This month, as the presidential campaign takes center stage, memories of past campaigns resonate through my mind. Through television I watched the Kennedy-Nixon debates and the infamous 1968 Democratic convention. But there were many times when I was an eyewitness to the process. I can still see anarchist students pelting Jimmy Carter with peanuts during a 1976 appearance near the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Here at the UW, I can clearly recall Geraldine Ferraro turning the tables on her audience during her Meany Hall speech in 1984. (She asked why so many students were for Ronald Reagan.) The UW is a favorite stop for candidates. Four years ago Jesse Jackson came to campus and last May it was Jerry Brown.
During these campaign appearances I have yet to see a reporter or spectator ask the types of questions Walter Williams asks. A UW professor of public affairs and former LBJ policy analyst, Williams wants to know if a candidate can “manage” the government. He’s like an angry stockholder at an annual meeting who questions the CEO on managing a large corporation. Author of the book Mismanaging America, Williams says that voters have been poor judges of organizational mastery. In an interview for this issue, he blasted the management style of every president since Dwight Eisenhower and offered some questions to keep in mind as we judge the current contenders.
While we may be bystanders in the race to the White House, most of us at the University of Washington have participated in a different type of campaign: The Campaign for Washington. Over a five-year period that ended June 30, this fund-raising effort received $284 million in gifts and pledges—$34 million more than its goal. Coming at a time when the nation is struggling out of a recession, this is a remarkable seal of approval for the UW. Our article on the “Campaign’s End” reviews these many gifts and their effects on the University. It’s one campaign tale that should make us all proud.