| No Hope for Bob |
13 October 2003
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Senator Graham Drops Presidential Bid
Senator Bob Graham (D-Florida) pulled out of the 2004 race for the presidency last week, and few noticed. "I'm leaving because I have made the judgment that I cannot be elected president of the United States," he said on CNN. One could have told him that before he entered the contest.
Mr. Graham had several problems with this campaign, not least of which was his job in the Senate. He serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has been rather busy in the last two years. He also had to deal with the Congressional repercussions of the war in Iraq. In short, he actually had to be a responsible legislator.
America has not had a president come directly from Congress since Gerald Ford found his way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue almost 30 years ago, and George Bush the Elder spent years doing other things between his time in the House and in the White House. Governors and ex-governors abound on the recent list of presidents. There is a certain logic to this; acting as chief executive for a state carries with it many transferable skills appropriate to the job of Leader of the Free World.
However, Washington is where the president must operate, and bringing people from outside means having to forge working relationships on the fly. Members of Congress, on the other hand , are known quantities to many in the bureaucracy. It is preferable that the president come, if not directly then at least, in some way, from Capitol Hill.
The problem, as Senator Graham discovered, is that legislators have records on national issues that they must defend. Governor Dean, Reverend Sharpton, and even Governor Clinton (as he once was) never had to deal with a national issue beyond its local impact. In modern politics, no record is better than any record. It is one less thing to defend. And this, in turn, is why the debate is about groping women, drinking habits, church attendance and other substitutes for real issues.
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