I was having dinner with a member of Congress last week, when the conversation turned to campaigning. He reminded me of one of the most fundamental rules of running for political office – before you can govern, you have to win. The country is littered with thousands of men and women who would have been excellent legislators and executives who never got the chance because they lost.
I responded that while that was true, you’ve got to be very careful that the way you win doesn’t make it much more difficult – if not impossible – for you to govern.
There are plenty of examples of that, and a few that are on-going right now.
From the Democratic side, a good example is President Obama’s “ban” on lobbyists in his administration. I put “ban” in quotation marks because the prohibition has been waived a few times for very senior officials. But overall, if you’ve been a lobbyist, don’t expect to be in the Obama Administration. Why ban lobbyists? Politically, it’s easy to blame all the pork and wasteful spending on the legions of evil lobbyists like me, lavishing rhetorical excess after rhetorical excess about how we’re destroying democracy. It’s a winning card, and that’s why it’s played so often. But the result has been that President Obama has had a difficult time finding qualified people for the thousands of senior and mid-level political appointments. The result has been one of the most incompetent Administrations in modern times.
From the Republican side, a good example is the House Republicans earmark ban. This one is more solid, and even things that aren’t traditionally considered to be earmarks have gotten swept up in the hysteria. Why ban earmarks? Politically, it’s easy to blame runaway government spending on earmarks, and the public’s inability to differentiate between good earmarks (replacing the Saint Anthony bridge that collapsed in Minnesota in an astounding 437 days) and bad earmarks (federal funding for Harry Reid’s cowboy poetry gathering) doesn’t help matters. The result has been an inability for Speaker Boehner to get major pieces of legislation through because he doesn’t have any leverage to use on recalcitrant members. The good old days of threatening someone’s highway funding or offering to accept an earmark on a bill to secure support are long gone. Throw in the fact that instead of Congress appropriating funds for projects – something they’re Constitutionally obligated and authorized to do – their earmark ban has effectively ceded their authority to the executive branch. Instead of an elected official who has to defend his earmarks every two years, the decision on where money goes is now made by a faceless bureaucrat in Washington who has little accountability to the public.
And right now, we’re seeing a perfect example of the desire to win leading to demagoguery that will make it difficult to govern. Namely, the hype over gas prices in the Republican presidential primary.
Yes, gas prices are spiking again. And people are mad. And each presidential candidate is laying the blame at the President’s feet. All of them are touting their energy proposals, and Newt Gingrich is even promising $2.50 gas if he’s elected. While it’s easy and politically expedient to use the gas price issue to whack the president, it’s also double-edged sword.
Regardless of what Newt and the others may say, there is no silver bullet that will immediately reduce gas prices. The President’s ability to impact gas prices positively is very, very limited. Releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is one of the few things he can do in the short term to lower prices. Regulatory changes require months of notice and comment, and most of the other policy changes require Congressional action. And yes, the President does have the bully pulpit, but his ability to influence the market through speeches is hit or miss. The President has been giving speech after speech on gas prices and energy issues and the market isn’t moving.
A candidate treads on very dangerous territory when he uses gas prices to win elections. Yes, you may win, but you’ll open yourself up to brutal attacks when you can’t deliver or when prices are even worse when you’re in office. And you won’t be able to do much more than your predecessor did.
As the old saying goes, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time, and no elected official wants to only win once. That’s what happens when you sacrifice your ability to govern in order to win.
It’s time for our candidates to get real and be honest in their criticism.
