Sunday, February 08, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JOHN BRUMMETT: A race that goes to the swiftest

In case you're wondering why John Kerry and John Edwards are doing better in the Democratic presidential race than Wesley Clark and Howard Dean, I'm going to tell you.

It's because fast runners do better in track meets.

Or, as the legendary political columnist David Broder once wrote, the best politicians, not necessarily the most impressive people, almost always win political races.

And it's because you must have a story -- and by that I mean a biography, not a resume. Yes, there is a difference.

Consider the last few presidential races and forget for the moment what you've heard about their supposedly being decided by some prevailing American public mood. The meat of the matter is that Nixon was a better politician than McGovern; Carter a better politician than Ford; Reagan a better politician than Carter or Mondale; Bush the elder a better politician than Dukakis; Clinton a better politician than Bush the elder or Dole; and Bush the younger a better politician than Gore.

Better politician? By that I mean more likable or at least less threatening (as in Nixon's case, at least in 1972). Better on the stump. Reassuring on the issues. More engaging at a rope line. More easily envisioned in the office sought. Often better-looking, to be candid, and with a couple of glaring exceptions to that rule.

Kerry has a certain Rushmorian visage that some find attractive. His manner, while stiff, conveys command of himself and the situation, a certain gravitas. He doesn't make mistakes. Edwards is widely considered very nearly the second coming of Bill Clinton, good-looking, youthfully vigorous, quick on his feet, charismatic.

Clark is making his first political race after a lifetime in a meritocracy, and it shows. Try as he might, he can't quite make himself natural or put himself at ease in a coffee shop. And he speaks with a four-star general's command that in a political context often comes across as arrogant or brusque.

Dean can be good on the stump; that's how he burst to that big early lead. But he doesn't wear well. He comes to appear angry and mean-spirited, thus not likable -- the political death knell.

As for the difference between a great resume, which hardly matters, and a great story or biography, which is what victory is made of, consider this:

-- Wesley Clark was a National Merit semifinalist who went to West Point and was first in the class and then got a Rhodes Scholarship and wound up decorated for wounds in Vietnam, then commanded the NATO troops during the successful air war in Kosovo. That's a resume, and a mighty fine one.

-- John Kerry was a rich kid who volunteered to go to Vietnam when others of his generation and station didn't, and who got decorated for heroism, and then came home to lead protests of the increasingly unpopular war, then married the heiress of a ketchup empire. Now that's a story, a biography.

-- Howard Dean grew up on upper Manhattan and went to leading prep schools, then Yale, and became a medical doctor, after which he entered politics and served 12 successful years as governor of Vermont. That's a resume, also a good one.

-- John Edwards grew up poor in the South, a millworker's kid, and became the first in his family to go to college, after which he became the most acclaimed trial lawyer in North Carolina and secured massive verdicts for injured clients that made him a millionaire many times over. Now that's a story, a biography.

So, it most likely will be Kerry or Edwards versus Bush the younger, a talented politician with a pretty good story about sobering up at 40 and turning his life around so he could keep his date with destiny to lead America against evil. Look for a close race.

John Brummett, an award-winning columnist and reporter for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock, is author of "High Wire," a book about Bill Clinton's first year as president. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com.