Is Colin Powell Really Like Ike?
Ladd, Everett Carll
Is Colin Powell Really Like Ike? By Everett Carll Ladd The presidency is as important to Americans symbolically as in its practical power. This is why matters of character and personality have...
...Overall, it was Powell 51 percent, Clinton 40 percent...
...The inability of any of these three heavyweights to gain broad presidential backing as inclusive leaders able to set a high moral tone for the country has created a kind of vacuum, which politics as much as nature abhors...
...What's more, while Taft looked weak in trial heats with Democrats, Eisenhower looked strong...
...It may be objected that Eisenhower's strength reflected a unique experience-the exceptional renown he earned for leading the victorious Allied military effort in Europe...
...There remains the ever-present issue of race...
...Ronald Reagan, who did have sharp edges ideologically, understood the danger in this to presidential leadership...
...found MacArthur first, Eisenhower second...
...Dole's support is the proverbial "mile wide and an inch deep...
...MacArthur and his friends thought this regard might translate into the GOP nomination...
...History never repeats, but in America it often does a remarkable imitation...
...A Gallup poll of December 1951 asking, what man "do you admire most...
...His overall weakness with the electorate is shown by his trailing Clinton in every recent two-way trial heat-even though the president hasn't enlarged his base of support from the 43 percent backing him in November 1992...
...Like Ike he seems "independent," above the narrower dimensions of partisanship which have never appealed to us when we've considered the requirements of the country's one great national office...
...Asked in August 1945 who they thought might make a good president, 26 percent named Douglas MacArthur, 24 percent Dwight Eisenhower-with no one else in the running...
...In the context of this office, his "negatives" were far too high...
...Indeed, a Gallup survey taken October 5-7 showed him besting Bill Clinton among whites by a 17-point margin (54 to 37 percent), while trailing the president badly (25 to 68 percent) among blacks...
...Two-way trial heats of late 1951, for example, put Ike way ahead of Harry Truman, but showed Truman beating Taft- much as the polls today have Clinton ahead of Dole but trailing Powell...
...On the Republican side, none of the announced candidates is anywhere...
...We like our presidents to be somehow "independent," above the fray...
...general came out of World War II with a fame that rivaled Ike's...
...Through his 32 months in office, Bill Clinton has only rarely elevated his presidential approval percentages out of the mediocre 40s...
...Party machinery had vastly more influence over presidential nominations in the fifties than it has had since 1968, and Taft's candidacy remained a formidable one right through the GOP convention...
...Politics-watchers would generally be better off ignoring the early polling trial heats altogether until some means is found of measuring depth as well as breadth...
...While we often haven't found the desired mix, we've consistently sought presidents to be exemplars-both of things we value in personal terms and of the nation itself as a large moral enterprise...
...Though we don't yet know a lot about him in political terms, what we do know we like-it seems balanced and sensible...
...Another U.S...
...Everett Carll Ladd is president of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research...
...He compensated through personal warmth and geniality...
...A Gallup survey of 1,740 GOP county chairmen in the fall of 1951 found 59 percent endorsing the Ohio senator ("Mr...
...In 1947 roughly the same proportion of the public regarded him as a Democrat as thought him a Republican...
...This is why 46 percent of Republicans and those leaning Republican polled by Gallup September 22-24 made Senator Dole their first choice among the declared candidates...
...He was much admired- but not for the presidency...
...A national leader should be somewhat above the partisan fray-at least its narrower expressions...
...Dole's weakness among the electorate at large is surpassed by Phil Gramm's and Newt Gingrich's...
...In 1948 he had more general public support among Democrats than among Republicans...
...Enter Colin Powell...
...If a candidate, Colin Powell is likely to tap further the views and values that Dwight Eisenhower drew on so successfully...
...But that was just fine...
...Eisenhower's fame as a general shot him into the game, but other things put him over the top...
...This is why matters of character and personality have loomed large in the public's assessment of candidates for the office...
...Equally important, he appealed to a large, unifying idea of America as a "city upon a hill...
...For this reason, it's not surprising Americans have rarely warmed to displays of strong partisanship in their president...
...My guess is that this pattern of support will hold up...
...Americans saw a rigidity that would stand in the way of broad, unifying national political leadership...
...In January 1950, only 40 percent of those interviewed by Gallup thought that Eisenhower was on the conservative side whereas 60 percent saw him as a liberal...
...Different though they were in many ways, Eisenhower and Reagan both carried the country on personality and character...
...Republican...
...The parallels between what happened in the Republican presidential nomination contest of 1951-52 and what's happened thus far this year are, I believe, instructive...
...Eisenhower had his own strong organizational base, of course...
...This is true even of Bob Dole, though he is not only the best known contender, but is well respected for his many accomplishments...
...MacArthur's prestige did not fade...
...In fact, the earliest polls showed this general way behind both Eisenhower and Taft, and from this weak starting point MacArthur faded fast...
...This basic expectation tells us a lot about why we are where we are in the 1996 presidential race...
...I like Ike...
...The incumbent gets considerable credit for his political skills and energy, but he continues to get subpar grades in the test of national leadership...
...Nonetheless, not only did Eisenhower best Taft by a large margin among independents, he led narrowly among rank-and-file Republican identifiers as well...
...This objection misses the mark...
...What's more important, we like what we see in him as a person and what he symbolizes in national aspirations...
...At this point, white Americans say they are ready to support Colin Powell...
...But only a tiny fraction of this 46 percent is clear, unambiguous support for Bob Dole as the next president...
...Its cause was aided immeasurably by the fact that the polls showed Ike leading Taft among Republican adherents at every stage in the campaign...
...When the 1952 contest began, Senator Bob Taft's partisan credentials were unmatched by those of any rival...
...Americans didn't know just where he fitted politically...
...And this is much where Colin Powell is today...
...Taft's ability and integrity were widely admired...
...In January of that year, Gallup found him ahead of Truman among heavily Democratic labor union members...
Vol. 1 • October 1995 • No. 6
