America's Second Civil War: Dispatches From the Political Center by Stanley A. Renshon

Author:Stanley A. Renshon [Renshon, Stanley A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Leadership, History & Theory, Social Science, Political Science, Political Process, American Government, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9780765800879
Google: acdNnwEACAAJ
Goodreads: 6009695
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2001-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

A Man of Few Words, But What Does That Mean?

Mike Allen (2001: A8) of the Washington Post asks of Bush, is he “Deft or Just Lacking Depth?” Why lacking depth? Because Mr. Bush repeated the word “routine” three times to describe the air strikes against Iraq,” and because, “throughout his first month in office, the president’s remarks on substantive issues have been consistent, but in every case brief, leading policy analysts and congressional leaders to question whether the pattern is more indicative of an exceptionally disciplined politician, or one with a shallow grasp of the issues at hand.” Leaving aside momentarily just who the unnamed policy analysts and congressional leaders are (Clinton appointees, the Democratic leadership?), the question raised in the article seems to turn on whether Mr. Bush is disciplined or shallow.

Had Allen been alert he might have come across an article by a colleague of his (Von Drehle 1999: A1) which said this of Mr. Bush’s campaigns for the Texas governorship, and his behavior once in there:

Bush likes to run on a very simple platform. In Texas in 1994, he repeated the same four ideas in every speech he gave, in every answer to every question. When he gave his first address to the legislature, he gave them the same four points. Then, for those who might be bored by the repetition, he offered a fifth program: “Pass the first four.”

It is possible, of course, that Mr. Bush is both focused and shallow. Yet, this idea is never raised by the reporter, or his sources. Contained therein are also other assumptions, namely that a brief answer cannot possibly reflect an adequate, even good, appreciation of the problems at hand and that long answers are synonymous with good policy solutions. Of course, this is a glaring nonsequitur. Long answers and elaborate explications are not necessarily better, and may even be worse than a short, crisp insight into a problem which is summarized with crisp clearly communicated understanding.

Dana Milbank (1999: 18) argued that Mr. Bush’s silence was not a reflection of his being dumb—Milbank thought Bush “smart and savvy.” Rather he thought it stemmed from the cautious strategy of a front-runner. Clarence Paige (1999) of the Chicago Tribune agreed:

I have a theory. I don’t think Dubya is dumb as he sounds. For one thing, I don’ think Texans are that dumb. You can’t be the governor of one of the nation’s biggest states without somebody noticing whether you’re a few bricks shy of a load. Most likely, I suspect he has dumbed himself down. Front-runners typically avoid saying anything that could get them into trouble, which means they avoid saying much of anything original. They stick to their stump speech. They stick their chins up, throw out a few cheery bromides, crack a few one-liners and smile a lot. In sports, this ploy is called “freezing the ball.” In politics, it is called “staying on message.”

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