Looking toward November
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With the primaries concluded, our candidates for president will be John McCain and Barack Obama. We are fortunate that both are intelligent, public-spirited Americans; their differences on the issues provide voters with a clear set of choices.
Each candidate has had extensive but very different life experiences. Both are uniquely prepared for part of the job of president ?McCain by his military career and heritage, and Obama by his exposure to broad aspects of the world society in which we live. Each also has his limitations, and both share a big one ?lack of experience as the head of a large organization, such as being a state governor, mayor of a large city, federal cabinet officer, CEO of a large company or head of a university. Like the presidency, success in those jobs depends in large part on the ability to recruit competent subordinates and to organize and lead them in developing and implementing the leader’s programs.
The first inkling on whether a candidate recognizes his need for executive backup will come in his selection of a running mate. If the candidate selects a legislator for that spot, whether for voter appeal or ticket balancing, he will later need to emphasize executive experience in his cabinet. I believe the best cabinet in recent years was Ronald Reagan’s. Its stars, George Shultz, Jim Baker and Mac Baldrige (my former boss) were all experienced managers, able to operate successfully without micromanagement.
The voters must also judge the candidates by their approach to the vital issues that will shape America’s and the world’s future:
Finding ways to live peaceably with Islam (Iraq and the Middle East are elements of this, as is atomic weapons proliferation)
Dealing with global warming and climate change internationally (energy policy included)
3. Restoring America’s finances (the economy, trade policy and taxes all come in here)
Global population, poverty and social unrest, particularly in Africa and Asia (health care and illegal immigration included)
Former Gov. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) said recently that he had never seen a time in which America faced so many challenges. Speaking from my longer memory, the 1930s combination of the Great Depression, rising militarism in Germany and Japan, and communism in the Soviet Union seemed equally threatening, though they did not have the potential to destroy civilization.
The upcoming presidential and congressional campaigns must focus on these major issues; if they do not, the winners will lack the mandate to ask Americans to accept the hard choices that solutions will entail.
What we DO NOT NEED is “gotcha” campaigning, lies like the “Swift Boat” attack on John Kerry in 2004, or picking on Michelle Obama or Cindy McCain in 2008. These destructive, unfair and unpatriotic personal attacks harm our country.
They distract voters and candidates from the important issues,
They make America look cheap and petty in the world’s eyes,
They discourage worthy people from public service, and
They leave the winners diminished in the eyes of the people they must lead.
It is up to us voters to tune out or shout down the loud-mouth, know-it-all talk show hosts and the “527” organizations’ campaign slurs, and concentrate on the issues that will shape our grandchildren’s world. We should also demand that the candidates publicly reject this kind of “support.” If we all do that between now and November we can have an election that makes us proud of America and its leaders, whomever they may be.
The author, of Upperville, was undersecretary of commerce for international trade in the Reagan administration.
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