Political analyst David Frum put his finger on this point when he recently talked about the "meteor president".
A presidential candidate may be elected by running on a specific political agenda, Frum noted. But history shows that once in office, a chief executive often winds up dealing with matters no one fully envisioned, in the fashion of a president who has to deal with a meteor that appears out of the blue and threatens the Earth...
Candidates for president and Congress need to be judged, then, not just on their policy ideas by also on their strengths or deficiencies as leaders. The "meteor president" is not a fiction.
In contemporary politics, most people receive most of their news through a media filter of some sort. Reflecting this reality, the first task of a successful campaign is to try and influence that filter, to convince the media to cover the race from a perspective favorable to them. Kleeb doesn't even have a campaign and he's already won that battle.
A word of warning: often these tactics are shortsighted and their successes short-lived. In a world full of consultants, the media tends to jump from one "spin" to another in a desperate search for the truth. But that's not the case right now. That's because the power of this narrative is its truth: Mike Johanns isn't a leader. He never has been, he never will be. We don't need to spin that for the media, Johanns will doubtlessly prove it again and again all on his own. All he needs is a real challenger and a real race.
Scott Kleeb is that challenger, and his entrance will give us that race. To make that a possibility, the least we can do is give him our word: that we'll be there for this campaign, that we'll work with him for this cause. You can start by making your pledge today at DraftKleeb.com. |
