Experts Discuss Campaigns

A panel of distinguished political campaign managers and strategists joined together this past Friday to discuss successful and failed presidential campaign strategies.

Charles Campion, deputy campaign chairman for the 1984 Walter Mondale campaign; Mary Anne Marsh, a commentator for Fox News; Charles Manning, senior advisor for Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign; and Alex Castellanos, media consultant to seven U.S. presidential campaigns and current IOP fellow, spoke about the successes and failures of the two current presidential campaigns, as well.

The panelists, after briefly talking about their own experiences, spoke of their love for political involvement.

Manning compared campaigning to playing on a sports team.

“There’s a definite beginning, there’s a definite end, and, in the end, you know who won,” he said. “It’s amazing to see what happens in a political race. The adrenaline is high as anything from sports...It’s an experience like you’ll never have doing anything else.”

Castellanos compared campaigning to another high-energy activity.

“It’s like sex,” he said. “Nobody does it just once.”

Manning said that the three main components of every political campaign are “personality, structure, and issues.” About Barack Obama, Manning said, “He is by far the most overwhelming personality candidate I’ve seen in many, many years.”

The panel unanimously agreed on Obama having the advantage in the upcoming election.

“This is clearly not the best year in the world to be a Republican,” said Castellanos, who advised Mitt Romney’s failed campaign. “For McCain, it’s like swimming against a current.”

The panelists also acknowledged that Obama’s campaign has had the upper hand in many areas, including field organization, fundraising, and advertising.

Campion cautioned Democrats who may be giddy with their candidate’s current prospects for winning.

“Remember one thing about politics: it’s cyclical,” Campion said. “There are great high points and low points, but no one ever has it all.”

Marsh concluded the discussion by pressing students to vote in this year’s election.

“So much has been talked about kids voting this year,” she said. “If you guys don’t show up to vote this year, then people like us in every campaign for, I don’t know how many years, are going to pay no attention to you at all. And deservedly so.”

The debate was organized by Nimi P. Katragadda ’10 and Seema Amble ’09 to fulfil a requirement for Government 1359: “The Road to the White House.”

“It was seriously just a series of lucky contacts, and we’re so honored to have such esteemed speakers,” Katragadda said.