Bill Bradley has taken New Hampshire by storm, using the New Hampshire electorate's infatuation with the "outsider" candidate to his advantage. While it is uncertain whether this candidate's personality and vision will resonate beyond the small towns of New Hampshire in future weeks, it is clear that his nature and themes echo those of a former President whom many historians hold in high esteem: Woodrow Wilson.
Asked last October about the qualities a leader must possess, Bradley answered: "I think that a leader has got to have the ability to see around the corners, to see the future before it's here. I think Woodrow Wilson had that. What he talked about America became America in the 20th century."
Raised in the South, both Bradley and Wilson came from families in which religion had the greatest influence on their young lives. Wilson's father was a Presbyterian minister and Bradley's mother, a Presbyterian Sunday school teacher. Their quests for secular knowledge brought each student to the Northeast, where they both attended Princeton University.
Wilson's path led him to the presidency of the university, and Bradley went on to play in the National Basketball Association. Each profession, dotted by triumphs and failures, brought the rising stars into the national spotlight, helping to launch their respective political careers. The citizens of New Jersey elected Wilson their Governor in 1910, and they elected Bradley to the United States Senate in 1978.
Establishing themselves as formidable public forces, the Southern natives used their leadership positions as potential stepping stones towards the White House -- Wilson in 1912 and Bradley this year. Bradley has built his campaign around his an utterance he made upon retiring from the Senate -- "Politics is broken." Wilson echoed that sentiment and declared that "Politics is adjourned" upon sensing that the political system needed reform.
Both public leaders believed in a mission to represent "the people" against "special interests." Their political philosophies revolve around the fundamental belief that money and material interests can corrupt the American public and politics alike. In his "New Nationalism" speech, Wilson extended this vision by emphasizing the need to rid the country of its influential trusts. He said, "We have come to be ... no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men." Likewise, Bradley has said that eliminating soft money -- unregulated cash from corporations and rich individuals -- is the key to solving the rest of our nation's problems.
The similarities between Wilson and Bradley extend beyond their life patterns and political ideas, and into their personal mannerisms. Biographer John Cooper remarks, "Wilson subsequently came to be viewed as an aloof, imperious figure who neither consulted nor dealt closely with his top lieutenants." Similarly, a New York Times article recently observed that "Bill Bradley does not have advisers in the traditional sense" and a moderator at a recent debate said to the former Senator, "Mr. Bradley, many journalists have called you aloof. Are you aloof?"
Journalists have described each man's personality as solitary, but profound. The radical journalist John Reed said of Wilson: "I never have talked to a man who has such a complete control of his whole intellectual equipment as (Wilson) ... He possesses a quiet inner core, a principle, a religion, a something upon which his whole life rests." Likewise, Eric Pooley of Time Magazine described Bradley as: "earnest, a secular minister preaching a message that has only the most tenuous relationship to conventional politics ... He is a man deeply in touch with his inner being."
In terms of electoral potential, well-educated and progressive Democrats in the Northeast were Wilson's strengths, as they are Bradley's. The South and the party organization proved to be Wilson's weakest spots, nearly preventing him from getting the nomination. Bradley has already encountered similar struggles.
In the coming weeks, Bradley's cloudy political fate will become clearer. Can he overcome the incumbent Vice President and prevail in New Hampshire? If so, will that victory translate into enough momentum to carry him all the way to the Democratic National Convention as the party's nominee? It is uncertain, but if history sets a precedent, Woodrow Wilson has proved that Bill Bradley already has that intangible presidential demeanor so few possess.
