Centerfield: Up Close and Personal

June 09, 2003

Up Close and Personal

A key question for any candidate for the presidency is what kind of basic image they will project to the American people. What will most folks think of them? If an average voter had to peg their personality in some way, what would they say?

This is where Al Gore failed in 2000. I don't think most Americans would know what to say if asked to describe him on a personal level. Who is he? Who, among our friends and neighbors, would you compare him to? I don't think he ever answered that fundamental image question. Most folks would probably shrug their shoulders and say "I don't know" if asked to describe Gore as a person.

An advisor might have done Gore great favors by convincing him, say, a year or two before the election, that he needed to go find himself -- his basic personality -- that he needed to go sit down with a lot of Americans and relate to them on purely human levels. Take a trip across the country. Find your connection with the American people.

This is something every candidate needs to understand. You can't be president in America unless the average guy out there feels he knows who you are.

Some of the emerging 2004 contenders are wrestling with this question. What do they want the average American to think when someone says their name?

For one candidate, I think I know the answer.

Spend a little time listening to recent interviews with Joe Lieberman. He did an extended interview on NPR week before last. You can look at a column or two (or three) showing basic impressions of Joe as he tours the country.

The reactions are pretty consistent. Whether he's talking to a reporter or working a room, he comes across as nice, easygoing, gentle, and upbeat. He also manages to express firmness and convictions on various issues. He's sharp, discussing a range of complex issues in a firm but easy-going manner. And finally, he's optimistic. He manages to combine strong criticisms of the current administration with a basic vision of how things could be, should be, with new leadership.

Lieberman is setting a basic tone for his candidacy, and it's a strong one. He doesn't have the personal touch of Bill Clinton, but he's aiming for a Clintonesque optimism and easygoing style (while, at the same time, advocating a return to Clinton's policies).

If you ask politically attuned folks about Lieberman, you may very well hear different impressions. Some say he's boring ... lacking that certain spark or charisma that can move a crowd.

I see a different aspect of his personality. Something that's been there all along, if you listen to anyone who's met him. An energy and optimism that seems to be coming to the fore, now, as he takes hold of his new challenge for national leadership.

That's the critical basic challenge for the Lieberman campaign. Can they take his real personality -- what comes through when folks meet him -- and somehow project it on the national level? Is there some way of introducing him to the average voter out there, a guy who pays relatively little attention to politics and (most likely) hasn't listened to a single interview with a 2004 contender?

Those of us who want to help him need to embrace that challenge -- find ways to project the real Joe, up close and personal, to a broad segment of the American people.

Posted by Blogadmin at June 9, 2003 06:20 PM

Comments

You bring up an interesting question, bk.

I wasn't necessarily thinking in terms of someone who is a current presidential candidate. It helps if the person (or perhaps a few people) is an elected official, certainly, because that's the role in which they demonstrate a different kind of leadership.

There are the obvious names -- Colin Powell, Christine Todd-Whitman, John McCain, Joe Lieberman.

There are a few others who are less well known but have the talent and temperment -- Harold Ford Jr., Mary Landreau, Olympia Snowe, Blanche Lincoln, Chris Shays.

It's a little hard to imagine how you get someone to embody a distinct centrist option in the minds of voters. There's a good bit of serendipity involved -- e.g., when someone famous or accomplished happens to be a moderate.

That's the tantilizing possibility with Colin Powell -- he's famous for other reasons, and if he did run for office would probably illustrate quite well a different approach to campaigning and governing.

I don't think John McCain plans to run again, but if he's healthy enough in 2008, and decides he wants it, he might very well get it.

I don't have a lot of exposure to Christine Todd-Whitman, but what I know of her suggests she is dynamic, decisive, articulate, and thoughtful. I get a vibe from her that says she's "the one" in terms of being able to powerfully illustrate a centrist approach.

I would point out one final thing having to do with Lieberman. The point bk makes above probably applies here -- it's tough to annoint someone this year as "the" representative of centrist politics, in part because of the divisive war issue, and in part because we have such a large field with so many options.

I would point out, though, that when it comes to a definitive centrist style of politics, I think I hear it in what Lieberman was doing early in his campaign. A good example of it is his extended NPR interview, in which he sets aside the partisan rancor and offers an engaging, optimistic, civil, decisive, and thoughtful approach to the issues.

Listen to that interview for an example of what I think a centrist brings to politics, sylistically and substantively.

Posted by: William Swann at November 12, 2003 02:36 PM

Centerfield

A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics

June 09, 2003

Up Close and Personal