The Manager or the Visionary?

[Ichingcarpenter]

The manager or the visionary. Hillary Clinton's own supporters - the candidate herself, in speech after speech - have cast the fight this way. Stirred emotions and soaring rhetoric are all very well, goes the line. If that is what you want, vote for Barack Obama. But if you care about getting something done, choose experience, technical expertise and a safe pair of hands.

Do not be blinded by passion and excitement. Do not gamble on a dream that way. Rise to the challenge of being dull. "I am Hillary Clinton, and I endorsed this message."

It may not be the most alluring pitch, but it has served well enough so far. Such a boastful lack of sex appeal in a political campaign does command a certain respect. And after two terms of President George W. Bush, Americans would give a lot for humdrum competence. The Democratic electorate is split in half and bracing for weeks and maybe months of further campaigning. Mrs Clinton, on some estimates, is still favourite to win the nomination.

Still, this was an audacious theme for her to adopt. Hillary Clinton, manager extraordinaire? It bears repeating that there is a single point of data to test this claim: her supervision of the healthcare task force set up by her husband during his first term. Opinions differ even now about that exercise - about whether Mrs Clinton was responsible for one of the most celebrated domestic-policy train wrecks in recent American history, a scapegoat for her husband's misjudgments, or the hapless victim of organised special interests. What is undisputed is that the whole affair was an epic of hubris and mismanagement.>>>> snip............think about that Hillary fans...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f6d16e42-d843-11dc-98f7-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

[IADEMO2004]

1. Killing health care was a group effort, 27 plans, 110 names

I think it is worth your time to read the whole paper.


The health care debate of 1993-94 provides an instructive, albeit a somewhat extravagant case through which to ponder these questions. Much space and time were devoted to the issues by newspapers, TV stations and radio talk shows. More than $100 million is said to have been spent on the legislative campaign by the many interest groups concerned with health care reform. Most of this amount was devoted to media efforts to communicate with the public. Innumerable fliers, TV spots, newspaper advertisements, and direct mail appeals were directed to citizens by interest groups on every side of the question. If there was ever a "marketplace of ideas" for public policy, the health care debate was surely a spectacular example.

Yet in the end, this vast effort at persuasion exhibited all of the weaknesses already identified and more besides. The debate was confused throughout by the large number of participating groups in Congress. Instead of simplifying the discussion by developing a single Democratic plan, several committees and even individual Senators and Representatives took it upon themselves to introduce separate reform plans, creating a daunting array of options for the public to follow and understand. By the end of the Congressional debates, 27 different legislative proposals were advanced, which in turn were identified in the media by 110 different names.

http://www.upenn.edu/pnc/ptbok.html