Judgment, Character and Ambition:
David Gergen on Leadership in the 2008 Presidential Race
Published: June 25, 2008:
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2001
According to David Gergen,
the man elected president of the United Statesin November will face the most
daunting foreign and domestic challenges since
Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s. Gergen, who has been an advisor to four
U.S. presidents and who currently directs the Center for Public Leadership at
Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, equated the presidency to
"feeling a little like Gulliver in Lilliput.... Giant accomplishments are
expected" even as presidential powers are not always what they seem.
Gergen discussed today's presidential candidates, as well as former presidents,
at the recent Wharton Leadership Conference.
David Gergen, an advisor to four U.S.
presidents and currently director of the Center for Public Leadership at
Harvard's
John F. Kennedy School of Government, doesn't care as much about who wins the
U.S. presidential election in November as much as he does about whether
"the winner can be an effective leader."
The nominees, Republican Sen. John McCain
and Democrat Sen. Barack Obama, each has strengths that he finds encouraging,
and both have weaknesses that worry him, Gergen told his audience at the 12th
annual Wharton
Leadership Conference, sponsored by the Center for Leadership and Change
Management, and the Center for Human Resources. For this election in
particular, Gergen said, the winner must handle some of the roughest terrain --
foreign and domestic -- since Franklin D. Roosevelt in the early 1930s.
"In my judgment, the challenges facing
the next president will be the most daunting facing any president of our
lifetime. There have been immense problems building up for a long time and
crying out for solutions, and time is not on our side," Gergen said,
adding that "context is important" when considering the leadership
traits that we as a nation "ask of our presidents. You have to distinguish
between the timeless qualities of leadership and the ones that are unique to
the time."
Gergen cited the example of Winston
Churchill, who as British Prime Minister in 1939 was considered at the end of
his political career. Yet by May of 1940, with the Nazis in France and British
subjects expecting the German Luftwaffe to appear in the skies at any moment,
the
context of the prime minister's leadership had changed profoundly. In the June
23, 2008issue of Newsweek, Churchill was featured
on the cover, with signature fedora, bow tie and cigar, against the backdrop of
an American flag. The headline: "What Would Winston Do?" introduced
an article that examined, among other things, the idea of appeasement, a term
most recently used by Republicans in describing Obama's stated willingness to
talk without preconditions to America's opponents.
"You feel a little like Gulliver in
Lilliput," Gergen said of the presidency. "Giant accomplishments are
expected" although the reality is that presidents have less official power
than they need. U.S.presidents cannot issue edicts from on
high, although it may sometimes appear they have done just that. "There
are all kinds of buttons you push," Gergen added, but they somehow lead
nowhere except out of the White House, into parts and offices unknown.
His observations on presidential power
aside, "This is one of the most exciting campaigns in memory, one that has
already reflected well on the country," Gergen said, adding that he finds
it striking how many people, in his travels abroad, approach him
enthusiastically about the 2008 election. "This race has reminded [us] what's
best about this country. [We have a] diverse, dynamic, hard-to-understand,
complex society. It's that very complexity that presents challenges to any
presidential candidate."
Be Tough, Lead Tough
Gergen, advisor to presidents Richard M.
Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, thinks that a President
Obama or a President McCain must possess and wield two essential
characteristics: toughness and a consensus-building ability.
"Transparency, accountability -- all that and more are part of the 21st
century menu" for a president, but a certain "inner steel" might
often be urgently called upon, Gergen stated. "Part of it comes out of
confidence, but another part comes out of, 'Don't mess with us.' This is a
world in which we need to work with more countries," and unlike clearly
delineated Cold War alliances, there are nations "that will lunge in the
dark ... unless they know they will pay a price for it.... I'm not sure if
Obama has this yet."
Gergen noted that another youthful
president, John F. Kennedy, met Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna,
Austriafor two days in June 1961. One result of
the meeting, which Khrushchev dominated, was the eventual arrival of nuclear
missiles in Cuba; later that summer Khrushchev authorized
the construction of the Berlin Wall. Kennedy, however, proved his mettle during
the 13 days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Gergen added, when, in the famous
words of Secretary of State Dean Rusk, "the other fellow just
blinked."
In Gergen's opinion, McCain has proven that
he's tough enough, in the age of terrorism, to make adversaries blink -- but
perhaps too tough, given his recent indications of how he might handle Iran.
The eagle on the presidential seal holds
13 arrows in one set of talons and an olive branch with 13 leaves in the other.
The balance is important, Gergen said, expressing concern that the United
States' rendering of the rule of law is no longer
considered unimpeachable around the world.
RedStates, BlueStates; Gray Nations
"We desperately need a consensus
builder. On that issue, Obama has enormous capacity and potential. On that
issue, I worry about McCain," Gergen said.
Toughness must be coupled with "the
capacity to build coalitions, not just here, but internationally," he
continued. "The rise of Asiais extraordinarily important." Working
with Chinaand Indiaon climate change is one example, to say
nothing of trade. Unrest in the Muslim world, AIDS, disease and poverty are
American concerns, too. Vision and good judgment for the U.S.is no longer
enough for our next president
-- he must share it, as well as seek it out, around the world, according to
Gergen.
McCain or Obama must develop strong
cross-cultural capacities and international perspectives, Gergen said, because
this new century is making new demands on leaders. But certain leadership
traits are timeless. He noted that historians have a habit of naming these
traits in threes, and he is no different. For Gergen, they come down to
judgment, character and ambition, and examples of each can be seen in Nixon,
Clinton
and President George W. Bush.
Gergen, a graduate of YaleUniversityand HarvardLawSchool, spent a year and a
half in the Navy before
joining the Nixon White House as a speechwriter. In the 1980s, he worked for
presidents Gerald R. Ford and Ronald Reagan (and later Clinton), then became
editor of U.S. News & World
Report before joining the KennedySchoolin 1999. He has published a best-selling
book titled, Eyewitness to Power:
The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.
"This was a learning experience for
me," he said, touching on his transition from the U.S. Navy to life in
Washingtonas a Nixon speechwriter. "I grew up in
an academic family. I always thought intelligence and judgment were the best
qualities. Boy, did I discover that was wrong."
With Nixon, he learned that judgment cuts
both ways, and on a national scale, it becomes a mighty sword. "He was, in
many ways, one of the brightest working politicians of the 20th century, a true
strategist," Gergen said of Nixon. He could intuitively understand how the
forces of history would work out over given periods of time. "He was one
of the first to appreciate the fact that China and Russia were joined at the
hip," but that if you could "sever the Siamese twins," in effect
you would have a divide and conquer strategy, because the Soviets could not
sustain themselves and China's entrepreneurial spirit was becoming too evident.
Nixon's trip to China, widely considered his foreign policy
apogee, was to facilitate that divorce from Russia, Gergen said. Nixon and his
advisers were
"curious about the other [people's] views -- if you could figure that out,
you could work out a bargain. He thought in those terms." In the Middle Eastof
today, he said Nixon would probably work
to play Iranand Syriaoff one another.
"If that were all there was to Nixon,
he would have been a great president, but there were demons within him he could
not control," Gergen said, citing Nixon's "very, very dark
side." The man was genuinely "paranoid," and had an "eat or
be eaten" mindset. As for Watergate, Gergen could not say if the decision
to break into Democratic headquarters was directly Nixon's, but that it didn't
really matter. "I can guarantee you that the people who broke into
Watergate thought that's what he wanted. Leaders send out cues.... The
challenge is self-understanding and self-control, so as not to let your dark
side derail you."
Character, another of the three timeless
qualities, is what derailed Bill Clinton, according to Gergen. Clinton"had the
most subtle mind of anybody
I've ever known," Gergen said, clarifying Clinton's intellect as "capacious" and
capable of "synthesizing" on two or three different fronts at once.
He could carry on a conversation with the most articulate intellectuals on his
staff or in his cabinet while doing the New
York Times crossword puzzle.
"He exercised 360-degree
leadership," understanding the perspectives of not just his supporters,
but also those with views antithetical to his, Gergen added. Constituencies who
previously did not have a seat at the table -- Hispanics, blacks, women -- felt
that they did with Clinton. "At home and overseas, he didn't just
talk to the powerful people. Many of his good decisions came out of that
place." Gergen didn't comment on Clinton's impeachment, but did note that "what
he lacked so often was a true north. He lacked a moral compass."
Gergen's take on the importance of Nixon's
curiosity about Chinawas prelude to a criticism of the current
president. As for George W. Bush, he said, "I just assumed that by the
time you come to office, you've got a lot of curiosity. Now we have a president
who has, in fact, had his walk on the wild side -- some would say it was an
extended tour. What I had not fully comprehended was how uncurious he
was." Only if you're curious can you act on your hunches about what is
really important, Gergen said, and then only sparingly. "If you rely on
hunches, especially ill-informed hunches, you can get into a lot of
trouble."
Leadership and ambition
The third leg of his triad of timeless
qualities imperative for a president, ambition, is not well understood and
often makes people uncomfortable, Gergen said. "I say that fully
understanding that excessive ambition can very easily derail leaders." It
is where the ambition is aimed, he suggested, that makes the difference.
"Great leaders become ambitious for others." They seek
"achievement of goals beyond the self. You need someone who has a vision
for what Americacan be."
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
