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Chapter 4. Campaigning, Routine,and Closing Out
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campaigning, routine, and closing out • 77 chapter 4 Campaigning, Routine, and Closing Out At its simplest, every successful presidency begins with winning another term. Yet, the limits of tenure inevitably close in on an administration. These two phases—governing while campaigning and closing out an administration— are the challenges that “third generation” chiefs of staV often take on. The third discussion between former chiefs of staV covers this relatively unique set of topics. They focus primarily on the nature of governing while facing the election cycle. Can the White House continue to focus on governing when it must mount the president’s reelection? Their discussion contains a classic exchange between convener and journalist Marvin Kalb, eager to draw out the contrasting pressures of governing and partisan leadership, and the former chiefs of staV insisting that no one considers the president’s legacy in those Wnal days. Policy, as Secretary Baker points out in his foreword, constitutes the sine qua non of a presidency. Hence, every administration begins with its desire to leave a lasting mark. Organizing the president’s reelection, the former chiefs of staV demonstrate, takes on a very similar approach, regardless of administration. The critical thing, they all note, is that the White House staV has “the body.” No consideration of “good” government can get around the fact that the president must govern while campaigning, that to schedule the president’s activities inevitably aVects the campaign and vice versa. The White House operation must blend these two forces together. And the strategies for this blending involve close communication between the campaigns and the White House. In addition, the election cycle adds an additional responsibility to the White House chief of staV: to coordinate the partisan activities of the executive branch and the president’s cabinet. Untitled-8 6/17/04, 12:03 PM 77 78 • chapter 4 One fact divides this distinguished group of former chiefs of staV. Some of them closed out an administration that had lost its reelection while others of them closed out an administration whose second term had expired. This latter group, Kenneth Duberstein from Reagan and John Podesta from Clinton, concentrated on coordinating their president’s eVorts with a campaign to “stay the course” through their vice president’s succession. What extraordinary challenges the chief of staV must face in making a record for the current president while boosting the prospects for the next! President Reagan, for example, recognized that without his vice president’s success his own place in history would suVer. To repudiate his vice president, President Reagan thought, would become tantamount to having repudiated his own reputation. The desire to create a lasting mark, often noble in its roots, cannot always avoid the pressures unleashed at the end of an administration. The trials of presidential pardons, this group notes, represent the most obvious tension in a presidency’s Wnal days. The pressures on the chief of staV and the entire White House for swift and not entirely organized consideration grow daily as the president’s tenure diminishes. Too many voices with too many ambitions and so little time remains. External groups who want to kidnap the president’s agenda and exploit any mistakes that might be made if such capture is successful concern all of the former chiefs of staV. The frenzy of the Wnal days constitutes a special brand of crisis management, one in which the natural tendency to “wall oV” the crisis in order to preserve routine may not serve the president well if the routines of orderly consideration are bypassed. These potential “oh, by the way” decisions eventually leave the president vulnerable to the crafty presentations of advocates. Walling oV, in fact, may exacerbate the likelihood of poor presidential judgment. PARTICIPANTS Marvin Kalb (Harvard University) James A. Baker, III (Bush) Richard Cheney (Ford) Kenneth Duberstein (Reagan) John Podesta (Clinton) Jack Watson, Jr. (Carter) Untitled-8 6/17/04, 12:03 PM 78 [52.90.142.26] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 12:53 GMT) campaigning, routine, and closing out • 79 CAMPAIGNING WHILE GOVERNING mr. kalb: It is our responsibility to talk about something that never gets into the White House—politics. We will discuss the whole idea of reelection and the closing of an administration and whether we think about politics Wrst and foremost, whether we think about legacy, or whether we think about how you actually run a government. So, in the issue of reelection and closing out an administration, I heard from Sam Skinner and...