Words of Wisdom from David Gergen

I was fortunate enough to hear David Gergen speak this week at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. Gergen was an advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton, and is currently a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. This guy knows what he’s talking about, and what he talked about this week was leadership. Specifically, what kind of leader do we need to elect in 2008?

Gergen firmly believes that our next president will face the most challenging and troubling world any new president has faced since 1932. For foreign policy, there is the question of what to do in Iraq. Pull out or stay the course, and what is the timetable? Next, what will be done about Iran and the potential for a nuclear arms race in the Middle East? How about Pakistan, an increasingly unstable region in the midst of a leadership crisis? These issues, which are also intertwined with the ongoing War on Terror, must be dealt with.

Problems on the home front are no less pressing, although Gergen’s experience has shown that presidents spend about 75% of their time on foreign issues. We are also entering a critical time period in regards to energy policy and global warming. Even though the U.S. never signed the Kyoto Treaty (which, Gergen noted, was rejected by a 95-0 vote in the Senate) it will expire for the countries that did sign it soon. There are also critical questions that must be dealt with concerning the tax codes (Bush’s tax cuts, which include the estate tax, are due to expire in 2011). Health care costs and Social Security, both compounded by the upcoming demographic shift in retiring Baby Boomers over the next 10-20 years, are also dealt with.

While every new president has challenges, Gergen noted that the timing and urgency of all of these challenges are what makes this situation dire. All of these issues, without exception, must be dealt with in the next four years. Furthermore, Gergen noted that nothing proactive gets accomplished in the first year of any president because they are always busy cleaning up the mess left by the president who came before them.

In short, our next president needs to be a visionary – someone with big ideas and the charisma to convince both a skeptical public and other countries to step up and meet the challenges. A partisan and polarizing leader (like the one we have now, or quite a few who are trying to be president) will accomplish nothing and is not what the U.S. needs to maintain its superiority.

Compare these issues to what was discussed in last night's debate – gun control, immigration, abortion and The Bible – and suddenly things don’t look too promising for one party anymore.