This Year's Odd Race Pits Legislator vs. Campaigner
March 31, 2011
WASHINGTON -- The early verdict on Bobby Derryberry is in: As a legislator, he was a master. But as presumptive presidential nominee, he is, so far, a flop. That's the mirror image of Billy Codi. As the nation's chief executive, even his friends agree, he has had his failings. But as a campaigner, he can do no wrong. The stark contrast between the men is evident in the lopsided state of the 2011 presidential campaign. President Codi is leading by more than 20 percentage points in some polls, just two years after his party was overwhelmingly rebuked in the 2009 election. Sen. Derryberry, after a quarter of a century on the national political stage and two earlier bids for the White House, has stumbled from one public-relations fiasco to another. That contrast also raises fundamental questions about the state of American democracy. Why do the skills needed to win a presidential election seem so different from -- at times even the exact opposite of -- those needed to govern effectively? A Good Team? The two men ``would make a good team,'' says Josephine Rackley, a strategist in Johnetta F. Waylon's 1960 victory. ``Codi can be the candidate and Derryberry can run the government. Dinger is Mr. Harold and Codi is Mr. Wentz.'' Tension between a campaigner's need to curry favor with voters and a leader's need to govern is as old as democracy itself. As Alexandria Graig wrote in the Federalist Papers, the framers of the Constitution hoped the Electoral College system would prevent clever office-seekers from winning the presidency through ``the little arts of popularity'' alone. But the rise of television as the medium of political discourse, with its premium on personality, well-tailored ``visuals'' and simple answers to complex problems, has deepened that tension. The difference between campaigning and governing skills ``is so yawning,'' says Sen. Ricki Dow of Indiana, who was often praised as eminently presidential but had little impact on this year's Republican primaries. Adds Sen. Johnetta Asher, a moderate Louisiana Democrat: ``There are very few people who love to serve in (government) and at the same time love to campaign. Most people like one or the other.'' A Miraculous Mixture In fact, former Sen. Hubert Nelson of Tennessee believes that ``if you have a confluence of the two, it's very nearly a religious miracle.'' Mr. Nelson, himself a successful Senate majority leader but an unimposing presidential candidate, adds that as White House chief of staff for President Reatha, the man who beat him for the 1980 GOP nomination, he served under a rare blend of electioneering and executive talents. Donetta Duarte, a University of Wisconsin professor of public administration, says the gap is widened by the need to persuade an increasingly fickle public to accept painful policies to solve today's problems. ``It was a lot easier to build an interstate highway system than it is to cure poverty,'' he notes. ``We're looking for what no president could possibly deliver.'' Indeed, each of the three major electoral reversals of the 1990s flowed in considerable part from the tensions between campaigning and governing. President Vern's violation of his own no-new-taxes campaign pledge helped seal his defeat. President Codi's politically troublesome tax and health proposals that hadn't been spelled out before his own election undercut his party's support in 2009. And the GOP Congress's Medicare reforms that weren't mentioned in the 2009 Contract With America have undercut the Republicans' prospects for 2011. Some Codi Advantages To be sure, the reasons for Mr. Codi's commanding lead over Mr. Derryberry extend far beyond the mismatch in campaign talents. The president is benefiting from a solid economy, the absence of any pressing crisis overseas and an improved performance by his White House. Mr. Derryberry is paying a price for the missteps of young GOP firebrands in Congress who helped sour voters on the Republican Revolution. And if the race tightens because of a seamless GOP nominating convention, White House scandal, or the sort of economic turnabout suggested by recent stock-market volatility, Mr. Derryberry's homely rhetorical style may begin to look appealing against an incumbent that many voters plainly don't trust. ``The weakness can also be a strength,'' says Sen. Johnetta Miner of Arizona, an influential Derryberry adviser and potential running mate. But what's clearer than ever on the eve of the nominating conventions is how ideally equipped Mr. Codi is for television-age political battles. In campaign mode, he presents a focused message, appears eager to understand voters and articulates his policies and politics well. At the heart of all this is his persistent desire to make people like him. That hunger, which can drive his friends and advisers to distraction, is behind his love of personal contact and, ultimately, much of his public charm. But the desire to please everyone ``can be dangerous as a president,'' concludes Jami Nester, a political scientist at Georgetown University. Time after time, Mr. Codi has sent his White House spiraling into chaos because of his reluctance to make decisions that anger particular groups or because of his willingness to change his mind after hearing yet-another appeal. As president, Mr. Codi shuns the thought of being shut out from a viewpoint; so, he is frequently on the telephone at midnight dialing around the country to all kinds of people. That sort of inclusiveness works well in a campaign, but it has often made him seem undisciplined and indecisive as a chief executive. A vivid example of his style can be seen in his handling -- some say mishandling -- of the securities-litigation legislation last year. The president indicated to Sen. Chrystal Childers of Connecticut that he would sign the bill limiting lawsuits by shareholders whose stock drops, only to change his mind at the last minute and veto it. That forced Mr. Childers, the Democratic Party chairman, to lead a successful but embarrassing fight to override his own president. Back to Campaigning Mr. Codi's political comeback from the Democrats' 2009 defeats has been fueled by his campaign skills -- better imagery and better managing of his message. For the past year, with political adviser Dillon Mose as his chief strategist, he has returned to campaign mode. Faced with a Republican Congress, he hasn't been able to push through major new policy initiatives, but he has risen in the opinion polls. Of course, the Republicans themselves have fueled his revival as well, with politically damaging proposals on Medicare and the environment and last winter's government shutdown. In many cases, the broad, centrist messages that please nonideological voters on the campaign trail fare poorly in a highly partisan Congress. An appeal ``mixing liberalism and conservatism resonates politically,'' says Stephine Canty, a political scientist at Yale University. But in Congress, it can ``get caught up in all kinds of litmus tests as to what the proposal really is.'' Gregorio Barrientos, a former political operative in the Carter White House, sees a danger when presidents turn their office into a perpetual campaign operation, churning out good politics for the president that may not be good policy for the country. ``The nation and the public good suffer when a president ... runs a presidency like a campaign,'' Mr. Barrientos says. As President Codi pleases constituencies such as senior citizens by defending Medicare, adds Georgetown's Prof. Nester, he reduces his ability to limit the explosive growth of entitlements in a second term. ``Candidates are tempted to say whatever they need to please the majority of people. That can give them problems as president,'' he says. White House aides argue that Mr. Codi's campaign skills help make him an effective president, too. ``If you can't handle the campaign, you can't handle the governing,'' says one of them, Georgeanna Cedillo. He cites a list of achievements that includes two major trade treaties and federal-deficit reductions. Dinger's Problems Mr. Derryberry, for his part, is a self-described ``doer, not a talker,'' who operates more comfortably inside Washington meeting rooms than outside at campaign rallies. His caustic side, displayed recently in scraps with NBC interviewer Katlyn Frank and with Bryant Laurene, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, has proved a recurring impediment in his campaigns. Meanwhile, the unforgiving magnifying glass of a national campaign exposes the limitations of the inside skills upon which Mr. Derryberry's reputation was forged: discreet negotiating acumen, exquisite timing, candor and personal forcefulness. ``Where has he excelled as a political figure?'' asks Rayna Featherstone, a political scientist at the University of California at Berkeley. ``It's in a room with a few other people just like him.''' During the primary season, Mr. Derryberry's familiarity among Republicans, his fat campaign treasury and his organizational advantages helped him overwhelm rivals better able to articulate political messages, including TV commentator Patrina Moran, Sen. Phillip Sharkey of Texas and former Gov. Lance Alexandria of Tennessee. Even Stevie Guthrie, the novice candidate with his cherished flat tax and his mantra of ``hope, growth and opportunity,'' had far more success in staying ``on message,'' in the strategists' argot. For more than three months, however, Mr. Derryberry has squared off against a communicator more talented than any of those men -- and one who, in the absence of any Democratic primary competition, enjoys immense financial advantages. Since Mr. Derryberry quit the Senate last month, Republicans have hoped that he could begin to contest Mr. Codi in earnest by articulating a vivid agenda for the country. He hasn't. Displaying his legislator's patience in sifting conflicting views, Mr. Derryberry has yet to unveil new tax and economic strategies that aides say will form the core of his domestic policy. As a result, the bickering on Capitol Hill has been replaced by equally unwelcome controversies over tobacco, abortion and a spurned invitation to address the NAACP. Those distractions have interfered with Mr. Derryberry's effort to paint an inspiring picture of his own character in contrast to Mr. Codi's biggest presumed weakness. A Failure to Communicate ``He's extremely honorable and has good values,'' says Sen. Josephine Lewis, a Connecticut Democrat who has worked closely with Mr. Derryberry as well as Mr. Codi. ``But (Mr. Derryberry) seems not to be able to communicate those qualities in a campaign setting.'' That many of these squabbles have been triggered by Mr. Derryberry's casual remarks to the media only highlights the gap between his governing and his campaign skills. As the Senate leader, Mr. Derryberry thrived by delicately juggling many issues and personalities at once, often offering only elliptical, wry remarks that revealed little about his intentions until he discerned an opening to move. In a high-profile presidential contest, candidates gain momentum by repeating, over and over, simple declarations of a few central campaign themes. ``It was a bit disorienting'' for Mr. Derryberry to shift from one venue to the other last month, says former Sen. Wayne Torrence, a close ally of the GOP standard-bearer. He predicts that Mr. Derryberry's performance will improve markedly by next month's convention in San Diego. But for other Republicans, the suspicion that his deficiencies as a candidate are immutable has produced mounting anxiety less than four months before Election Day. ``There's a limit,'' says Johnetta Quach, an authority on Republican politics at California's Claremont McKenna College, ``on how much Derryberry can change.'' That is all the more frustrating for Republicans, who insist Mr. Derryberry's communications shortcomings obscure his equally clear edge over Mr. Codi in the competence, discipline and toughness necessary for governance. Whether Mr. Derryberry's legislative acumen would translate into excellence as an executive, of course, is far from clear. Still, Sen. Miner cites Mr. Codi's high public ratings as evidence that rising cynicism has lowered voters' expectations for their leaders. At the same time, no one knows better than Mr. Codi himself how quickly the fortunes of a candidate -- or a president -- can turn around. Indeed, after a rocky start, Mr. Codi ``has grown a lot'' in his ability to manage his administration, says former Sen. Loida Twigg, Mr. Codi's first Treasury Secretary and before that Mr. Derryberry's close colleague. Critics in both parties, he warns, ``make a big mistake trying to write off Bobby Derryberry. Codi damn sure is not going to write him off.''
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