By Adrian Culea
In conjunction with the “Educate ’08” initiative, a panel of presidential biographers used their knowledge of prior elections to give their perspective of the state of the current election at the Scott Skodnek Business Development Center in the Axinn Library last Thursday. Washington Post reporter and President Bill Clinton biographer David Maraniss, Princeton University professor Fred Greenstein and New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller comprised the panel.
Greenstein, who wrote an analysis outlining the positive and negative differences of presidents from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to George W. Bush, stressed the importance of an “outer-face” and an “inner-space” must be kept in the mind of the remaining candidates Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).
The “outer-face” is the president’s ability to communicate with the public and their ability to teach and preach their vision for the country. The “inner-space” consists of their emotional qualities and their ability to organize their presidency.
“You need skill,” Greenstein said, “but skill is not enough.” He cited the example of President Lyndon B. Johnson, whose lack of vision sucked the country into the “Vietnam quagmire,” Greenstein said.
He labeled President George W. Bush’s thought process as “dysfunctional,” attributing this to the president’s decision to invade Iraq without full consultation from enough members of his administration.
“George W. Bush is getting advice from the most inept bureaucrats,” he said.
Maraniss, author of “First in His Class: The Biography of Bill Clinton,” documented President Clinton’s childhood up until his Inauguration Day in 1992. Maraniss suggested a critique of President Clinton’s first term as a way to help steer away future presidents from making the same mistakes. Clinton had an ad-hoc organizational style that gave staffers the perception that no one knew who was in charge, Maraniss said.
Maraniss blamed President Clinton’s organizational style for some of the stumbling blocks he faced his first years in office. President Clinton failed to realize the politics of Arkansas was different than politics on a national level, Maraniss said.
He assigned his wife, Hillary, to initiate education reform in Arkansas, and this did not create a backlash. However, when she was assigned to head a task force on health care reform at the national level, she was bombarded by more than $100 million in opposition from Congressional Republicans and lobbyists.
Maraniss could not predict who would end up with the Democratic nomination, but he expected it to be a long, drawn-out battle. One would need to “cut off both arms and both legs to get [Bill Clinton] out of the White House… the same thing is true with Hillary. She’ll be in the race probably until the end.”
Focusing on the upcoming general election, Bumiller said McCain was being forced to perform a delicate dance with the Bush administration. There is a lot of animosity towards the sitting president, Bumiller said, so it is important for McCain to both embrace the President, while at the same time, distancing himself from many of the administration’s policies.
Bumiller described the seven-year tenure of Bush as a battle of realists, such as Colin Powell, against the neo-cons, like Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Bumiller concluded the battle has been lingering for decades within the Republican Party and is evident in McCain’s campaign.
Even though the panel did not conclude as to what will unfold between now and the November election, one student, Katrina Lopatinsky, a freshman psychology major, found the discussion beneficial.
“No one’s sure what’s going to happen with both the Democratic nomination and with the general election,” she said. “There’s nothing really we can do at this point except follow the ongoing story lines and listen to expert analysis, like we did today.”