FIVE LEADERSHIP SKILLS EVERY CANDIDATE NEEDS

KENNETT, Mo. -- Even if the current crop of candidates seems bereft of its necessity, it is time for the rest of us to exercise honest maturity during the arguably worst three months of the year when wannabe presidents, senators and governors run up and down the countryside, often speaking gibberish.

By now, with just a little more than a month before the Nov. 7 general election, most of us have seen about all the campaign immaturity we're capable of ingesting, with the candidates and their hired guns seemingly doing their dead-level best to shock us with some of their outlandish tactics, intemperate remarks and clownish behavior.

We've patiently endured the whispered rumors, the false claims and the hardly subtle innuendoes of this year's electoral season, with the end still not in sight. Seemingly, both of the parties are doing their dead-level best to refrain from injecting anything more than promises into their platforms, confident that a certain percentage of voters will believe whatever they say, regardless of how outlandish the claims.

Enough, already. It ought to be perfectly obvious to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention that the candidates are not going to stop the gutter-level tactics they believe will get them elected, and so it remains for the voters to set their own criteria for this year's candidates and evaluate how each meets our own set of qualifications.

I can think of five major characteristics I would like to see in the next president and our new governor. Feel free to add or subtract to that number, knowing that if any of the men seeking your vote possess these qualities, you're right on target.

1. The skill of communicating with constituents. In the last century, we perhaps have had three, four tops, presidents who were able to communicate effectively with the public. I would include Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan in this group. Their skills in literally teaching government to the public earned them listings on the best-ever list. A good leader is part teacher, part preacher and part speaker and if he can do all three, he's headed for stardom. Missouri hasn't had that many tri-level governors in recent years, although Kit Bond, about to compile a record of long-standing public service, perhaps came as close as anyone in recent years. A leader who can't communicate can neither rally the troops nor keep the critics from barking.

2. The ability to organize. When big decisions are to be made, it's essential that our president or governor know every fact possible and receive as many differing viewpoints as can be found before making his final decision. Without this skill, any federal or state administration is approaching disaster, as witness the exaggerated organizational skills of Jimmy Carter who personally scheduled use of the White House tennis courts. Talk about organizational overkill.

3. Policy vision. Leaders have to know where they want to lead, where the nation or state must be if anything at all is to be accomplished. This means leaders, given a whole series of options, must have the ability to project the successes and failures of each and then have the ability to adopt the good qualities of each and discard the impossible ones. Policy vision is essential for the White House to deal with health care programs, trade issues, economic stability and foreign policy, while the state's next governor must devise policies that will effectively resolve such critical issues as school reform, racial inequalities, proper allocation of existing revenues and the creation of expanded job-development opportunities. The state's future will ultimately depend on how skillfully the next governor musters our resources to meet these serious challenges.

4. The ability to think beyond today. Our national prosperity, as wonderful as it has appeared on Federal Reserve charts, has left behind a far larger mix of families than our Gross Domestic Product totals would indicate. How, and even if, America can devise ways to include more and more citizens in this era will influence the future as no other component will. The ability to think beyond the expected, to project trends that aren't even yet apparent and the wisdom to focus existing programs to meet the needs of the next decade are essential to every citizen, every household, every community.

5. We need presidents and governors who are themselves well balanced and with sufficient emotional maturity to handle the crushing claims of their duties. Distractions of public office are arguably worse than those in private life, if only because the stakes are much higher and the constituency is much greater. We have obviously elected leaders in the past who met the needs of a Hollywood film producers but who lacked the intellectual maturity to perform under a pressure that burns fire-hot. This necessitates the ability to deal constructively with critical problems while remaining emotionally free of the trauma attached to real-far-reaching dilemmas.

If a candidate for president or governor or senator appears to be an emotional time bomb, he probably is. If his anger comes quickly behind a podium, the same reaction can be expected in the executive office. Americans and Missourians alike must not elect officials simply because they appear to be leaders and seem good enough for relatively painless times.

We must choose candidates who will provide creative leadership during a real crisis, one that threatens our future. This much we all know: There will be real crises and they will call for real leadership. It is our responsibility to choose correctly on Nov. 7.

~Jack Stapleton is the editor of Missouri News and Editorial Service.