In 1972 during a happenstance conversation, Martha Mitchell told Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward she thought presidents should be elected for seven years with no chance for a second term. Her rationale was presidents then could better stay on task without the distraction of running for re-election.
The significance of the observance, in part, was that it came when Woodward and fellow reporter Carl Bernstein were digging into what would become known as Watergate, the catch word for a break-in and bugging of the National Democratic Party headquarters by operatives who later were indelibly linked to President Nixon.
Mitchell’s husband was John Mitchell, attorney general, and a close friend to Nixon as well as a target of the two investigative reporters.
The current presidential campaigns, while not involving an incumbent, certainly are positive support for Martha Mitchell’s proposal. Leading to primaries, candidates on both sides spent months doing nothing other than positioning themselves, often in hateful terms, for success in state-by-state primaries and caucuses. Late in summer 2015, when Joe Biden’s name surfaced as a possible alternative to Hillary Clinton, most pundits judged it was “too late” for him to get into the fray — a year and a half from the general election.
Today, we have 80 days until the general election, and were it not for the Olympic Games and an occasional crisis, we would hear nothing other than pronouncements from and railings about Clinton and Donald Trump.
Most industrialized nations limit campaigning to a few weeks, and nowhere else are fortunes greater than many nation’s gross products spent by candidates.
PRESIDENTIAL terms aren’t alone in begging consideration.
U.S House members, and representatives in Kansas, are elected to two-year terms and if we are to be honest with ourselves, many begin campaigning the day after they are elected. Again, if we are honest, so-called listening tours that bring members of Congress home most weekends — when their time would be better spent on task in Washington — are little more than opportunities to have their photos in the local newspaper glad-handing constituents.
U.S. senators have advantage of six years, which alone makes theirs the more august body, and Kansas senators have four years, which give them more time to digest and decide.
The Register for years has been opposed to term limits, arguing that voters have that option each election, but perhaps it would be worth taking another look. An incumbent who makes few waves, follows party line and smiles a lot often has a job for life — whether they deserve it or not.
