CONGRESSMEN DON'T BECOME PRESIDENT

From a different world, legislators have a hard time adjusting when running for president (Roger Simon, August 4, 2003, Jewish World Review)

Legislators often stumble when they run for president. They come from a different world, and they have a hard time adjusting.

A presidential candidate is far better off putting things simply and starkly, even at the risk of oversimplifying, than to constantly try to explain the shades of gray that exist around any issue.

Legislators live in a grayish world, however, and they try to avoid absolutes. (If you take an absolute position, you might alienate someone whose vote you might someday need.)

Legislators live in a world of compromise and log-rolling, a world of "on the one hand" and "yet, on the other."

This can be fatal in a presidential campaign, however -- especially a primary campaign in which the field is crowded.

In a crowded field, a candidate has to leave voters with a clear impression. Otherwise, voters simply won't remember which one he is.

The other thing that kills legislators, especially in modern campaigns, is that you can inundate the airwaves with ads picking apart their votes. The $2 Trillion appropriations bill that includes a $100k provision for a Lawrence Welk Museum or a study on bovine flatulence becomes fertile territory for your opponents. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 4, 2003 10:58 AM