Nice--and Carries a Stiletto

Commerce Secretary William H. Daley got a call two weeks ago from Vice President Al Gore that he didn’t want or expect. Gore asked Daley to replace Tony L. Coelho as his campaign chief. Coelho, the former California congressman turned investment banker, asked to step down after being hospitalized for severe intestinal problems. This came in the wake of two epileptic seizures Coelho suffered in the past month. He had been free of seizures for decades.

The PPPP (the political press, pundit and professor elite) immediately and authoritatively asserted that Coelho had been sacked because the Gore campaign was strategically adrift, its staff demoralized. The 4Ps were wrong again. Coelho, who revitalized Gore’s campaign last year, when it was demoralized and adrift, was secure in his job.

I guess the 4Ps assumed Coelho had faked the seizures and conned the doctors into admitting him to a hospital. True, Coelho is facing another round of negative stories on questionable business activities--this time in his role of commissioner general for the U.S. pavilion at the 1998 World Exposition--but he has weathered similar stories before and emerged unscathed.

It was because Coelho was so secure in his job that Daley was caught off guard. Gore had wanted Daley to take over his faltering campaign last year, but Daley had no interest then (or now) and was relieved when Coelho stepped in. But Daley is a loyalist who could not turn Gore down under the circumstances. That’s the Chicago way: Dance with the one that brung ya. It’s a rare commodity in politics these days, but one drilled into Daley by his legendary father, Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago, and backed by his brother, current Mayor Richard M. Daley.

There is another lesson Bill Daley learned from Chicago politics that Gore will need in the months ahead: In politics, toughness is next to godliness.

Sure, Gore’s got a reputation for being tough, but toughness can be a dangerous quality for a politician. If voters see a candidate’s toughness as a sign of strength, it is an asset. But when toughness crosses the line and is perceived as mean, voters are turned off. Gore sometimes doesn’t get the distinction. Daley does.

For example, brother Rich gets credit for defusing several racial time bombs during his tenure as mayor, but it was Bill Daley who quietly steered his brother through those troubled waters with a combination of calmness and toughness.

If Gore can show the kind of toughness he used against H. Ross Perot in his acclaimed drubbing of the pint-size Texan in a televised debate on trade, then voters will reward him. If, on the other hand, Gore shows the toughness he exhibited against Bill Bradley in the New Hampshire primary, which at times looked downright mean, voters will punish him. If anyone knows how to keep Gore on the right side of that fine line, it’s Daley.

Daley is one of those rare politicians who comes across as thoughtful, decent and even mellow--while cutting his opponent’s heart out. Gore, like Coelho, prefers machetes in a campaign, but Daley’s weapon of choice is a stiletto. Both are lethal, but the stiletto is more efficient and less obvious.

If there is joy among Democrats over Daley’s new role, there is much sadness in Austin, Texas. Texas Gov. George W. Bush and company have been trying to paint the Gore campaign as ruthless and desperate, if for no other reason than to blunt the impact of the negative campaign to come.

It’s an old political game: Tell the press and public your opponent is going to play gutter ball in the hopes that, when he does, voters will only hear desperation, not information. You don’t win presidential campaigns with that kind of tactic alone, but when you’re Bush, trying to become the first presidential candidate in a century to oust the party controlling the White House in a good economy, you use every trick play in your game book.

Suspicion about Gore’s negative style, coupled with Coelho’s history of avoiding the press while embracing negative campaigns, made Bush’s tactic plausible. But with Daley at the helm, that advantage is gone.

Expect to see Daley on television regularly in the coming weeks. What the public will see is a bright, soft-spoken man who comes across as just plain nice. Not the type of person who would manage a dirty campaign, or even tolerate one. Truth is, in person, Daley is a bright, soft-spoken and decent person, just the kind of face the Gore campaign needs.

So with Daley, Gore gets a person who can manage Gore’s tough side in a positive direction, who will put a decent face on the Gore campaign and knows how to wage a brass-knuckle race in a way that does not turn off voters.

One other advantage: Daley’s brother, Rich, now has a personal reason to see that Gore does well in Illinois, a crucial state for both parties. Not that the Chicago mayor intended a half-hearted effort before his brother took over; he was always prepared to go all-out. But now a victory in Illinois means more to the mayor than a big party victory. Now it’s personal. And history shows that the Daleys rarely lose a personal campaign. *