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The Super Tuesday results are in. The primary season is drawing to a conclusion, and plenty of Americans -- as the Gipper would say -- have already had it up to their keisters with politics.
The past several months have been bruising, yet as flawed as the primary system is, the political process has worked in its sometimes perverse, Darwinian way. It has winnowed the weak (Lamar Alexander), disposed of the dubious (Elizabeth Dole), marginalized the intransigent (Pat Buchanan), humbled the powerful (Orin Hatch), and splashed cold water on the wealthy (Steve Forbes).
The primaries have also repeatedly surprised us and changed our perceptions. Last August, George W. Bush was the anointed standard-bearer of the Republican Party, though many suspected that he was an empty suit -- in fact, an empty suit borrowed from his father.
DEBATES AND DEBACLES.
Al Gore was an impossibly wooden, unelectable, Clinton-tainted, preachy bore. John McCain was a wild and crazy conservative unknown. Gary Bauer was a sanctimonious little pill. Alan Keyes was a loon with a silver tongue. And free-associating with the name Bill Bradley produced the following: honesty, work ethic, commitment, thoughtfulness.
In the ensuing months, debates and debacles served to alter many of our preconceived notions about the candidates -- and reinforce others. Bush has shown that he can absorb a punch, jab back, and make amends when he has been an insensitive bonehead. The suit has guts.
Gore has tried so mightily to humanize himself that his self-conscious efforts at being a fun guy can be painful to watch -- but he has connected with many voters and proved that there is fire in that trimmed-down belly.
McCain has been occasionally ill-advised and intemperate in his remarks, but always unpredictably exciting -- energizing the electorate and capturing hearts and minds that never belonged to a conservative ex-warrior before.
Bauer, even if you disagree with him, proved himself a man of stature who cares about his country. And Keyes, his eloquence rising above the rancor of several debates, gave us a civic lesson in civil discourse.
ONLY ONE DRUMMER.
But what of Bradley, the "Great White Hope" of the NBA, the once and future Princeton President, the voice of Rhodes reason? In the end, it came down to this: Getting to know Bradley was for many getting to not like Bradley all that much. The idea of Bradley proved more attractive than the reality of Bradley.
As the campaign wore on, he seemed less a man marching to his own drummer and more a man who couldn't stand to listen to another drummer. His tactical choices -- competing in Iowa at the expense of sewing up New Hampshire, barnstorming Washington State when he should have been in New York -- seem foolish in hindsight. His pointed snubbing of reporters and his overbearing staff won him few free rides with the media, while McCain's perceived candor bought him free ink and airtime.
Perhaps most telling was Bradley's early refusal to name his key advisers. The reason cited was that he wanted to protect their zone of privacy -- that personal backyard so dear to this man seeking so public a job.
The more likely reason is that the Bradley we came to know relies on one adviser whom he can always count on to be smarter and righter than anyone else. His name, of course, is Bill Bradley -- and that's why the people quashed any chance that he would be President.
Scotti, Business Week senior editor for government and sports business, offers his views every week for Business Week Online
EDITED BY DOUGLAS HARBRECHT
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