Bush: a Proven Leader With a Program

It’s decision time for Republicans. Two weeks from now--on March 7--12 states, led by California and New York, will hold presidential primaries. When the political dust clears, we will almost certainly know who the nominees will be in the fall election. On the Democratic side, Vice President Al Gore seems to be pulling away from former Sen. Bill Bradley. But on the Republican side, the race remains tight between Gov. George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain, even after Saturday’s decisive Bush victory in South Carolina.

The media pay a lot of attention to how much money the candidates raise, to the political squabbles of the debates and to the latest polling results. But they don’t tell us nearly enough about the candidate’s policies. And policy is what elections are all about. One of the best kept secrets in America is that candidates, if elected, try mightily to do what they say they will do.

The policies they propose often depend heavily on help from their advisors. Anyone who runs for president is confronted with a daunting task. There are literally hundreds of major policy issues, each one fiendishly complicated, crying out for solutions. It takes extraordinary intelligence and skill and lots of sound advice to navigate the treacherous waters of the American presidency.

The differences between Bush and McCain in policy and advisors are significant.

In early 1998, Bush accelerated his preparations to run for the presidency. He had governed Texas, our second-largest state, for almost four years. He had dealt with dozens of major issues, he knew in principle what should be done on all the major foreign and domestic policy matters facing the nation. But he needed more. So beginning in the summer of 1998, Bush began to consult systematically with leading policy experts. Those consultations, which took place in Texas, continued through late 1999, when he began to campaign actively.

Dozens of times, on issues ranging from missile defense to the environment, he and his staff invited policy experts to meet with him in Texas. Each meeting involved eight to 10 highly regarded experts. They usually flew down the night before and went to the governor’s mansion early the next morning. The policy discussions began at breakfast, then moved to the ornate front room overlooking the lawn, then back to the dining room for lunch and then finished in the front room in the late afternoon.

The governor ran each meeting himself. He never left, never took a phone call, just intensely drummed questions into some of the finest minds from universities and think tanks, from all parts of the country. Bush did not ask what his policy goals should be. That he knew. He asked what they thought was the best way to get done what he wanted to do as president. What kind of a tax cut is best for economic growth? What is the best way to ensure that retired people get their Social Security benefits? Why do we reduce Social Security benefits when retirees earn some extra money? What is the best way to counter the nuclear missile threat? How can the federal government improve education without threatening federal control?

When Bush was through, he had met with hundreds of the top policy people and had refined his ideas of what could be done on the major issues facing us. He established dozens of task forces.

Largely unnoticed, Bush put together the finest policy operation for a presidential campaign since the days of Kennedy and Reagan. Let me just name a few of the people involved--George Shultz, former secretary of state; Condoleezza Rice, former national security advisor; Lawrence B. Lindsey, former Federal Reserve governor; Stephen Goldsmith, former mayor of Indianapolis; Michael J. Boskin and Martin Feldstein, both former chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisors, and John Taylor, a former member of the council; Edwin Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation; Chris de Muth, president of the American Enterprise Institute; and from the Defense Department, former Secretary Richard B. Cheney, former Assistant Secretary Richard N. Perle and former Undersecretary Paul Wolfowitz.

Bush is knowledgeable and fully prepared to lead the nation.

The situation is not quite the same for McCain. He has no executive political experience. In Congress for 17 years, he relies heavily on his small staff and a handful of outside advisors, many with little government experience. He has skillful campaign operatives--his campaign manager was the deputy campaign manager for Bob Dole in 1996, and his chief strategist did media work for Dole. But his policy bench is virtually nonexistent.

Yes, McCain was a hero of the Vietnam War, shot down by enemy fire, captured and tortured so badly in prison camp that he signed a confession. But being shot down and treated savagely is not and never should be a primary qualification to be president.