I have been fascinated by the Democratic  primary race. The Mayor no one knew from a city most people can’t locate took Iowa. Meanwhile, the Vice President everyone knew couldn’t seem to get momentum while the avowed socialist, Bernie Sanders, seemed unstoppable until last week.
Joe Biden looked like he was finished until he won South Carolina, and Super Tuesday radically changed the race. Here are my observations about leadership in light of the primaries one week later.
Pete Buttigieg
Dropped out after an impressive start. He could play the identity politics card, and this would be an important moral victory for progressives, but the constituency that wants him to become the first gay president was too small to matter.
Lesson: Appeal to the largest constituency possible
Tom Steyer
I live in South Carolina. Tom Steyer has advertised here for months. According to the New York Times, he spent $18 million in the state. We were inundated with his ads. They were ruining our TV-watching experience. But Steyer told us that his highest priority was the environment. Now, the environment is an important democratic plank, but it is not the only one or the most important to the progressive left.
Steyer also has a few other issues stacked against him. He is both quirky (see his belts and ties) and he is rich. Quirky is bad but rich is evil—at least to the left (think bourgeoisie). And this is important because, as David Ogilvy said, “Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster,” even if you throw $18 million at it.
Lesson: No amount of money will make a bad candidate a good candidate.
Mike Bloomberg
Tom Steyer is a billionaire ($1.6 Billion). Mike Bloomberg is a BILLIONAIRE ($56 Billion). Bloomberg is the kind of billionaire that makes Tom Steyer look like just a millionaire. But this isn’t a virtue on the left with voters who don’t care about the little guy as  much as they despise the super-rich.
The thinking was that Trump, as a billionaire, bought the presidency and we have a billionaire who can buy it back. But Trump spoke to voters with a message that actually resonated with them. In contrast, Democrats hold their nose when Mike Bloomberg enters the room. Bloomberg spent more than half a billion dollars on his brief campaign. He won American Samoa and zero states before he folded his tent.
Lesson: You cannot buy leadership. We follow your message, not your dollars
Amy Klobuchar
Amy never got traction. She was a reasonable moderate, but most people ask, “Who?” We also cannot associate her with any major policy. This is why we ask “who?” For the record, she is a Senator from Minnesota and she is now a former presidential candidate.
Lesson: To lead, you need to be visible. If we cannot remember who you are or what you have done, you will not have the chance to lead us.
Bernie Sanders
In contrast, Bernie has shown himself to be a leader.
I hate to admit this because I am not a fan of anything that he stands for, but he raised a flag and people have rallied to his cause.
Unfortunately, it is a red flag, but he got the leadership process is right. Bernie galvanized the true believers.
Lesson: People follow visible leaders who have staked out a position.
Joe Biden
Joe Biden appeared to be finished until the democrat establishment was winning. They wanted Bernie to rally the base, but they also believe he would be crushed in the general election, so they did their best to reshape the narrative and make Sleepy Joe look like Smokin’ Joe. This change happened in about a week.
Lesson: There are two lessons here. First, the party wants to win more than they want to be purists. Second, it is good to have friends with the same interests—taking the White House back from Donald Trump.
Elizabeth Warren
Warren is an interesting figure. She was a legitimate Law school professor at the University of Pennsylvania and she spent a year as a visiting professor at Harvard. She wrote a couple of decent books like All Your Worth  (#ad) and the Two Income Trap (#ad). Then she held a number of government jobs including a seat on the FDIC Advisory committee on Economic Inclusion, a congressional panel for TARP oversight, and Special Advisor to President Obama for the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Her resume is pure gold for a democratic nominee, but she never earned enough votes to be more than a JV player. So what happened?
When Senator Warren was asked why she felt she had to drop out, she blamed it on sexism. Those darn sexist republicans….um, I mean. Wait. This is the democratic primary.
I don’t think I am a sexist (though I am a republican) and I don’t think that democrats are sexists because they did not select a woman who was fake and unlikable. But if you vote for a woman just because she is a woman, you are a sexist. The same thing goes if you vote for a man just because he is a man.
Lesson: Be likable. Second lesson: Don’t be a sexist. Third lesson: If you are accusing others of sexism, be careful because you might be one.
Tulsi Gabbard
So the democrats are sexists because they did not elect a woman. By this standard, they are also racists (which is why I don’t believe in or use this silly standard). Tulsi Gabbard is nothing if not likable, and she has not dropped out, but democrats have not made her their standard bearer. Ironically, everyone keeps saying that it is a “two-man race.” She is the only woman or person of color still in the race, but she has been almost completely ignored.
Lesson: Double-standards and hypocrisy are everywhere in politics. Just expect it.
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Dr. Darin Gerdes is a tenured Professor of Management in the College of Business at Charleston Southern University.
All ideas expressed on www.daringerdes.com are his own.
FTC Disclosure: When I refer to a book, I often add a link to Amazon (#ad) so you can purchase it easily. I may earn a few cents if you buy it, but I never recommend any books unless they are worth reading.
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