Vilsack: Dissecting What Went Wrong
David Yepsen had a great column this morning in the Register about what went wrong with Vilsack's ill-fated presidential run. I have a few observations to add.
First of all, Vilsack has a blindly loyal staff that has always insulated him from reality. All of us who have "drunk the Koolaid" before, and you know who you are, know what I mean. Throughout his governorship, they have been incredible advisors, but have shielded him from political reality. They did the same thing this time, by supporting his presidential run. If a few of them would have said "no" and went to work for someone else, maybe Vilsack would have got the message.
Another BIG mistake was announcing so early. It gave him a two-day media bounce but not much else.
Inexplicably, he also opened seven offices in Iowa. That was just stupid. Not only do you have a staff in each office, but you have overhead in the form of phones, rent, etc. He shouldn't have done that until he had a strong network of supporters in place. One of my jobs when I worked for Gore was getting those satellite offices up and running, and it takes a lot of money and time. Gore wasn't doing that until just months before the caucus, and only after he had literally thousands of supporters solidly in place.
And this is the harshest reality of all. He did not have the rank and file supporters he needed. If he had a solid grassroots movement going, it wouldn't have mattered that he didn't have a lot of money right away. But he didn't even have the support of the Iowa democrats that he spent the last eight years governing.
Why didn't they support him? I have my own theories. But the last year of his governorship, it was clear to me that he left the keys to the shop to all of his department heads and went off to campaign. Most of them were very competent, but on big issues like emminent domain, the Fort Madison prison crisis, Touchplay, the U of Iowa presidential search and the Swift immigration debacle, he came off as "catching up" instead of leading proactively. This, coupled with the other disasterous policies like Steve King's English-only bill, he screwed himself. His base doesn't really trust him.
Nationally, he wasn't that well-known despite his leadership position on the Democratic Leadership Counsel. That is still a "party" position not a "consumer" one. That, coupled with Vilsack's charisma deficit, made him just another policy wonk on parade. There are others who have a similar background that never made it either, such as Bruce Babbitt and Paul Simon. Both were very smart, decent people but lacked that "oomph" that catches the camera and the imagination of the people. Al Gore technically falls into this category, too. Al Gore inspired plenty of people who knew him well, but he still got the "wonk" brand from the press. Too bad, he would have made a terrific president.
Vilsack also had his wife pushing him into the spotlight, and she didn't seem to mind it herself. I think she had a few public moments that gave her a taste of the limelight and she seemed to thrive there. Most presidential spouses are protective of the family life they will be losing, but Christie seemed to be walking in lockstep with Tom right off the cliff.
Sadly, Vilsack did not acknowledge his lack of support in his decision to drop out. I think that is very telling that he's still under the delusional belief that he is the only person with leadership skills and new ideas in the race. That's just untrue.
He used the "I couldn't raise enough money" excuse. It is valid if you are in the exploratory phase. Mark Warner and Evan Bayh both realized it early on and bowed out. They didn't have to worry about people questioning their motives. Vilsack has set himself up for criticism due to his statements on national TV about winning the race. It came off as cocky, not optimistic.
I have no doubt that Vilsack will resurface in a very important national policy posistion. I can see him being alternative energy Czar. He would no doubt tackle the issue with energy and enthusiasm.
Vilsack is a good guy, he just needs to be thoughtful and train his ambition to serve him, instead of leading him into situations where he gets in over his head. Like running for president.
posted by Claire @ 2/24/2007 12:26:00 PM
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