Presidential Election Campaigns

Samuel Kernell makes the observation that the nature of the presidency has changed as those holding the office have tended to spend their time in office campaigning for the next election more than governing. There is always an element of campaigning in governance as those holding office know that their actions will have some effect, pro or con, on their chances in the next election. In the case of the President, the man holding the office knows that his actions will affect not only his own fortunes but those of his party. Kernell finds that the campaign mode that now affects the executive branch so severely has develop

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ampaign mode to governing mode, that they thought the two were distinct, and that they believed making that transition was one way a President showed his seriousness of purpose and his ability to govern. They also tended to note that Clinton seemed to be remaining in the campaign mode longer than was indicated. Thomas E. Mann wrote, No aspect of our politics has been more troubling in recent years than the gulf between the conduct of campaigns and the real problems confronting the victors when the shouting is over (Mann 4). Mann stated that any hopes held out for Clinton as President depended on a successful transition from campaigning to governing, and yet, as Kernell and others find, this is becoming less and less a transition and more a shift that maintains the campaign mode while trying to govern at the same time. Mann finds that the problem is very real and that the transition constitutes a challenge which the newly-elected President must face, perhaps his first in office: Clinton's immediate challenge is to fashion a mandate that is faithful to the central tenets of his campaign, attentive to the real problems facing the country, persuasive to members of the political community, and translatable into concrete proposals
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Samuel Kernell, President Clinton, White House, Clinton President, Bob Dole, North Carolina, Berman Murphy, Thomas Mann, EJ Dionne, Congress Constitution, campaign mode, white house, clinton campaign, holding office, bob dole, holding office actions, clinton's campaign, berman murphy, brought office, clinton administration, issue values,
Approximate Word count = 1302
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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