Candidates and character portraits

Steve Ford

For Democrats who have reveled in this year's presidential prospects -- thinking that if ever their trusty yellow dog had a chance, let alone a powerhouse candidate like Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, this would be the time -- they might not have to squirm in suspense much longer.

If Obama does well enough in the North Carolina and Indiana primaries to regain the momentum he has lost of late, that could solidify his status as nomination front-runner and make it too difficult for Clinton to sustain her challenge. There comes a point when to continue such a challenge is seen as selfish and destructive.

Yet if Clinton rings the bell on Tuesday, as she's done elsewhere in recent contests, the fact that she still trailed in convention delegates might fade in significance to those party leaders and insiders who, as superdelegates, have the leverage to make the party's final choice. She would be on such a roll that her winner's aura might make her irresistible.

For whoever emerges with the prize, some wise counsel cropped up Wednesday on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal -- even if neither Clinton nor Obama was the intended recipient.

"When it comes to choosing a president, the American people want to know more about a candidate than policy positions," a Journal contributor wrote. "They want to know about character, the values ingrained in his heart." Or hers.

This was offered on the authority of none other than Karl Rove, who demonstrably knows a thing or two about what works on the trail to the White House. It was Rove who figured out how to package George W. Bush in acceptable fashion -- twice. (Give him a doctorate in campaign strategery.)

Both times, the character, the persona, that Bush projected worked to his advantage. People who judged him appealingly down-to-earth, or resolute, or trustworthy, or simply to be on their general wave length perhaps were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on policy matters.

Actually it's understandable that in selecting their national leader, a chief executive who can inspire, motivate and educate, Americans would lean toward someone they like and respect for his or her personal qualities. We look for someone who is very intelligent but not a know-it-all, brave but not reckless, confident but not arrogant, resourceful but not sneaky.

We want the person to be well-attuned to the necessary balance between responsibility for self and responsibility for others. An affinity for the spiritual never hurts, but don't let it overripen into conspicuous sanctimony. Many voters, it's probably fair to say, find it easier to make these kinds of assessments than to decide which candidate's health-care solution is more promising, or which has the most sensible plan to stop the bleeding in Iraq.

Rove's article was cast as a tribute to the sterling qualities of character to be found in John McCain. And let's face it -- McCain's record of valor as a Vietnam POW is remarkable. The problem as Rove sees it is McCain's reluctance to talk about his wartime ordeal and other situations in which "the values ingrained in his heart" were called into play.

"Private people like Mr. McCain are rare in politics for a reason," Rove says. "Candidates who are uncomfortable sharing their interior lives limit their appeal. But if Mr. McCain is to win the election this fall, he has to open up." Otherwise, "many voters will never know the experiences of his life that show his character, integrity and essential decency."

Well, there it is -- Dr. Rove's formula for a McCain victory. And all McCain had to do to get it was give Rupert Murdoch a buck-fifty. If McCain takes the advice (ignoring the irony of Karl Rove, practitioner of rusty-knife politics, sermonizing about character), then it will be up to either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama to match him.

Of course, if this election comes down to a referendum on which candidate has the more distinguished military record and courageously endured the most brutality, McCain can go ahead and reserve the moving van for 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Clinton or Obama will strive mightily to keep the focus on issues -- and heaven knows McCain and his fellow Republicans have some major 'splaining to do on the war, the economy, adequate regulation of business, health-care costs. But the Democratic candidate must be able to paint a convincing and appealing character portrait as well.

Will that be Clinton -- knowledgeable, resilient, without an ounce of quit? Tempered by her own encounters with adversity? Or Obama -- whose heritage and own life experiences give him a credible claim to be the uniter and change agent that he says is? Tar Heel Democrats, the call is (largely) yours.