Bush Polls Apart from Clinton In Use of Marketing

WASHINGTON – Bill Clinton’s presidency often was driven by public opinion polls.

Now, there is a president in the White House who will be concerned about ‘marketing.’

That was the word that Andrew H. Card, President Bush’s chief of staff, used repeatedly when he talked to a group of reporters last week about how the 43rd president has organized the White House.

The way Card described it, ‘marketing’ will have a major role in deciding how history judges his boss. It’s one of the three major tasks for the White House staff, Card said. ‘When he makes a decision, we market his decisions and sell them. Market and sell them in the right time and to the right audience.’

That puts marketing right up there with the ‘care and feeding of the president’ and making certain that he gets fully briefed on all the decisions he must make, Card said.

If a policy goes amok, it may not be the policy that is at fault, Card suggested, but flawed marketing. Bush, who has a master’s degree in business administration, should appreciate the distinction.

‘We are not driven by polls,’ Card said, drawing a difference between the Bush and Clinton White House. ‘We know polls are important, but they usually don’t measure policy. They measure marketing of policy: it’s how you say things, rather than what you say.’

Few men have come to the White House with as much experience as Card. He cut teeth as an aide to President Reagan and worked as deputy chief of staff for the first President Bush. He’s seen the best of the White House and, he hinted, some of the worst.

Asked about Bush’s frequent problems with environmental issues, Card said the president’s effort to redo the arsenic water standard was ‘a bad marketing decision’ as was his rejection of the global warming treaty that Clinton embraced.

In both cases, Card acknowledged that the White House can’t always take the stage or control the timing for the policies that the president wants discussed.

If the president can’t convince the public that his policies are right, then Card said it may be time for him to get a new staff.

Even so, Card said Washington has continued to underestimate Bush: ‘The president does have the ability to walk and chew gum.’

Filling war chests

Denver City Council President Ramona Martinez is using her role as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Hispanic Caucus to call in some chips in her primary challenge to Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver. On Wednesday, Martinez will hold a fundraiser in Washington.

It’s the third fundraiser that the four-term council member has held in recent weeks as she builds her war chest for her battle against the three-term House member.

‘I am not trying to match what the incumbent has,’ Martinez said in an interview Wednesday.

But she is attempting to win the support of labor groups, which gave DeGette more than a third of her funding in her last race.

Nelson Diaz of Philadelphia, a retired judge and chairman of the Democratic National Committee’s Hispanic caucus, is hosting Martinez’s Washington event.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, vice chair of the DNC, appeared at a June 7 Denver event that raised $ 5,000. Held at the home of former Colorado state Sen. Polly Bacca, it kicked off Martinez’s fundraising.

Meanwhile, DeGette aides report that she is building her own re-election fund. She last reported that her campaign organization had $ 143,000 on hand, and she is working to have an impressive showing by the June 30 reporting deadline.

DeGette aides estimate it will cost between $ 800,000 and $ 1 million to run a primary campaign.

Allard adds aides

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., has added four more staffers. Jennifer DeCasper is the new assistant to Allard’s chief of staff; Lance Landry of Parker will handle letters from members of the armed forces; Joy Peck of Arvada, a former aide to Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Grand Junction, will work on budget, health care,

education and transportation issues; and Rachel Audi, a Senate aide to Attorney General John Ashcroft, will deal with health care and labor issues.

Malone’s not alone

It had all the makings of a major Capitol Hill event. ‘John Malone’ was going to appear Tuesday at a panel discussion titled ‘A Deregulated Broadband

Environment: If You Build it, Will They Come?’

So what would the Denver cable magnate tell Washington’s policy wonks about the future of high-tech communications?

Nothing at all. The John Malone whom the group Citizens for a Sound Economy brought to Washington turned out to be from New Jersey and is the president and chief executive officer of Eastern Management Group, not the man who created cable giant TCI and now runs Liberty Media Corp.