New Ballgame

The era when presidential candidates made a big deal of management reform initiatives has come to an end.

Sixteen years ago marked the start of an unusual era in U.S. presidential politics. Candidates began to give federal management initiatives-from Bill Clinton's National Performance Review to George W. Bush's President's Management Agenda-a prominent place in their campaigns and their administrations. Campaign speeches were made on such issues as eliminating layers of management and increasing the use of performance-based contracts. White House summits were held and late-night talk show appearances were made to highlight such issues.

That era is over.

In fact, it arguably ended (or entered its end stage) with the election of 2004, when it became clear that President Bush wasn't going to run on his record of attempting to reform government and Democratic candidate John Kerry wasn't going to advance a set of proposals anywhere close to as ambitious as those Clinton and Bush laid out.

In this election, the management agenda of each of the candidates is even less clear. That makes it a rather significant challenge to try to determine exactly what each candidate might do in the way of pulling the levers of government. This month, Elizabeth Newell takes up that challenge in an in-depth look at one of the candidates, John McCain. She has spent months combing through McCain's speeches, talking to his advisers, interviewing experienced observers of the federal management scene and reading background documents to come up with a composite picture of what this maverick senator might look like as the nation's chief executive.

Throughout his years in the Senate, McCain has built a strong record on issues ranging from procurement reform to encouraging national service. Since the presidential campaign has swung into high gear, however, these concerns have taken a back seat to such burning policy issues as whether properly inflating car tires will reduce gas consumption in the United States.

"When was the last time you heard the word 'reform' or 'service' come out of his mouth?" former McCain strategist Mark Weaver told Newsweek's Jonathan Alter in mid-August.

Of course, if McCain is elected, there's always the possibility that he will return to his reform-minded roots with an agenda built on transparency in contracting and a focus on measuring the results of federal programs. And if he's not elected, the country will be led by someone with even less of a track record on management issues: Barack Obama. Next month, we'll look at how he might perform as chief executive.