John Kerry seems to be settling well into his role as the Democratic
nominee. The campaign organization is well managed, and built to
scale.
In this election process, scaling is the key to this next phase.
As my friend Josh Mailman, the founder of a number of progressive organizations,
points out: we can easily lose sight of how big our country and our
world is. We find a hundred thousand people who think like us,
and we are overwhelmed with joy. And then we realise that to
really make a difference, we have to connect to millions. Some
progressive initiatives do that. Organic food, the women’s
movement, civil rights. All these scaled to involve millions of Americans, much to the chagrin
of the right. The movement to elect John Kerry must scale as
well. To win an election in America requires at least 50 million
people to go into voting booths and pick the winning candidate.
I’m pleased with John Kerry. I’ve always admired his
intellect. He is an environmentalist and a systems thinker.
For example, the World Resources Institute has been working for several
years on data-driven environmental policy making–and on a major
initiative to get business and the financial community focused on
sustainable development and sustainable business strategies.
Senator Kerry and his staff have been very encouraging of these
ideas.
I believe John Kerry deeply understands technology and the role
of innovation in the economy. John was the main sponsor, along
with Ron Wyden, of the Democratic Party’s technology outreach program four years
ago. Kerry has been a consistent promoter of technology interests
in the party.
Finally, John Kerry showed this year that he can handle the leadership
tests of the campaign trail. John turned his campaign around, and
established an effective team and a coherent, winning strategy.
He sharpened his ability to communicate and focus attention on issues
that matter. John has become a strong, effective challenger of
George Bush.
Years ago I complained to a mentor of mine, the late organizational
thinker Don Schon of MIT, that Dukakis was being unfairly treated in
the presidential campaign. Don replied that in his view campaigns
need to be tough and unpredictable, in order to test the
candidates. “After all,” said Don, “do you think that being
president will be easier?”
