US President George W. Bush broke two records in the recent campaign for the midterm elections. He raised US$140 million in campaign funds for the Republican Party and flew on Air Force One to 17 cities in 15 states during the last five days of the campaign to stump for his party's candidates.
The reason why Bush spared no effort to solicit support is simple. The midterm elections not only represented a vote of confidence in his achievements, but also had a close bearing on his political future. If the Democrats had taken control of the US Congress, Bush would have had to serve the last two years of his term as a lame duck. His prospects of re-election in 2004 would also have been hurt.
In the face of such important elections, Bush played the roles of both president and campaigner without confusion from start to finish. Despite his unceasing campaign efforts, Bush always behaved like a president in both his words and actions and never forgot his status as the nation's leader.
No US president for the past 60 years, for example, had ever set foot in Aberdeen, South Dakota, but Bush chose this tiny town as the first stop on his campaign trip. Why? Because Aberdeen is the stronghold of his No. 1 foe, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. In a bid to tame Daschle's hubris, Bush not only personally picked John Thune to challenge the Democratic incumbent Tim Johnson, but also went to South Dakota five times to stump for Thune. The US media described the state election as a proxy war between Bush and Daschle.
Although Bush dislikes Daschle, he never used abusive language against his rival when he stumped for Thune. At most he made remarks to the effect that, "The Senate performed very poorly in legislation," "The Senate needs fresh air," or "Thune is a partner I can work with."
Bush stuck consistently to a particular campaign style -- lauding his party's candidates, but never singled out Democratic rivals for criticism, much less dressing them down. He did not curse Daschle in South Dakota, he did not condemn the contender of his brother Jeb Bush in Florida, nor did he rail against Walter Mondale, who is elderly but wanted to revive his career. Bush never said anything abusive in the numerous campaign rallies he took part in.
In US election culture, the president stumps for candidates in order to warm up the atmosphere, which does not necessarily require harsh words. If a president curses or uses harsher language than the candidates themselves, then he appears unpresidential, as evidenced most recently by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) as he campaigned for the DPP's Taipei mayoral candidate, Lee Ying-yuan (李應元).
Election culture does not equal general political culture. But there are obviously problems with both if the nation's leader appears as president in the morning, only to appear as the antithesis of the president at a campaign rally in the evening. If Chen can learn from Bush to become a president-campaigner, it is likely that the two problematic cultures will quickly become problem-free.
Wang Chien-chuang is president of The Journalist magazine.
Translated by Jackie Lin
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