These could just be thoughts of an insomniac, and we’re of course at the height of the Republican Convention, which puts the Republicans in the best light possible. Perhaps I’ll regret writing this in the morning. But anyway, here’s what’s going through my brain.
Eight years ago, when Clinton was running for re-election, I couldn’t understand how anyone in their right mind could think that Bob Dole would make a good president. I silently made fun of all the Dole supporters. Bob Dole as president? Are you kidding me?
This time, though, the shoe’s on the other foot, and I’m finding myself making fun of… myself. I’ll never bring myself to vote for Bush, but I don’t see how Kerry, an unappealing guy who can’t even get his own campaign together, could possibly make a good president, even if he wins. In at least the last five presidential elections, the guy with the better campaign was the guy who won the election. (This applies even to the screwy 2000 election; the Republicans were damn effective in disenfranchising at least a few hundred voters in Florida, if not more, and they certainly won the post-election public relations battle there.)
On the other hand, maybe it’s not about Kerry being a good president, as much as it’s about me wanting to kick out of office an incumbent president for whom I have a visceral, nearly-overpowering dislike.
Now I think I know how the Dole supporters felt.
My only thought is that maybe the skills necessary to be a good campaigner aren’t necessarily those required to be a good president. Reagan and Clinton were both great campaigners, and (from the point of view of their parties’ goals), they were effective presidents. Bush pere et fils, on the other hand, have also proven to be good campaigners (except for GHWB during the last months of ’92) but from many Republicans’ and all Democrats’ points of view, mediocre presidents. Dole was a lousy campaigner, but I don’t think, from what the Republicans hoped to achieve in the late ’90s, he would have been as bad. Same with Kerry: a drab administrator, perhaps, but competent, if the voters give him the chance. We could use a period where we don’t have to worry about the president.