Balkinization

Obama, McCain and the Permanent Campaign

Guest Blogger

Jeffrey K. Tulis

In recent efforts to set the agenda for the general election, John McCain seized on the one of the major constitutional pathologies of our time – the permanent campaign. Effacing the distinction between campaigning and governing, all recent presidents have imported the personnel, skills, techniques and mentality of the campaign into the day to day business of government once elected. George Bush, for example, put his campaign strategist, Karl Rove, at the center of the White House operation; Bill Clinton relied on Dick Morris and others in a similar way. After leaving the Bush administration, John DiIulio, Douglas Fief, and Scott McClellan all describe a policy process fatally infected by a campaign mentality. DiIulio described a process run by “Mayberry Machiavelli’s” who failed the president in two ways: they denigrated and dismissed policy analysts and arguments on the merits in favor of electoral strategizing, and they weren’t very smart even at political gamesmanship. Bush has pushed to an extreme a process actually very similar to the White House operation of his predecessor, Clinton.

John McCain promises to end the permanent campaign. To step up to actual domestic and foreign policy problems, to turn away from the preoccupation with spin and manipulation, to care about the long term interests of the nation and the rights of its inhabitants, visitors, and captives rather than to stoke the passions of ones electoral base (or to worry less about forming a lasting coalition than about fashioning a sound policy) would be a welcome improvements of the American constitutional order. Unfortunately, McCain’s remarks do not show that he has thought through the serious problem he rightly identifies. When governing was a more distinct activity from campaigning – for most of American history through the mid-twentieth century -- the burdens of campaigning were carried by surrogates. Today, presidents themselves are the campaigners, which means that when McCain promises not to govern as he has campaigned, he calls into question the veracity of all the statements and promises he makes on the campaign trail. If he means not to govern as he has campaigned, how can we believe anything he now says?

Obama has not yet explicitly responded to McCain’s promise to end the permanent campaign. But the conduct of his campaign already suggests his answer. If the constitutional pathology is defined by governing taking on the tone and techniques of campaigning, that disease can be cured in a new way signaled by Obama’s new style of politics. For Obama, rather than governing taking on the tone of the campaign, the campaign can take on the tone of governing. If candidates campaign in a new way – it can be carried over into the governing phase in a manner that improves statecraft rather than undermines it. For examples, in opposing a gas tax holiday and speaking to the publics deliberative capacities in his explanation, in delivering speeches that offer complex articulations of the principles that underlie his policies (on race, on financial markets, on foreign policy, and on the economy), in calling for real, genuine Lincoln Douglas style debates (no moderator, press, sound bite questions, but rather sustained arguments and rebuttals), and most generally in calling for a new politics of reason over one marked by appeals to passion (like fear), Obama is solving the problem of the permanent campaign by letting the two processes continue to bleed into each other – but this time with the tone set by governing rather than by campaigning.

Posted 9:20 AM by Guest Blogger [link]

Comments:

Mr. McCain is the master of the permanent campaign. Since his failed 2000 primary bid, McCain has been living on front of the cameras establishing his "marverick" political brand (which is just a variation on the Clinton triangulation). This nonsense from McCain about ending the permanent campaign is really part of his ongoing campaign to appear to be the maverick.

# posted by

Bart DePalma : 10:56 AM

I'm not following. What is the style of governance foreshadowed by denouncing NAFTA and promising rather unequivocally to terminate it when campaigning for union votes in the rustbelt, then flip-flopping and supporting it when interviewed by "Fortune" in the general election campaign? Or by calling for a unified Jerusalem when speaking to AIPAC, then "clarifying" that the candidate didn't mean that? It seems like flat-out pandering to me, although I suppose moral cowardice is an alternative, even less attractive explanation.

# posted by

sean : 12:54 PM

Do "permanent campaigns" have something in common with "permanent bases" in Iraq? Political campaigns are a continuum of the major political parties, if not directly the candidates. Upon election, the primary thought of the elected official (and his/her supporters) is reelection. Consider the Representatives come up for reelection in two years. For Senators, even though it's 6 years, the need to fund for reelection starts with day 1.

Perhaps John McCain, possibly because of his age, may not be focusing on reelection to a second term. (I am not predicting that he will be successful this November.) This may be "straight talk" but I wonder who's moving his lips. And wouldn't this make him a "lame duck" from the git-go?

# posted by

Shag from Brookline : 1:38 PM

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# posted by

Charles Gittings : 3:48 PM

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# posted by

Charles Gittings : 3:51 PM

Excellent post Prof. Tulis.

Unlike Bush and McCain, Barack Obama is honest in ways our politicians rarely are. (May that be the one thing he does not change.)

And how weird -- Bart's found something we can agree on.

My own take on McCain is simple:

He's a victim of torture and other war crimes who's spent the last six and half years aiding and abetting torture and other war crimes for political purposes in violation of the laws of the United States. As such, he is morally unfit to hold any position of public trust, end of story.

The same is true for most Republicans.

# posted by

Charles Gittings : 3:52 PM

charles gittings said...

And how weird -- Bart's found something we can agree on.

I am fully aware of the weaknesses of the various GOP politicians. Mr. McCain is no different from any other politician. Their first priority is generally to get re-elected, thus the permanent campaign.

You really ought to get the stardust out of your eyes concerning the Dem politicians in general and Mr. Obama in particular. Honesty is not one of Mr. Obama's strong suits. I have had a great deal of fun with Mr. Obama's various revisionisms and prevarications over at my blog if you would like a primer. However, we do not need to have that debate here.

# posted by

Bart DePalma : 6:44 PM

Stardust??

I'm just looking at war crimes and war criminals here Bart, you included, and there's nothing sentimental or imaginary about it. I don't regard you people and your subversion of the law any differently than than I would an armed robbery or a rabid dog: as menace to public safety.

# posted by

Charles Gittings : 11:46 AM

Obama writes a couple of virtually substance free books that talk vaguely about audacity and a "politics of hope" wherein we are exhorted to renew our "faith" in an idea with no definition. He runs a campaign where he hammers away at hope and new politics and about being a movement. People get turned on and forget to ask him any questions or push him on any issues. Then he talks straight to them about why he disagrees with the gas tax. Oh wow. Then he talks unstraight about why he likely won't filibuster on the FISA legislation. But, by then, people have put so much faith in him, they just can't bear to be pissed off. So to you he looks like he's introduced governance into political campaigning? Frankly, I'm not sure I follow. But even if you're right, it's governance as usual and whether it's in the campaign rhetoric or the actual governance, it's no change at all. I guess it just looks better to some people.

hysperia
http://alterwords.wordpress.com

# posted by

Hesperis : 12:54 AM

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# posted by

Charles Gittings : 1:18 AM