Commentary

Abstract

As one who has helped manage political campaigns at the congressional level, and has written about presidential elections, it is a pleasure to reflect on these excellent articles and the lessons for 2004. Like Melvin Small, perhaps I should begin with a few background comments about my own experiences as a historian and a participant-observer. It may surprise some who recall my involvement in the Reagan administration that I was president of the Young Democrats in undergraduate college, and cast my first presidential vote in 1964 for Lyndon Johnson, believing at the time that I was helping to save the Republic from a reckless challenger who might start a nuclear war. Like others of my generation I crossed the political aisle during the 1970s. Along the way, I helped cover both of the 1972 nominating conventions in Miami for the Columbus Dispatch, and assisted the late Eugene Roseboom with a fourth edition of his History of Presidential Elections, published in 1979. That year I left the academy for government, became staff director of a congressional committee, acquired considerable first-hand experience with congressional campaigns, and even had a minor role in the 1980 presidential campaign. A subsequent opportunity to serve on the U.S. International Trade Commission during the 1980s would turn my career back toward my initial academic interests—involving international-economic issues. If from these diverse experiences I have a bias, it probably comes from having shared the company of elected officials (both Republicans and Democrats) and learned firsthand about the problems of seeking elective office and governing in difficult economic times.