What’s The Ideal Presidential Campaign?
As we look back on the 2016 presidential campaign, one of the things many of us will be thinking about for a long time is the content of this campaign. A few days ago on the podcast, Jody, Farai and Harry noted that they’d like to see presidential campaigns emphasize issues rather than personality. This fascinating piece at Slate argues that the campaign was, in fact, about important issues.
I’d like to make the case for focusing on the candidates — not in a way that’s specific to 2016, but just in terms of looking at what’s unique about picking a president. Party labels will tell us about where the candidates stand on the issues. Clues about how they will make decisions can be relatively rare, but they’re really important. From unexpected crises to the individuals they appoint to key policy positions, presidential decision-making is incredibly influential. But decision-making qualities can be hard for voters to determine, even for experienced candidates. This just might be an argument for why the input of party elites is useful at the nomination stage.