This puzzle we call government | Dennis Box

The political wind machine is shifting into high gear with about a month before the election verdicts are handed down from the voters.

I have been tossing a political theory around the last few days on my drive from Enumclaw to Kent. The drive gives me just enough time to entertain a bunch of goofy ideas, but not quite enough time to get me put away in a home for the newspaper loonies who have gone over the edge… yet.

My latest flickering light bulb has to do with the agendas and strategies.

Over the years I have seen countless candidates enter the political ring because of an agenda. I’ve seen it at all levels of government.

Often a candidate’s supporters carry the magic agenda bag around and keep shaking it at anyone who will listen.

When I am asked for advice from candidates, I usually tell them, “Stop listening to your friends. They probably know nothing about political left hooks and they have an agenda.”

What is the problem with agendas? Nothing at all. Agendas are about as common in politics as bald guys… not that I know any bald guys.

An agenda is the premise a story is built on and it is often the essence of successful political campaign.

My theory is the missing link in many campaigns is the strategy.

A political agenda without a hand-in-glove strategy to execute the premise of the campaign may be one of the most common reasons folks lose political races — other than picking the wrong guy to challenge.

Picking the right guy to fight is a tactic learned in first grade.

Here is rule No. 1. Don’t challenge an incumbent just because your friends tell you to – that’s called losing.

Dino Rossi found this out in boldface the second time he ran against Gov. Chris Gregoire. You don’t get to tie the champion, you have to go the distance and really beat them.

Challengers do beat incumbents, but it is usually a bloody battle. The rule is don’t pick the biggest guy on the playground to swing at if Wally Wimpy Pants is close by.

Two of the best campaign strategists of recent time are James Carville and Karl Rove. Depending on the side of the aisle, many consider them Satan’s chauffeurs, but they are a couple of political geniuses when it comes to pairing a strategy with an agenda.

Although diametrically opposed on the political spectrum — Carville is a Democrat and Rove a Republican — both feature a genetic talent for attaching a stiff-spine agenda to a brilliant strategy.

If the agenda is the love of the girl, the strategy is how you get the girl to marry you. If it is all agenda you aren’t getting to first base. A good strategy with a passionate agenda means you just might be sliding home.

It is a very tricky balance.

One agenda I often hear is a business owner running on the platform he will run the government like a business.

It is a perfectly good agenda as long as no one thinks about it too much.

Free market businesses and the government are not even remotely similar, except both need money, which is what the candidate is usually trying to say. We hear the guy say he will rein in government or spend less money or be fiscally responsible or some other sentence along the same line.

The on-the-street reality is American businesses must be as agile as Muhammad Ali.

Successful businesses move quickly in tough times or they die.

American government is contemplative and slow moving. A business makes a mistake and it goes under. A government has to guard against knee-jerk reactions. Fresh ideas are essential, but there has to be a legislative process to protect the whole against the goofy few.

The government is also expected to be transparent, at least to some degree. Ask the next candidate who talks about running the government like a business how much he wants to open up all his business books and display his secrets.

Governments and businesses are two separate beasts. There are places where ideas from each can be shared. That is where a well-thought-out premise coupled with a strategy can be a winning combination.

I am always attentive to a candidate’s premise and I watch the execution of the campaign strategy.

I want to know if the candidate can pull off a campaign and if there is some understanding what this puzzle called government is all about.

If a candidate follows Shakespeare’s advice, “This above all, to thine own self be true,” win or lose it is a good campaign.

And for a candidate who ends up on the losing end, all he has to do is wait a while and things will probably go south. Then he gets to say, “See I told you this guy was a pinhead.”