Carol Mosely Braun

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Carol Moseley Braun
(Project Vote Smart)

Background: She has quite an impressive background: a JD from UChi is no joke, a few years in a US Attorney's office, a decade in Chicago's Assembly (is this like learning politics on the streets?), a famous and remarkable Senate campaign, a brief but presumably instructive position as Ambassador to New Zealand. It's perhaps a bit thin, but no worse than Jack Kennedy's (pace Lloyd Bentsen) or for that matter Abraham Lincoln's. She is as qualified as anybody her age is likely to be without having been either Vice-President or in the Cabinet. She is still quite young, though.

Strengths: Obviously, even without playing into identity politics, there are issues into which being an African-American woman would give her insight. Further, as identity politics do exist, there is a substantial possibility that Pres. Moseley Braun would spark interest in the civic process among African-Americans, and conceivably other racial minorities. She is Tough on Crime�; her father was a policeman, and her Senate record as well as her Illinois records show her to be knowledgeable and serious about law enforcement As for her policies, she appears to be a pretty straightforward New Deal Democrat. She stood very publicly and very vulnerably against the Republican/Clinton Welfare dismantling. In the shameful debate about excluding homosexuals from the military, and again on the so-called Defense of Marriage nonsense, she was forthright and honorable. She fought against some nasty Dole proposals on limiting the right to sue, and fought for federal funds for infrastructure investment in schools.

Weaknesses: One knock against her was that she didn't want to work as hard as other Senators, taking time off for herself and her family. That's admirable, of course, in a way, but I admit I'm more comfortable with the Clinton/Gore Up All Night way, myself. On the other hand, she did succeed on a couple of occasions at blocking amendments in the Senate in 1995.

Priorities: Her priorities would probably line up with mine, and therefore with what I want the priorities of the President to be. Education, housing, civil rights, social justice. That's all good. Balanced budget? Not so much. Further down the rankings, she appears to be interested in an internationalist approach to foreign policy, but doesn't seem to place a high priority on the developing world.

Coalition: She did manage to win a state-wide election in Illinois, so she must have been able to bring together some different groups. On the other hand, she couldn't keep that coalition together, when she ran into political trouble. She lost support of some left-wing and feminist groups when she didn't stick her neck out for Lani Guinier, but that was a tough situation in general. At a guess, I don't think she's much of a coalition-builder, but she does seem to understand about compromise (witness her strangely pivotal role in getting Daschle into the Leader's seat over Dodd).

Legislative: Ms. Braun did not have a very impressive Senate term, and despite substantial success in the Illinois legislature, there is no reason to think that she'd be very good at getting budgets (for instance) passed. On the other hand, she does have that Illinois experience, so at the absolute least she understands (and presumably respects) the legislative process.

Judicial: I expect that she would be rather good in her dealings with the Judicial branch. I suspect she would not only make good appointments, but respect the power of the Judiciary, and keep her hands off its workings.

Executive: I haven't yet seen a list of who she is surrounding herself with. I do worry a trifle about poor appointments, about fighting with the Senate over appointments, and about letting the reins slip from her hands on the administrative front without having, for instance, a strong Chief of Staff to take up the slack. On the other hand, she would be unlikely to appoint corporate cronies. She's a good deal removed from the board room world. A good question to ask is "Would this candidate appoint Jack Snow?" Clinton very well might have; Braun would not.

Crisis: No information on this, and I don't know enough about her to make a good judgment. She has a rough wit, which might either help or hurt, depending on the nature of the crisis. I do think her judgment and her priorities would carry her through, but that could be wishful thinking on my part. Pass.

Day-to-Day: I suspect that a Braun White House would be one of passions and missions, one where much of the day-to-day workings got shunted behind Big Plans. I would expect a lot of resources put into Causes, and I think we need Causes.

Leadership: It has to be explicitly stated: having an African-American, female, Catholic President would be good for the country even if she wasn't a good president (unless she were a disaster, which I can't imagine this particular African-American, female, Catholic candidate becoming). There is an aspect of leadership that simply comes from being who you are in unusual circumstances. Furthermore, she has shown that she can hear certain kinds of cultural biases that are often unrecognized by ... well, by WASP straight men raised in affluence. She is a fine speaker, but not a magnificent speaker. She doesn't appear to inspire the kind of personal loyalty that Bill Clinton did and does. Given the bully pulpit, she could get the nation talking about her initiatives, but I doubt could personally convince people that they were the right ones.

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