Audio clip
Sen. Lamar Alexander
WASHINGTON — For the first time since 1961 and after more than 50 failures, the United States Senate this year most likely will see one of its own claim the presidency.
With Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the prohibitive Republican favorite and Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., in a tight two-candidate race for the Democratic nomination, one of those three is poised to become just the third senator to go straight from Congress to the White House and the first since John F. Kennedy won the 1960 election.
“It’s rare, and it’s happenstance this year,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “There’s absolutely no question people prefer to elect executives to the White House. The combination of candidates this year didn’t give people a chance to do that.”
Voters have generally sent governors, the executive leaders of their state, to the White House, a list that includes George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter.
This year, though, former Govs. Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Bill Richardson, among others, failed to gain enough momentum.
The list of senators falling short in their White House bids is long. The New York Times recently tallied at least 46 senators who have entered the ring since 1960, some multiple times.
Besides President Kennedy, Warren G. Harding of Ohio in 1920 was the only other sitting senator elected president.
Former Sen. Al Gore, D-Tenn., is credited only with two losses as a senator, in 1988 and 1992, with his other losing bid in 2000 coming when he was vice president.
Political observers say senators have had a hard time winning the presidency because they have extensive voting records that can be picked over by opponents, as opposed to governors, who do not have to cast votes.
Governors also benefit from state issues that often are parochial and do not resonate as strongly with voters as national issues that Congress handles, such as immigration, the Iraq war and taxes.
While Tennessee and Georgia senators welcome having one of their own in the White House, they stressed that being leader of the free world is a much different role than being a cog in the world’s most deliberative body — the Senate.
“The qualities that make a good senator aren’t necessarily the qualities that make a good president,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who twice lost primary bids for the White House after serving as governor. “John McCain’s great strength is that he doesn’t look or act like a U.S. senator and looks more like an executive leader, which he was in the Navy.”
Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who along with Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., endorsed Sen. McCain, said having a president who is familiar with the legislative process will be helpful.
Still, Sen. Isakson said, “once you’re president, you’re president, and you have to look at some things differently.”
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who held an executive position as Chattanooga mayor before being elected to the Senate, said Sens. Clinton, McCain and Obama have demonstrated executive abilities while being in the Senate.
More importantly, however, it is their grasp of issues that makes them good White House potentials, he said.
“There’s a lot of knowledge gained here of relations within government and how government works,” Sen. Corker said. “If you’re here, you’re engrossed in it, and having the type of knowledge that you develop here quickly is useful.”
