Tim Scott has tough but not impossible road to the presidency
Quin Hillyer
Video Embed
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) is reportedly preparing to run for president. This could be a great thing for him and for the country, but with some important caveats.
Seven weeks ago, I pronounced Scott “the most fascinating politician of 2023,” whether or not he runs for president. The fact that he is black is almost beside the point — what matters, I wrote, “is his combination of substance and demeanor. In both policy focus and style, Scott offers a return to a cheerfully Reaganesque sense of can-do, but far from naive, optimism.”
TIM SCOTT CALLS DEMOCRATS’ POLICE REFORM BILL A ‘NONSTARTER’
Sure enough, the Wall Street Journal reports that Scott’s intended message is “focused on unity and optimism,” or, as his adviser Jennifer DeCasper put it, “his vision of hope and opportunity.” For those of us of an age to have been inspired by former President Ronald Reagan and former congressman-turned-HUD Secretary Jack Kemp, this is music to our hearts. Scott has given substance to it by spearheading good legislation on “opportunity zones” and by leading efforts for constructive policing reforms while refusing to surrender to Democrats who are more interested in punishing the police than helping them.
And, as if to give the lie to those who say that a zealotry for political kill-shots is the very mark of a successful conservative, Scott is as solid and successful a conservative as can be imagined, with a lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 90%. There can be no doubt about the campaigning toughness of a man who vanquished not one but two political dynasties in the famously cutthroat Republican politics of his native South Carolina, but Scott also has the old-school sensibility that one wins more converts through likability than by being a bully. He knows and acts as if not all adversaries are permanent enemies.
If Scott does run for president, he must be ready for politics rougher than what he has ever faced. He must be ready for every aspect of his private life to come under scrutiny. He must be ready for single sentences he uttered long ago to be taken out of context and for past votes to be adjudged by the whims of the current moment without regard to their context. He must be ready for lies to be told about him or even about his family and be prepared to respond with appropriate toughness without embarrassing meltdowns of the sorts that have crushed other presidential campaigns.
And, yes, Scott will need to parry some things, from some sources, that try to turn his race against him, including the insulting and unfair hint that he is some sort of “token.”
Organizationally, too, Scott must step up his game. Running in a tough House-seat primary in one South Carolina district, followed by winning statewide as an incumbent senator in an electorate heavily Republican anyway, is hardly the same as grassroots organizing nationwide. His press operation will need to be proactive, professionally responsive, and extremely nimble. And Scott himself will need to show a tireless aptitude for the one-on-one retail politicking necessary in Iowa and New Hampshire, the two early-voting states that decide which candidacies even survive to compete in his native Palmetto State and beyond.
Hint to Scott: Learn local references and idioms — and learn them fast. If you don’t know the difference between (and the extremely small mileage between) The Music Man and The Day the Music Died, you’ll be lost.
Scott is a walking blessing to American politics. It will take a lot of work, though, for a blessing to become the president.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER