Sci

Danielle Casagrande
Professor George Picoulas
Political Science 115
23 March 2015
Assignment 2 The Founding Fathers “would be horrified by the modern presidential campaign [process]” is the common thread that John Dickerson used when he wrote "How to Measure for a President" (Dickerson). The article explains the different injustices committed in today’s process of picking the leader of the free world as well as outlining the different things we can do as voters to improve the process so we can be assured that the man (or woman) we chose for the “job” is the best fit. The manner in which we elect the President is far from the way it started over 200 years ago when George Washington took office. In 1789 it was the belief that “no man worthy of the presidency would have to campaign for it” (Dickerson). That belief was still alive in 1916 as Woodrow Wilson said "[campaigning is] a great interruption to the rational consideration of public questions” even though the process of campaigning was in practice as it still is today but it’s more of “permanent condition” (Dickerson). No president hopeful can expect to win the election and be successful without having an amazing political team that construct an even more amazing campaign run. Some believe that one can tell how the candidate will perform in office based upon the way they campaign. For example, Dan Quayle said "If he [Bill Clinton] governs as well as he campaigned, the country will be all right" responding to Clinton’s successful 1992 Presidential campaign against George Bush (Dickerson). Sixteen years later, Clinton would find himself fundamentally saying the same thing in support of Barak Obama when Obama’s “lack of executive experience” was questioned (Dickerson). Obama was able to convince millions of people that he was the right man for the job. Therefore, that should prove the way in which he would conduct himself in the Oval Office. The reason for such belief is that campaigning and being president requires the same abilities of the candidate which are: to perform well under pressure, to communicate effectively, and to build a team that can handle enormous amounts of stress while getting very little sleep but trusts and believes in you completely.
If every president that was good at campaigning was as good at being a president, we would have a “string of successes” but that doesn’t hold true. “Most sitting presidents, almost by definition, have been skilled on the campaign trail. Yet the talents do not necessarily convey” (Dickerson). For example, Lyndon Johnson performed exceptionally against Barry Goldwater, but he wasn’t skilled enough to execute what was necessary for the Vietnam War. An even better example came in 1976 when Jimmy Carter was elected president after being considered a “political unknown” just two years before when one could identify him on the game show What’s My Line. As much of a “political genius” as he was described as, he was one of the nation’s least effective presidents (Dickerson).
Many fail to acknowledge the drastic differences between a campaign trail and when the candidate is actually in office serving as the president. When campaigning, the candidate only has to focus on one other person as their opponent, however as president it can be President vs. Congress; meaning it could be a different member every day. As the president you have to display the abilities to cooperate, compromise, and negotiate, however, the public applauds those candidates who fight back and stirs things up. So realistically, is the theory of judging a candidate’s ability to be chief executive based upon their campaign performance a strong enough basis? Honestly, I don’t believe so
As voters we need to keep in mind all the things that could affect the successfulness of a president such as congress majority, the intentions of such candidate, their past experiences and if they are skilled enough for the nation’s issue they would have to address if elected. For example, a big component of Mitt Romney’s campaign was his promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act. For those that want the same thing, they would support Mitt Romney right away, but we must ask how? At the moment the Democratic Party controls the senate. In order for a successful repeal of the act, Romney would need to convince majority of the senate to agree with him, so if the democratic party still makes up majority of the Senate, what are the chances of the repeal actually happening? At the same time Romney faces the more important Fiscal Cliff that the nation is on. Does he have the experience to fix both or either of the problems? Can he handle the stress of trying to balance both? Are his intentions is the right place, i.e. will he focus more on the repeal because it could increase his party’s approval or on the Fiscal Cliff which will strengthen the nation. Al Gore advised for a more invasive process, “an extended job interview conducted by the American people” because “the answers given by our candidates are too vague” currently (Dickerson).
How can we fix the process now you ask? First we must have the candidates focus more on the nation’s issues. We have to clearly understand the candidate’s position, priorities, their ability to communicate such then to follow through making such statements policies. As voters we have to focus on more than just the “one-dimensional” characteristics of the candidates (Dickerson). The campaign has to be used as means of assessing their skills, experience and abilities. This is shown through the way a candidate answer questions, their political skill, management ability, persuasiveness and temperament. One cannot sought after a candidate’s leadership ability because the president has to be flexible enough to change the type of leader he will be in each given situation. A leader is simply the “sum of those four attributes” (Dickerson). In this way we can be pretty certain that our means of measuring for the president is rock solid.
Works Cited
Dickerson, John. "How to Measure for a President." Slate. The Slate Group, 26 Sept. 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2015. <http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/features/2012/how_to_measure_a_president_/what_qualities_should_we_look_for_in_our_presidents_.html>

Cited: Dickerson, John. "How to Measure for a President." Slate. The Slate Group, 26 Sept. 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2015. <http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/features/2012/how_to_measure_a_president_/what_qualities_should_we_look_for_in_our_presidents_.html>