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Jewish World Review May 23, 2000 / 18 Iyar, 5760
Chris Matthews
A U.S. senator once offered a variation of that theme. "The only reason to be in politics," he said in the euphoria of his final victory night and a couple of dry martinis "is to be out there all alone and be proven right."
The subject is leadership. It's the quality owned by the few to recruit many into battle.
FDR had it. Just knowing he was our president made victory in World War II assured. "Don't talk to me about the war," he chided a young ensign shipping out in the spring of '45. "Tell me about your plans when we've won!"
JFK had it. As politician and president he never gave up his vibrant feel for command. With Mississippi burning in June of 1963, he was still the South Pacific skipper dictating orders to his gung-ho crewmen. Four decades later, old men still wear those PT 109 tie clips as badges in his service.
This summer and fall we all take up the quest anew. Who will lead this great, freshly blessed country into the unknown new century?
The outward evidence can deceive as much as tell. Colin Powell has the carriage of a general, but so did Westmoreland. Carter could calibrate the great conflicts of energy, terror and national malaise but not lead others to confront them.
Besides, as Lincoln observed in picking his generals, some people just don't have the luck to lead.
A New York Times poll out last week gives Governor George W. Bush a 10-point lead over Vice President Gore when voters are asked which of the two has "strong qualities of leadership."
The judgment rests on a fresh but vital foundation. While both men won their intramural skirmishes handily, Bush won the tougher fight (with the estimable John McCain) with fewer casualties.
Gore survived an easier contest, but his reputation shrunk. He didn't tell us he would be a stronger president than his Democratic rival, just that he would be more careful. Bradley, he warned us, would harm the beneficiaries of government by mistakes in his Medicaid math.
In the aftermath, Gore can take pride in winning the electoral equivalent of a national tattletale contest. Rather than match Bradley's bold if flawed plan to save the entitlement programs that benefit low-income people, Gore scrounged through them in a desperate hunt for glitches.
Everyone suspects Gore will bring the same class of combat to the summer and autumn fight with Bush. He will study the Texan's proposals on Social Security, his positions on abortion rights, guns and taxes and, using his earnest research, design his assault. Rather than lead, he will spend June, July, August, September, October and the early days of November warning us, each according to our particular concerns, not to follow Bush.
It's a sound strategy, based on that most reliable truism of voter behavior: self-interest.
If it fails, it's because we hopelessly romantic Americans prefer an unproven leader to a stop sign posing as a presidential
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