The Hero Factor

Timothy Noah did a piece the other day observing that though a distinguished record of military service is often touted as a useful political asset in presidential politics, war hero candidates keep losing to people with much less distinguished service records. From McGovern-Nixon to Bush-Clinton, Dole-Clinton, Kerry-Bush, and now McCain-Obama, a fistfull of medals doesn’t get you far.

Noah interviews various people for their theories as to why this is, but I think the important larger point to recall is that the evidence suggests that candidate attributes in general don’t matter very much in presidential elections. The hard part is winning your party’s nomination, where amidst a field of ideologically similar members of the same party these kind of things can help you stand out. What’s a bit curious is that the idea that personal courage in battle was a big asset every took hold. The traditional military-to-presidency route involved being a general. But that’s not just a biographical fact, it’s like being a Senator or a Governor — a high-level public sector job that qualifies you for an even higher-level job.