Presidential Timbre: The Democrats

What kind of president would Hillary Clinton be? Or Rudy Giuliani? I'll offer some speculations today based on such things as their personalities, records and campaign themes. I'll start with the Democrats today beginning with the Big Three in alphabetical order, then the longshots.

The Big Three:

Hillary Clinton is a pragmatist and a tough customer. If she is elected she will make history as the first woman president. Her very public life in the line of fire over many years has given her a hard shell that masks a warm personality now rarely seen outside intimate settings. Like most of the candidates she is extremely intelligent and well informed. She is a strong-willed woman, and self-disciplined nearly in proportion to the extent that her husband is not. She does her homework, has a large, capable, dedicated staff, and has detailed policy plans on a host of points. She would be competent in the office. She is not the radical her political opponents have painted her as. Her instincts are those of a moderate liberal, and she has worked across the aisle with the Republicans often in the Senate. She would be smart and tough in foreign affairs, as progressive domestically as the budget and congress would allow, and always keep one calculating eye on the next election. She will make deals for half a loaf when necessary or expedient. The antipathy with which the Republicans and her other opponents view her would make her presidency combative; there would indeed be a good measure of polarization.

John Edwards is charming, handsome, glib and smart. The sunny progressive of 2004 has become much more of an irate populist in 2008. He won his spurs in lawsuits targeting corporate negligence and liability over many years, and established a phenomenal success record. All the Democratic candidates are running against moneyed influence in Washington, but Edwards does so with a sense of urgency and passion that indicates he really means it. Though his Senate record is fairly conventional, his attorney past and campaign present say that as president he would pursue liberal reform with a vengeance. Campaigning for president virtually nonstop for the past five years, Edwards knows his stuff and positions on every issue. He'd push hard for the liberal agenda on health care, trade, education, Iraq and the like. If he were to get a receptive congress the times would for sure be a-changin'. If not he would face a mountain of bitter resistance from the institutions that like things as they are.

Barack Obama is a phenomenon, a combination of brains and charisma. If he is elected he will make history as the first president of African descent (his father was from Kenya.) Obama is a big-picture guy. His issue positions are very liberal but not as fleshed out in detail as his two major rivals. He has experience and a talent for organization, as shown in his Chicago community work and in his political campaigns, especially the current one. His appeal to a transformative postpartisanship strikes a resonant chord among many wearied by the red and blue wars of recent decades. He has demonstrated an ability to work across the aisle, especially in Springfield, though his accomplishments in Washington are a bit sparse so far. If he were to enter office with a decisive wave of popular support he might be able to overcome inertia and partisan wrangling to an unprecedented extent, but otherwise his visionary approach could founder amid the minutiae and interest politics of the old-fashioned D.C. power game. He will make deals when they further his purposes. His basic approach to foreign affairs makes sense, but given his relative inexperience it would be important for him to assemble a strong team of advisors.

The longshots:

Mike Gravel is a former Alaska senator who is nearly 80 years old, irascible and cantankerous. His politics are very liberal. Gravel is not a serious candidate, and if by some form of voodoo magic or conjunction of the planets he were to become president he would quickly alienate practically everyone in and out of government. His Administration would be a disaster.

Dennis Kucinich is the true liberal purist in the campaign. He stands wholeheartedly for choice, gay rights, withdrawal from Iraq, a single-payer health care plan, reducing the military and militarism, stringent efforts on the environment and alternative power, heavily taxing and diminishing the power of corporations, raising the minimum wage substantially, and so on down the line. He has introduced articles of impeachment in the House against Dick Cheney. He is pretty close to a pacifist unless the United States is directly attacked. Kucinich seems not to care about political games and always stands firmly for his principles, beginning with his record as the "boy mayor of Cleveland" at the age of 31 nearly thirty years ago. Kucinich is smart and knows the issues. He is also so inflexibly to the far left and lacking charisma that most Democratic voters sense his unelectability and very few have rallied to his cause, though many no doubt sympathize in their hearts with most of his views. Were he miraculously to get elected president he would get very little past the senate unless the Democrats held 60 or more seats and could overcome repeated Republican filibusters. He probably couldn't hold all the Democrats together, for that matter.

Bill Richardson has the best resume of anyone running for president in either party. If he is elected he will make history as the first Mexican-American president. He has served in local government, private business, congress, as Secretary of Energy, Ambassador to the United Nations and Governor of New Mexico. This combination of local, state and national government, the private sector, and federal executive and diplomatic leadership reads like a primer on how to train someone to be president. As might be expected he is knowledgeable about a wide range of topics and has had considerable success in getting his ideas adopted across party lines. He was re-elected governor with 69% of the vote, including a remarkable 40% of Republicans. Politically, Richardson is moderate to moderately liberal. He is smart and affable with a sense of humor, and known as something of a bon vivant. Despite his resume credentials Richardson's campaign has made little headway against the star power of the Big Three. He might well be on their short lists for Vice President.