Eggheads in the White House

Book Review, NationalJournal.com

After George W. Bush's victory over über-wonk Al Gore in 2000, one might assume that "intellectual" had become a dirty word in presidential politics. After all, Bush repeatedly made it clear that he had no interest in "reading a 500-page book on public policy or something," while Gore seemed to downplay that fact that he had written such a book.

According to Tevi Troy, however, that focus on candidates' individual images misses the point. After all, it was Bush who boasted a well-organized policy shop drawing on more than 100 experts -- and that was before he had even announced his candidacy. That network, Troy argues, was instrumental in both securing the early support of conservative Republicans and blunting media criticisms of Bush's supposed lack of intellectual curiosity. Without it, he contends, Bush's "compassionate conservative" platform would never have existed.

Troy notes in "Intellectuals And The American Presidency: Philosophers, Jesters, or Technicians?" that Bush's policy army was just the latest incarnation of a partnership forged by President Kennedy and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. And he argues that Bush's win proves once again just how important such a relationship is to a successful presidency.

The author, it should be noted, is something of a wonk himself. A Ph.D. who has done time at both the Hudson and American Enterprise Institutes, he served as a policy aide under Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif., and then-Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., before joining the current Bush administration as the deputy assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Labor. While one might worry that he therefore puts too much emphasis on intellectuals, Troy clearly brings valuable insights to his analysis. And given that intellectuals have in fact shaped (and occasionally undercut) the modern presidency, it's an analysis that's well worth reading.

"Intellectuals And The American Presidency" devotes a chapter to each president from Kennedy to Bush fils. Troy explains how each executive handled the intellectual community (Richard Nixon hired Daniel Patrick Moynihan, for example, while Ronald Reagan tapped the think tanks and Bill Clinton saw himself as the in-house intellectual) and highlights the key successes and failures in each case. In the process, he also chronicles the dramatic growth of the intellectual class, the rise of the "conservative counterestablishment" and the very different ways the two parties approach their "idea people."

Troy's sympathies clearly lie with Republicans, but he does not argue that either party has figured out the proper approach. Both Reagan and Clinton were extremely successful in their use of intellectuals, he writes, and virtually the only thing their approaches had in common was that they took that community seriously. (A very amusing appendix advises future presidents on how to do likewise.)

"Intellectuals And The American Presidency" does not pretend that eggheads have all the answers; Bush's future legacy, after all, will depend on far more than his relations with the Hoover Institution. But Troy's book offers an engaging account of the often-overlooked role that intellectuals play in the White House -- and a welcome reminder that a successful president needs more than just polls and political positioning.

Intellectuals And The American Presidency
By Tevi Troy
ISBN 0-7425-0825-0
Rowman & Littlefield
252 pp.