Years ago when I was editor of my college newspaper, a candidate for student-body president asked if I would run his campaign profile upside down. I had planned to run a full page of short profiles, highlighting what each candidate wanted to do if elected, and he was worried that his would get lost in the crowd.
In the end, he couldn't understand why I rejected his request, and he ended up losing. At the time, I thought he was nuts. Now I think he was a pretty savvy, modern politician.I thought about this recently when former Tennessee governor and U.S. education secretary Lamar Alexander announced he is officially running for president again.
Alexander has the distinction of being the only 2000 presidential candidate to come by our editorial offices (Orrin Hatch doesn't count because he hasn't announced yet). He came in one afternoon with his down-home drawl and a copy of his book of practical wisdom.
He paused by a framed replica of the Deseret News front page that announced the death of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and then took several minutes to tell me how he sat in Ford's Theater once with President George Bush (this time, the Secret Service did its job).
It was a nice visit, but, really, the more I read about the guy, the less special I feel. Alexander, it seems, has decided the best way to win the White House is by personally meeting every voter in the United States. If you haven't heard from him yet, hang tight. He's liable to come knocking on your door any minute.
To me that's sort of, well, refreshing. This is not meant as an endorsement of the guy, but it is meant as an endorsement of his old-fashioned campaigning technique. Alexander won't win in 2000. Not a chance. Whoever does win the Republican nomination probably will do so with the help of highly paid image enhancers, clever sound bites and catchy phrases that resonate with our fears, stereotypes or simplistic notions of the world.
Whose fault is that? I fear Americans have no one to blame but themselves. How many of us want substance? How many want to really study the issues and spend time objectively pondering the competing philosophies of candidates? The answer, unfortunately, lies in the dismal voter turnout percentages.
A nation that values celebrity over intellect and morals ends up with politicians who have all the substance of puffed wheat.
In a way, Alexander seems to be stumbling around in a daze, like a 19th century resident who accidentally wandered through a wrinkle in the space-time continuum. He would have been more comfortable during the age when William McKinley won the Republican nomination and then retired to the front porch of his home in Ohio to let his philosophies and his supporters speak for him.
In an age like that, Alexander's barnstorming tour of the nation would have turned some heads. Today, all the heads are locked on television screens, and he has yet to find a way to get the attention of the cameras.
Alexander tried to distinguish himself in 1996 by wearing red plaid shirts everywhere. Like the candidate who wanted his newspaper profile printed upside down, this was an attempt to make him stand out in the crowd. It failed miserably. The shirts kept getting in the way of his message.
But when the '96 election was through, Alexander kept on campaigning. He has never stopped. A year ago, he took on the so-called marriage penalty in the tax code. It was an attempt to tie himself to what should have been a populist notion, even though Alexander himself was a little shaky on the particulars. Again, the public yawned, if they noticed at all.
For a guy who won the governor's office in 1978 by walking across Tennessee, this must be frustrating, but Alexander just won't quit.
When he announced his candidacy last month, he sounded almost apologetic, saying no Republican president since Eisenhower had won the nomination on his first try. The Boston Globe quoted him as saying, "I'm a little amused that I get the reputation of working so hard to do this, when so far as I can tell, it's the only way that anyone who has wanted to be president has ever done it."
Too bad for him, this is an age where good ideas and the energy to work hard have absolutely nothing to do with getting elected. Until he finds a way to stand upside down amid the sea of candidates, no one is even going to notice he's in the race.
Deseret News editorial page editor Jay Evensen may be reached by e-mail at even@desnews.com