The Jim Johnson-led search for a suitable running mate for Barack Obama has narrowed the potential list to three categories. According to Time Magazine, Obama's personal Team Fannie Mae is focusing on "current top elected officials, former top elected officials, and former top military leaders."
Johnson and Obama obviously don't get any extra credit for considering current or former top elected officials. I've never led a major financial institution into a multi-billion debacle, yet even I could have figured those ones out.
But Obama and Johnson do get demerits for considering former top military leaders. I understand that Team Obama feels it may have to go to extraordinary lengths to shed the egghead thing and look ready to rumble on the global stage before the general election, but a general election campaign is no place for political rookies.
Don't agree with me? Then allow me to retort. James Stockdale.
James Stockdale was one of the most admirable Americans of the 20th century. He wasn't just any old retired military leader - he was a Medal of Honor recipient. His conduct as a prisoner of war in Vietnam was inspiring and brilliant. From his Wikipedia profile:
He was held as a prisoner of war in the Hoa Lo prison for the seven years. Locked in leg irons in a bath stall, he was routinely tortured and beaten. When told by his captors that he was to be paraded in public, Stockdale slit his scalp with a razor to purposely disfigure himself so that his captors could not use him as propaganda. When they covered his head with a hat, Stockdale beat himself with a stool until his face was swollen beyond recognition. He told them in no uncertain terms that they would never use him…
When asked who didn't make it out, Stockdale replied:
"Oh, that's easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart."[3]
In a book by James C. Collins called Good To Great, Collins relates how Stockdale described his coping strategy during his period in the Vietnamese POW camp.[1]
"I never lost faith in the end of the story, I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade."
Witnessing this philosophy of duality, James Collins described it as the Stockdale Paradox: "You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end - which you can never afford to lose - with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."
Sounds like the kind of guy who would have had the right stuff to be president, right? Unquestionably. And yet he was a poor politician and he became the least deserving American pop-culture punch line of the 20th century. (One wonders whether those who made fun of such a man so mercilessly ever felt a measure of shame for doing so.)
Being a good politician requires a certain set of skills. Actually, "skills" isn't the right word - make it "characteristics." You've got to be good at looking good while talking about inanities. You have to be willing to say the same thing a thousand times. Before lunch. You have to tolerate fools gladly.
Retired military officers, along with the rest of the population of normal people, don't have much experience at these things. I would further argue that the latter requirement of happily tolerating fools likely ran afoul of their previous profession's needs. A general who happily tolerated foolishness probably wasn't doing his job very well.
That doesn't mean a retired military officer won't turn out to have such a talent available to him when it's needed. David Petraeus, for instance, has shown a wonderful facility for tolerating foolishness during his many appearances before congress. Still, if the Obama team tabs a political amateur to enter the biggest of big leagues, it's taking a mighty big chance, not the kind of chance that a front-running campaign should willingly incur.
Of course, that leaves Wes Clark who briefly played in the majors and led the league in strikeouts. It also leaves Jim Webb, who many Democrats are talking themselves into believing is a terrific politician. Personally, I admire Jim Webb and I'm happy a guy of his intellect and character is in the senate, even if I don't agree with most of his politics. But I don't think barely defeating George Allen, who ran the most hideous political campaign of the 21st century, suggests Webb is a big political talent. Those who think Webb ran a brilliant campaign that led to his victory have very short memories.
Unless John McCain promises to say "Macaca" a lot, Webb ain't the guy, either.
