Anything Goes
Page 24
Cuomo isn’t sure the pendulum will swing back and, as of this moment, isn’t optimistic about the process we use to choose a president. He predicts there will be more questions asked because the media is going to play more of a role. “And that,” he says, “creates a questionnaire.”
I suppose each of us has some kind of a questionnaire for the person we choose to support for president. That’s why we have debates. That’s why we watch television talk shows. But we don’t want a national questionnaire because if we do, then every candidate will be alike. Every debate will sound the same. Presidents will come from cookie cutters. These times won’t allow for that kind of president to be effective.
President Bush’s press secretary, Marlin Fitzwater, says the people who want to occupy the White House from now on have to know how to use the media (whatever the media is). It plays more of a role in elections than ever before because there are so many outlets available to candidates$#8230;and presidents. Roosevelt had America’s ear with his fireside chats delivered on radio. And this will be more difficult for a president to do today because the audience is so splintered and sliced and diced. Outside of a nuclear war or a major threat to national security, many of the 500 channels wouldn’t think of giving the White House a half hour, much less five minutes. It’s weird when you think of all the magazines, news-papers, radio stations, Web sites, and television channels that exist right now and we’re talking about the problems a president will have in trying to talk to a sizable population about an important issue. But that’s these times.
What both Cuomo and Fitzwater are saying, though, is clear. It is different now. The electorate has more information available, and its attention span is shorter because there seems to be so much more happening than before in any given moment. It’s going to be tough for a president to lead when, through no fault of his or her own, people aren’t paying attention. This is going to be one of the challenges for those who sit in the Oval Office from now on.
When I am asked to speak to college journalism schools, one question is always posed: Is all of this the result of these times we are in or is all of this the result of technology? I answer by saying we are in a transition. The boundary of when “too much” begins has disappeared. I grew up when there were three networks. Today we have hundreds of satellite-delivered networks, cable, the three original networks, and PBS. And we’re trying to learn how to make it all work. The first step, of course, is to put ESPN on the same cable or satellite channel in every city. Once we do that, the rest of this is a piece of cake.
I tell the classes what they already know and, no doubt, what you, the reader, already know: Change is taking place as it always has, but at a pace we’ve never seen before. There is always a delayed reaction to change because we want to think about it, and then maybe test it, and then, complain about it while yearning for the good old days. And only then, possibly, will we become comfortable enough with change to allow it to make our lives better. Here’s what I’m talking about: I don’t own a computer. I use an IBM Selectric to type out my USA Today column. And I just started using the electric model typewriter a few years ago. Yes, I miss writing it all out on a single sheet of paper and phoning it in. So on a small scale I’m learning the Selectric and I’m trying to get comfortable with remembering to plug it in. The rest of the world is doing the same with the Internet. Bill Clinton talked about change being painful while running for office in 1992. He was right. It is that and more. And Bill Clinton will be the first to say he couldn’t have predicted all the changes we’ve seen since he was sworn in as president.
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I hope, one of these days, I can sit down with Chance and Cannon and tell them about the man who was in the White House when they came into the world. He was the most remarkable politician their dad ever saw. He was focused, he never gave up even when many backs were turned against him, and he did good things as well as incredibly stupid things. It is those stupid things that will be the first paragraph of his legacy, because the story of Bill Clinton is the story of an extraordinary person in extraordinary times. That, and having enemies who could self-destruct at just the right moment, is what got him through the tough times. And there were a lot of tough times. I know because I was on the air during all of them. And the viewers of Larry King Live learned along with me how (depending on the matter at hand) the pro–Bill Clinton and anti–Bill Clinton forces saw the issues.
I’ll tell Chance and Cannon they may never see another person like this in their lives. I know I won’t. Most important of all, I hope I’ll be able to sit with my boys and talk about these times face-to-face. But if I’m not around, I’ve made a video talking about these years, this president, and the men who want to be the next president.
I can only hope, if I am on tape, my sons won’t have inherited their father’s television clicker ability. I hope their times aren’t the times when anything goes.