Presidential Campaign - Candidates Lack Vision

Over the past few weeks, as the presidential race dissolves into the muck of negative campaigning and simplistic rhetoric, it is easy to become discouraged. With each passing day, as we get closer to the moment of selection, our politics and our discussions grow ever smaller.

Sadly, with America involved in two wars and our economy stumbling while energy costs soar, it has become clear that all three of our remaining candidates for president fall short when it comes to the most important of leadership traits, creating a vision for the country.

What is particularly appalling is their failure to inspire. Whereas once we saw Barack Obama as being the candidate to possibly lead us from the current political pandering, the Democratic frontrunner has done little in recent weeks to demonstrate he is the man to help us restore the “American Dream.”

Education Receives Little Attention
Yet as we examine the three candidates, we are struck by the fact that none of the three has spent any real time discussing education on the campaign trail. In fact, it has become increasingly clear that John McCain may forgo any real discussion about the topic completely. In an article entitled, The Case of the Missing Education Policy, Prospect.org notes that McCain’s last real position statement on education came during his 2000 campaign.

At that time, education was on people’s minds and considered a top concern of voters, trailing only the issue of the economy. Theoretically, our polls today still show education as an important priority though it is now less of a focus than jobs, the Iraq War, and health care.

While Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have offered detailed school-reform proposals, McCain has offered nothing except for the ongoing conservative agenda that focuses on competition, school choice and vouchers.

But while Obama and Clinton have offered platforms, their combined failure to shine a spotlight on the topic of education is very disappointing. As Bob Hebert points out in the New York Times, “The nation’s future may depend on how well we educate the current and future generations, but (like the renovation of the nation’s infrastructure, or a serious search for better sources of energy) that can wait. At the moment, no one seems to have the will to engage in any of the most serious challenges facing the U.S.”

In noting the failure of the candidates to address the topic, Hebert goes through the incredibly sober statistics. An American drops out of high school every 26 seconds (more than a million every year) giving our country one of the highest dropout rates in the world. Hebert then adds the other crushing set of numbers, while roughly one third of American high school students drop out, another one third graduate lacking the skills for meaningful work or post-secondary education.

Hebert sums things up well.

“When two-thirds of all teenagers old enough to graduate from high school are incapable of mastering college-level work, the nation is doing something awfully wrong.”

According to “America’s Perfect Storm,” a report from the Educational Testing Service, three powerful forces will affect the future “quality of life for millions of Americans.” The report sites the “seismic changes” in the U.S. economy that have resulted from globalization, technological advances, shifts in the relationship of labor and capital, and other developments.”

Those seismic changes demand an educated populace and the attention of our presidential candidates. Yet, on the campaign trail we do not hear any discussion of the role education must play in helping our country sustain long term economic growth. Instead, the focus shifts to short term solutions that fit the election rhetoric and our current process of selecting a leader.

Big Ideas Notably Missing
As an example of the smallness and the lack of vision we turn to Thomas Friedman, also of the Times, who recently took McCain and Clinton to task for their suggestion to cut the federal gas tax during the height of the summer driving season. Notes Friedman, when “the summer is over, we will have increased our debt to China, increased our transfer of wealth to Saudi Arabia and increased our contribution to global warming for our kids to inherit.”

Friedman rightfully notes that such a step is not a strategy, that in fact we have no energy policy. Friedman goes on to point out how to properly use tax strategy to shape an energy policy.

Within his piece, Friedman quotes Rhone Resch, the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association. He states the U.S. has reached a point “where the priorities of Congress” have become “so distorted by politics.”

Which brings us back to the concept of vision. Friedman calls out all three of the presidential candidates for railing about lost manufacturing jobs in Ohio while renewable energy jobs head overseas because of the current American political climate.

Friedman closes with the real kicker, that the real energy problem we have in our “country today is the energy to be serious — the energy to do big things in a sustained, focused and intelligent way. We are in the midst of a national political brownout.”

Phrase is Transcendent
The political brownout metaphor clearly transcends the debate about a national energy policy, it is an apt depiction of the current status of the presidential primary. In addition, Friedman’s larger point is even more salient.

The brownout is a result of our candidates being unable and/or unwilling to help voters understand the real issues facing our country. The failure of our candidates to clearly articulate and deliver the message as to how education fits into the larger picture of future prosperity demonstrates that none of these three individuals is ready to lead our country in these difficult times.

We need candidates capable of doing “big things in a sustained, focused and intelligent way.” Unfortunately, in McCain, Clinton, and Obama, we simply do not have such a candidate.

Barack Obama photo courtesy of RadioSpike Photography, John McCain photo courtesy of Wigwam Jones, and Hillary Clinton by Rachel Bunting.