The Manila Times

Must a president‘ hit the ground running’ and blaze 100 days?

YEN MAKABENTA

“The toughest job for a new administration is to take control of the government.”

– James P. Pfiffner

First word

ACTUALLY, not everyone subscribes to the idea that a new president should “hit the ground running” in order to accomplish his objectives,

It is as much debated as the idea that a new president should make his first 100 days in office as consequential as the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the time of the Great Depression, FDR and the 73rd US Congress set a formidable benchmark.

During the period from March 9 to June 16 — exactly 100 days — the 73rd Congress enacted such milestone legislation as public works and relief measures, guarantee for bank deposits and tighter federal regulation of banks, agricultural subsidies, the Tennessee Valley authority, in all 56 pieces of legislation.

I want to bring to the attention of our president-elect a widely praised book on the subject of presidential transitions that might help him and his team to effectively manage the transition to and organization of his presidency.

The book is The Strategic Presidency: Hitting the Ground Running by James P. Pfiffner (The Dorsey Press, Chicago, 1988, 1996). Pfiffner is a professor of government and public policy at George Mason University.

The second edition of The Strategic Presidency provides the most complete and authoritative volume on presidential transitions from JFK to Bill Clinton. First published in 1988, it became more valuable than ever with the addition of new chapters on the Bush and Clinton transitions and numerous other revisions that greatly update the volume.

When the book first appeared in 1988, it was hailed by the American Political Science Review as an important new work following in “the path that Richard Neustadt long ago blazed in his classic book, Presidential Power.” Immediately recognized for its contributions to scholarship, it also popularized a new phrase, “the strategic presidency,” which has since become an essential part of the lexicon in presidential studies.

Presidential Studies Quarterly called it “a masterful handbook on the nature of presidential transitions and among the most important publications on the presidency.”

Mark Rozell, book critic and author, hailed it as “[t]he best book on the importance of presidential transitions to the long-term successes of administrations. Contemporary scholars and practitioners will be especially interested in Pfiffner’s timely treatment of the problems that surrounded the Clinton administration’s troubled start.”

Piffner says in the book that for a new president to accomplish his objectives, he must always first get control of the government. Thus in the US, the White House must organize itself, establish a cabinet, recruit presidential appointees, confront the entrenched career bureaucracy, and formulate a legislative agenda.

The supreme challenge of this transitional period, Pfiffner writes, is that all of this must be done in a very compressed time frame and under the extreme pressure of press scrutiny and unrealistically high public expectations.

Even so, he also shows that systematic preparation during this period can maximize a president’s opportunity at the beginning of a term. Contrary to much conventional advice, Pfiffner contends that a newly elected president’s best opportunity for achieving policy goals is at the beginning of the term.

He writes: “Even if a ‘honeymoon’ atmosphere does not prevail, Congress is likely to be more receptive to presidential initiatives in the early months of a term, and public opinion is likely to decline after several months in office. That’s why it’s so important for presidents to hit the ground running.”

By “strategic presidency,” Pfiffner means a self-conscious approach to planning the assumption of governmental control after an election.

Begin at full speed

Cambridge Dictionary defines the phrase “hit the ground running” simply as to immediately work hard and successfully at a new activity.

A new presidency, according to Pfiffner, must hit the ground running if they are to accomplish their goals.

Planning the strategy for a new administration cannot wait for the inauguration. It must begin immediately after the election, and preferably before. Those involved in planning must take care not to seem presumptuous of victory.

The purpose of the strategic approach is to avoid dissipating administrative energy. There is a danger in the pining for another “100 days” that the new administration will try to move too quickly and blunder into disaster. So, citizens should be patient in waiting for a new administration to achieve its goals.

John F. Kennedy blundered into the Bay of Pigs fiasco because of haste soon after entering office. JFK authorized a CIA-backed invasion of Cuba by expatriates. The planners seriously underestimated the power and popularity of Fidel Castro. The failed invasion severely embarrassed the Kennedy administration.

Pfiffner urged presidents to hire experienced people into his office as principal advisers. Citizens should understand that the new president inevitably will use his campaign aides in important posts in the new administration.

On the other hand, citizens should worry if a new president uses as close advisers only those who helped in the campaign. Presidential advice is too important to be limited to only those the candidate knows intimately at the time of election.

It is also tactically important for a new president to show their respect for Congress as an institution. But it is also important that Congress recognize the constitutional role that each branch serves.

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2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

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The Manila Times